action research report-wolfe-final draft

7/28/2019 Action Research Report-Wolfe-Final Draft

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Homework 1

Running head: PERCEPTIONS OF HOMEWORK

Perceptions of Homework in Foreign Language Classes

by

David M. Wolfe

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the M.Ed. in Secondary Education, The University of Arizona

South,

Approved by:

Dr. Kralovec

April 29, 2013


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Homework 2

Table of Contents

Table of Contents Page 2

Abstract Page 3

Literature Review Page 4

Description of the Problem Page 6

Data Collection Page 8

Data Analysis Page 10

Findings Page 12

Table 1 Questionnaire Page 12

Table 2 No Homework Page 14

Table 3 Final Survey Page 14

Conclusions Page 16

Final Comments Page 19

References Page 20

Appendix A Codes Page 21

Appendix B Action Research Proposal Page 26

Appendix C Action Research Proposal Summary Page 40


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Homework 3

Perceptions of Homework

David M. Wolfe

April 9, 2013

Abstract

The focus of this study is on whether or not homework is beneficial to student learning.

In the debate over homework, parents, teachers and students sway back and forth over whether it

should be used in the classroom or not. Proponents believe that homework should be used to

support classroom learning. In foreign language classes for example, students need to study

concepts outside of class in order to support language acquisition in the classroom. One may ask,

if a student can get all of their study time in during the regular class period, is homework still

beneficial? The research questions for this study were: What are student's perceptions of

homework in foreign languages and what happens when students do not have homework? To

answer these questions, three participants were provided opportunities in a selected classroom to

utilize homework and to experience learning concepts without it. The timeframe for this project

was six weeks. The project was completed at a public charter school in the Cochise County

District. The information was gathered through surveys, journals, and worksheets. The findings

show that students did perceive homework to be beneficial. They stated that they were not

always prepared for activities or assessments when they did not have it. It is too early to draw

large scale generalizations for all students in foreign language classes regarding how homework

is or is not beneficial; however, the indicator from study participants for future work is that

homework can be beneficial for students who are trying to learn foreign languages.


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Homework 4

Literature Review:

According to the article "MFL Homework in Year 9 French: Rising to the Challenge" by

Hunt, Barnes, Redford (2009) homework should be revised in order to make it more interesting

and engaging for students. The study was set in the United Kingdom, and dealt with French as a

foreign language, and the other was set in Malaysia with English as the foreign language being

discussed in terms of homework. Specifically, this action research project aimed to find out

what types of homework the students preferred, and what kind of engaging homework would be

preferred by students. The project analyzed surveys and created an interactive project for the

students to do outside of class (though the project could also have been done in class to great

effect). All of the data collected was analyzed using a gender comparison. Hunt, Barnes, Redford

work was one of the first studies to analyze homework use with foreign languages.

Along the same lines, North and Pillays (2002) work "Homework: Re-examining The

Routine" described their survey of Malaysian English teachers use of homework. They

surveyed what types of homework were used and how teachers responded to it. The survey did

not include information on the ratio of males to females in the class, what the age groups of the

students were, and what their social status was (middle class, upper class, lower class, etc). The

conclusions drawn from this survey were that homework and teaching instruction, in terms of

homework, needed to be revised. Teachers needed to be instructed on how best to create and use

homework, including working with other teachers who are in the same field to coordinate

homework assignments and create assignments that engage students. One of the major

conclusions drawn by North and Pillay is that teachers should not simply use give busywork and

then blame the students for low scores. They also encouraged immediate and drastic changes in

the homework process in order to help students. These findings set the stage for the work


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Homework 5

conducted in this paper because this action research project analyzed how students perceived

homework in a foreign language class and whether students found homework as beneficial to

foreign language education.


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Homework 6

Project Description:

Research question: What are student's perceptions of homework in foreign languages?

Sub-question: What happens when students do not have homework?

Setting:

The setting for this project was a public charter school in Southeast, Arizona. The setting

was urban, with the general demographics being students equally divided between male and

female. When it comes to ethnicity, there are students of African American, Mexican American,

Caucasian, and Asian American descent. According to the 2011 census results, a majority of the

population in this area is currently white, with a percentage of 88.1% followed by Hispanic or

Latino at 32.6%, Black at 4.8%, American Indian at 1.7%, and Asian at 2.1% (U.S. Department

of Commerce United States Census Bureau, 2011). The size of the school was equivalent of a

normal sized public charter high school, and the student grade levels ranged from ninth to twelfth

grade. Based on this information, the Socioeconomic Status of this vicinity is what we would

currently call middle class, or working class, with some lower class citizens, as well. Only 8.9%

of this area is considered under the poverty level. Additionally, 90.8% of the population in this

area is at least high school graduates, while 28.2% of the population in this area has at least a

bachelor's degree.

Participants:

There were three study participants. Race and grades were not factors in participant

selection. Students who participated in this action research project were all in the tenth grade due

to the fact that my fourth participant, a senior, had to withdraw from the class due to graduation


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Homework 7

requirements. Participants were all sixteen years old. Before this project began, I had already

taught two of the three students in the previous semester, and the student that I had not taught

before was already familiar with me from my observing classes at the school from the previous

semester. The fourth student, who withdrew, was also in my class last semester. At the

beginning of the semester, I asked for volunteers in both of my Spanish B classes. These three

students volunteered. Grades and performance in Spanish A were not a factor in deciding who

would participate and who would not.

Timeframe:

The timeframe for this action research project was six weeks. There were two phases to

the study; the first phase was three weeks long and students were given homework. The second

phase was also three weeks and removed homework from instruction.


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Homework 8

Data Collection:


Qualitative: To answer this, students were given questionnaires about whether or notthey believed that they can learn better with or without homework, such as fill-in-the

blank answers and reviewing material. This can be found in Appendix A. Students also

wrote in their journals about the effectiveness of the homework. Journal entries were

done once per week; the writing was done in class with a total of three journal entries

completed at the end of the project timeline. The journals were collected at the end of

each three week period. The questions can be found in Appendix B, which is the Action

Research Project Proposal.

Quantitative: This question was answered by the surveys given. Students were givenhomework (such as worksheets for review purposes) to do for the first three weeks.


Qualitative: Students were given a survey, in which they were asked if they thinkthat homework is beneficial or not, and why or why not this was the case.

Students wrote in their journals, again once a week for three weeks, about what

uses homework could have in these three weeks. The specific question, prompt,

will be found in Appendix B.

Quantitative: Students were not given homework for three weeks. Studentsgrades were compared to the previous three weeks to look for differences.


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Homework 9

Upon the conclusion of these two sections, the three weeks of homework and no homework, a

final survey was given in which students were asked to reflect on their experience. The prompt

for this survey can be found in Appendix B.


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Homework 10

Data Analysis:


The data was analyzed by comparison of the survey statistics, grades with or without

homework, and the analysis of the journal entries. The results were broken down to include,

high grades versus medium or low grades, and also statistics based on grade levels (ninth grade,

tenth grade, eleventh grade, twelfth grade). To preserve the identity of the surveyed students, real

names were replaced with pseudonyms (for example: dragon, firefly, etc).

The first data points collected were codes one through six respectively from Appendix A.

This was the first survey, specifically the pre-project survey, in which the participants (Patton,

Ike, Bradely) gave their opinions on homework, and whether they thought that their minds would

change about homework in foreign languages. This was done on the Thursday before the actual

project began. Also, the first worksheet was given out on this day to be due in seven days. This

survey was collected upon completion.

The second part of this research project was the three weeks of homework, which in this

case consisted of three worksheets and three journal entries. Each Thursday, the day that the

worksheet was due, the participants would react to the helpfulness of the worksheet as a review

sheet. The participants retained their journals through the entire six weeks, though. These first

journals were categorized as codes seven and eight.

The third part of this research project was the three weeks in which no worksheets were

assigned. The participants wrote three journal entries for this time, too. In this section, they

wrote about whether not having a worksheet hindered their better understanding of the topics

discussed, as well as what they would have like said worksheet for the week to be on. After the


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Homework 11

six weeks were over, all the journals were collected. The codes for this data collection were

codes nine and ten.

The last section of the data collection consisted of an exit survey. In this survey the

students were asked if their opinion on homework had changed, if they preferred having

worksheets, how not having the worksheets affected their learning, and finally what they did to

supplement those worksheets. The surveys were collected upon completion, just like the

entrance survey. The data from this survey made up codes eleven through fourteen.


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Homework 12

Findings:

To recap, this project seeks to answer the question of whether or not homework is

perceived as important by students in a foreign language class. Specifically, the idea was to see

if homework was helpful for students learning foreign languages, and how not having

worksheets (the homework) could impact their studies. The school where this action research

project was done used the Spanish A+ system of learning. The students could take their

notebooks home, but they did not have access to Spanish books. The learning that they gained,

and the notes that they took, were based on the lessons taught by the researcher during the course

of the class period. Survey questions and answers can be found in Appendix A called "Code."

The surveys were broken down into fourteen codes, each one of which has three answers.

The first question participants were asked was "What are student's perceptions of

homework in foreign languages?" Based analysis, the students spent little to no amount of time

on Spanish homework. The participants reported thinking that homework could be beneficial if

it was limited to small amounts.

The first response can be seen in Table 1 (Questionnaire) below, for which the data was

collected during a Thursday Spanish class in January 2013:

Table 1: Survey response for benefit of homework.

Question Name Answer

Is homework helpful?

Patton Yes

Ike Yes

Bradley Yes

Is it beneficial?

Patton Yes

Ike No

Bradley Yes


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Homework 13

There was a one hundred percent response in the favor of homework being helpful to

students. When asked if the students thought homework was beneficial, two indicated that it

could be helpful if it were intended to review, while the third participant thought it was a waste

of time, as it is the teacher's responsibility to teach the subject. Student journal responses

showed over the first three weeks these perceptions remained consist. Two of the three

participants found it useful for a review and preparation for the next chapter (both of these

chapters were on house and home).

When asked about the techniques used to supplement homework the answers were again

varied. The answers ranged from writing everything down, which showed up once, to studying

hard and practicing outside of class which was the answer that the others gave. Students

commented that they liked a review worksheet.

The time spent on homework for foreign languages varied based on the participant, but

the supplement for not having homework was very similar. Specifically, all the participants

realized that they needed to study more when they were not receiving worksheets or other types

of homework as reinforcement.All three participants found the assignments harder to learn

without the review worksheets assigned as homework. The main idea here was that without the

review, they sometimes forgot some of the material, even with access to their notes, or even

forgot to study in total. See Table 2 (No Homework) for student responses on how they handled

not having homework, data was collected in a Thursday Spanish class in March 2013:


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Homework 14

Table 2: No Homework Responses


Did not having homework negatively

affect your studies?

Patton Yes

Ike Yes

Bradley Yes

What techniques did you use

to remember the course material when

you did not have homework?

Patton Nothing.

Ike

Staring at the paper and reading the words over &

over again.

Bradley

I really don't study my notebook often unless there's a

test coming up.

When participants were asked if their ideas about homework had changed during the six

weeks of the project they stated:

Patton: "Yes it has because it helped in Spanish."

Ike: "Yes homework is very helpful."

Bradley: "Only in Spanish. Every other subject I can remember, but since Spanish is a

new language, I would welcome homework for this class."

Each participant perceived that at the end of the study, homework was helpful to their

learning of Spanish. Table 3 (Final Survey), taken in a Spanish B class on Thursday March 7,

2013 shows the following results:

Table 3: Final Study Survey


Has your opinion on homework

changed over the past six

weeks?

Patton YesIke Yes

Bradley Yes


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Homework 15

The idea here seems to be that for Spanish; at least, homework was beneficial and helped the

students focus on what to learn.

It should also be noted that no conclusions could be made in terms of worksheets and

grades. Grades did not seem to either increase or decrease in relation to worksheet scores. As

such, there did not seem to be any indicator that the participant's grades were adversely affected

by not having homework. Perhaps a longer study would be more conclusive, but over six weeks

the data is not enough to be conclusive.


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Homework 16

Conclusions:

Based on the data collected, some basic conclusions about this action research project on

homework and the use of review sheets can be made. At the beginning of the study, the three

participants already had some appreciation of homework. None of the participants thought that

their thoughts on homework would change based on the study. Two out of three spent some time

studying their foreign language notes, in this case Spanish, as some type of homework. Two of

the three participants thought that homework could be beneficial to them, while the other said

that good teachers made it irrelevant. All three participants found the worksheets useful and that

they helped them towards the next activity of grammar being taught. Based on this, then, we

have a positive perception of homework so far.

When participants were asked if not having homework assignments helped or hindered

them, they said they would have liked homework. Participants stated that they wanted all three

topics covered in the course that week on the sheet. All three participants said they were

hindered by the lack of worksheets, and would have wanted a worksheet. This was stated

numerous times in conjunction with material review and participants wanting a midterm review

sheet covering everything.

Study participants perceive homework in foreign language classes as a good thing, as

long as the homework is not too long, and at the same time is beneficial to them. I believe that it

is importantto add that the homework assignment should nevercover any material that has not

been covered in class yet, and the review sheet should not be more than ten problems at the most.

Ideally the assignment should not be designed to take more than ten minutes. This is a

conclusion that I have gained from my data collection, and from interacting with my students.


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Homework 17

A good assignment would review and reinforce what was learned, and thereby help prepare the

students for the next day's grammar and vocabulary topic. When it comes to the question of

what happens when students do not have homework, the issue is a bit more complicated. The

fact remains that when it comes to foreign languages, students cannot simply go to class for 220

minutes per week, and then do no work outside of class, especially when they do not have access

to a textbook outside of class, which was the case with these students. Therefore, students really

need to do some form of outside work, be it studying their notes or creating their own examples

using the material discussed in the class.

With the small sample size, as well as the short time period that the action research

project took place, conclusions are limited to the perceptions of study participants and their

experiences. For larger generalization on the benefit of homework in foreign language courses, a

larger groups of participants over the course of an academic or multiple academic years is

needed. It can be stated that based on the information gathered, students did find that homework

is a necessity for learning foreign languages. This seemed especially relevant for the students

that participated, because of the fact that students do not have access to books such only their

own personal notes, as well as the examples that they themselves wrote down outside of class.

With worksheet review sheets, the students could at least get feedback on how they are doing in

their studies outside of the classroom. With worksheets they would also get an idea of what they

need to focus on in their studies, and it could also give the teacher extra information on what he

or she needs to focus on more when it comes to re-teaching the different topics that were

discussed. More research is needed, but from what can be concluded with these study results,

students in this study perceived homework in foreign languages as a positive thing. This may


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Homework 19

Final Comments:

If I were to redo this project, I would extend the duration of the timeline. Instead of a six

week study, a semester long study with more participants would be beneficial to further

exploring students perceptions of homework. Three participants in a study is a small margin for

investigating statistical significance of responses. It would also benefit this work to do research

in multiple foreign language classes, to see if perhaps the language itself is a factor in how

helpful homework can be as an asset. Perhaps, for example, German would be less likely to need

homework than Spanish, or vice versa.

It would be interesting to compare the perceptions of homework versus busywork. The

disparity for students doing "busywork" was the same as for homework for study participants.

One participant said they spent the rest of the night on assignments, while the others ranged from

fifteen minutes to two hours. Students perceived this as being a major difference to indicate an

emphasis on busywork. This action research project did not really affect or change my stance on

teaching foreign languages. If anything, it did reinforce my beliefs that some homework is

necessary for learning foreign languages.


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Homework 20

References

Hunt, M., Barnes, A., & Redford, J. (2009). MFL Homework in Year 9 French: Rising to the

Challenge.Language Learning Journal,37(1), 35-49.

Kohn, Alfie.Abusing Research The Study of Homework and Other Examples. (2006).

www.alfiekohn.org

Kraloved, Etta. (2007). New Thinking About Homework. Encounter Education for Meaning and

Social Justice, Volume 20 (Issue 4), Pages 3-7.

North, Sarah, Pillay, Hannah (2002). Homework: Re-examining the Routine. ELT Journal

Volume 56/2, 137-145.

U.S. Department of Commerce United States Census Bureau, 2011. Retrieved from

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.html.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.htmlhttp://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.htmlhttp://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.html


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Homework 21

Appendix A:

Codes


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Homework 22

Appendix A: Codes

Appendix A Questions/Codes 1-6 Names Answers

What is your opinion about homework?

Patton

It is good but not in large

quantities.

Ike

I think it's helpful on things that

take practice.

Bradley

It sometimes helps me understand

things better.

Do you think your opinion on homework

could change with this research project?

Patton No.

Ike I doubt it.

Bradley No.

How much time do you spend every night

doing homework for foreign language classes?

Patton At least an hour

Ike None.

Bradley I spend some studying before tests.

How many hours a night do you spend doing

busywork?

Patton The rest of the night

Ike 1/4 of an hour

Bradley Approximately 2 hours.

Is the time spent doing homework beneficial?

Patton help it make things easyer

Ike

No because the teachers do their

job.

Bradley

Yes, it helps me think about it and

understand evern when I'm outside

of class.

What techniques do you think would be

beneficial to use if no homework were

assigned?

Patton study and good teacher

Ike Writing everything down.

Bradley

Studying, and practicing outside of

class.

Journals 1-3. Codes 7, 8. Names Responses

Journal 1

Did this homework assignment help or hinder

you in the understanding of the topics

discussed this week?

Patton

It helped me allot to understnading what we

were learning.

Ike

It did not help me remember the lesson, mission

failure

Bradley

It helped me remember all the things we

learned

and studied about.

Did the homework assignment help prepare

you for the next day's topic?

Patton No response.

Ike No response.

Bradley Will help me in future tests and lessons.


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Homework 23

Journals 4-6/ Codes 9-10 Name Responses ExplanationJournal 4

Did not having homework help or hinder

you in your understanding of the topics for this

week?

Patton

I would like to have homework for this

class

Ike Not having the worksheet hindered

my learning of Spanish.

Bradley

I would hav liked a worksheet this

week

because they helped me memorize

new

material.

If you had to choose one homework assignment

for the topics covered

this week to help you further your

understanding, what would it have been?

Patton

The topic I would of chose the hold

chores

sic. [household] I could not remember.

Ike

I would choose a worksheet over stem

changing verbs.

Journal 2

Did this homework assignment help or hinderyou in the understanding of the topics


Patton I fell it was very helpful.

Ike

It was helpful in learning the Spanish we were

going over.

Bradley

Since the units and lessons are becoming morechallenging,

I feel the homework worksheets help me.



Patton Yes.

Ike

It refreshed my memory. It did help me

prepare.

Bradley Yes.

Journal 3

Did this homework assignment help or hinder

you in the understanding of the topics


Patton Yes it helped.

Ike

I already knew everything on the worksheet so it

was boring.

Bradley

The previous worksheet made some of the new

words easier

to memorize.



Patton Yes it did because this wore both reviewey.

Ike It did not help me prepare for the next lesson.

Bradley

It will help me with tests and when some words

need special conjugation.


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Homework 24

Bradley

Stem changing problems and verb

conjugation.

2 unit

topic.

Journal 5

Did not having homework help or hinder

you in your understanding of the topics for this

week?

Patton

It was hard without homework in

Spanish.

Ike

Not having the worksheet hindered

my learning of Spanish.

Bradley

Without the worksheets, I feel lost

when

I learn the lessons.


for the topics coveredthis week to help you further your


Patton

I would of chose to conjugation of

estar.

Ike

I would choose a worksheet over

possessive

adjectives.

Bradley Stem changing and conjugation.

2 unit

topic.

Journal 6

Did not having homework help or hinderyou in your understanding of the topics for this

week?

Patton

It helped having work for me in

Spanish.

Ike

Not having the worksheet did not

hinder

my learning of Spanish

Midterm

Review

Bradley

It would have been easier to

remembervocab, conjugation with

worksheets.

Midterm

Review


for the topics covered

this week to help you further your


Patton

I would chose the congujation of

estar.

Ike

I would of wanted a worksheet over

"tan and tanto."

Midterm

Review

Bradley

stem changing, conjugation, midterm

review

material.

Midterm

Review.

Appendix D/ Codes 11-14 Name Response

Did not having homework help you

understanding of the topics covered

during the three weeks of no homework

being assigned?

Patton

Having no homework made learn a topic harder in

Spanish

Ike

Having homework definitely helped me in the

understanding of the topics.

Bradley

No; having the worksheets helped me more

than not having them.


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Homework 25

Did not having homework negatively

impact your studies?

Patton Yes because homework forces you to study

Ike Yes, I forgot some of the materials.

Bradley

Yes, because without a "guide" or in this case

th worksheets, I didn't really study at all.

What techniques did you use to

remember the course material when

you did not have homework?

Patton Nothing.

Ike

Staring at the paper and reading the words over

& over again.

Bradley

I really don't study my notebook often uless

there's a test coming up.

Has your opinion on homework changed

in the past six weeks?

Patton yes it has because it helped in Spanish

Ike Yes homework is very helpful.

Bradley

Only in Spanish. Every other subject I can

remember, but since Spanish is a new langauge,

but since Spanish is a new langauge, I would

welcome homework for this class.


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Homework 26

Appendix B

Action Research Proposal


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Homework 27

TEDV 535

Action Research Proposal

Statement of Purpose:

Homework has been an accepted form of assessment for many years. Teachers have routinely

assigned homework to assess student understanding, and give them extra practice outside of the

classroom. Recently, though, education literature has stated that homework can, in fact, be

detrimental to the learning of students, and that it does not necessarily improve a student's

studies. As Dr. Kralovec (2007) pointed out in an editorial for Encounter:

A recent analysis of homework research by the Center for Public Education (2007) found

that homework at the elementary level is counter productive, while homework in middle

and high school shows some correlation with small increases in test scores. But those

things do not hold across the board (Kralovec, Page 4).

Given the differences in opinion on this topic, the idea of looking at the question of what

students think about this subject, and whether certain types of homework could be more useful to

others when it comes to learning foreign languages, seemed like an interesting topic to choose.

By giving students questionnaires on whether or not they think that homework is useful, and also

what types of homework they think will best help them with their learning of foreign languages

some answers about the use of homework may be found. Based on the results of this survey,

then, a data collection could be done by assigning a variety of assignments to students, and also

no homework, and then recording how the students are doing in the class, looking specifically at


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Homework 28

whether the students do better in the class with or without homework, as well as which types of

homework were beneficial or detrimental to the language studies.

Description of the Problem:

The question of homework is very controversial, with the proponents and the opponents both

being certain that their side of the debate is correct. Many opponents of homework, for example

point out the fact that homework does not help students, and instead can cause them harm

because students can learn wrong patterns of habit, for example, and simply the wrong answers

to questions. It has also been argued that homework interferes with the much needed free time,

relaxation time, family time, and that homework interferes with the very necessary sleep of

youths and teenagers as mentioned by Alfie Kohn (2006) in his article "Abusing Research The

Study of Homework and Other Examples. Proponents of homework argue that it teaches

students responsibility, prepares them for college and university studies, and that it gives the

students the opportunity to get much needed practice and reinforcement from lessons outside of

the classroom. Foreign languages are very hard to learn. Students have to learn new grammar

rules, new spelling forms, and quite simply a whole new way of thinking when they learn a new

language. Many high school classes meet four to five times a week for fifty minutes. That is

between 200 and 250 minutes of foreign language, which equals about 10.4 hours per week of a

possible 168 hours in a week spent on foreign language. Is this enough time to learn a foreign

language when in an average semester students might have just about 720 hours of a foreign

language class in a semester? Both sides of the argument have very valid points, but is it

possible to get some balance between no homework and some homework?


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Homework 29

Literature Review:

Both articles reviewed had the topic of foreign language homework. One was set in the United

Kingdom, and dealt with French as a foreign language, and the other was set in Malaysia with

English as the foreign language being discussed in terms of homework. The first article "MFL

Homework in Year 9 French: Rising to the Challenge" by Hunt, Barnes, Redford (2009)

discussed the idea that homework should be revised in order to make it more interesting and

engaging for students. Specifically, this action research project aimed to find out what types of

homework the students preferred, and what kind of engaging homework would be preferred by

students. Specifically this ARP looked at the surveys, created an interactive project for the

students to do outside of class (though the project could also have been done in class to great

effect), and looked at the results of the project. All of the data that was collected, was analyzed

and compared based on a male to female comparison. Because the conclusions drawn from this

Action Research Project were never checked or compared to results with other projects, this

analysis was a starting point in the research for the project being proposed here.

The second literary review was on "Homework: Re-examining The Routine" by North and

Pillay (2002). In this article, the authors described their survey of Malaysian English teachers.

They surveyed what types of homework were used, and what the reactions to it were by the

teachers. The survey was flawed in the sense that there were no real details available on the ratio

of males to females in the class, what the age groups of the students were, and what their social

status was (middle class, upper class, lower class, etc). The conclusions drawn from this survey

were that homework and teaching instruction, in terms of homework, needed to be revised.

Teachers needed to be instructed on how best to create and use homework, including working

with other teachers who are in the same field to coordinate homework assignments, and also to


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Homework 30

create assignments that engage students. Teachers should not simply use their own work, give

busywork, and then blame the students for low scores, was one of the major conclusions drawn

by North and Pillay. They also encouraged immediate and drastic changes in the homework

process, so that it could be saved, as right now it does not help students. This is important to this

project, and related, as one of the main questions of this project is whether or not a compromise

can be found in which homework is beneficial to foreign language education.

Project Description:



No homework debate can be made without acknowledging the fact that it might turn outthat homework truly might not be beneficial in any form. It is important for both sides of

this argument to be acknowledged, so by looking at this side, as well, no preference will

be given to either view.

Setting:

The setting for this project was a public charter school. The setting was a normal charter school

in the United States of America, and specifically in Southeast, Arizona. The setting was urban,

with the general demographics being students equally divided between male and female. When

it comes to ethnicity, there are students of African American, Mexican American, Caucasian, and

Asian American descent. According to the 2011 census results, a majority of the population in

this area is currently white, with a percentage of 88.1% followed by Hispanic or Latino at 32.6%,

Black at 4.8%, American Indian at 1.7%, and Asian at 2.1% (U.S. Department of Commerce


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Homework 31

United States Census Bureau, 2011). The size of the school should be the equivalent of a normal

sized public charter high school, and the student grade levels will range from ninth to twelfth

grade. Based on this information, the Socioeconomic Status of this vicinity is what we would

currently call middle class, or working class, with some lower class citizens, as well. Only 8.9%

of this area is considered under the poverty level. Additionally, 90.8% of the population in this

are at least high school graduates, while 28.2% of the population in this area have at least a

bachelor's degree.

Participants:

The participants numbered three student. Race was not be a factor in this decision, and grades

were also not a factor. Students who participated in this action research project were all in the

tenth grade due to the fact that my fourth participant, a senior, had to withdraw from the class

due to graduation requirements. As such the different participants were sixteen years old.

Timeframe:

The timeframe for this action research project was six weeks. This consisted of three weeks

where students had homework and three weeks where the students did not have homework

assigned to them.

Data Collection:


Qualitative: To answer this students will be given questionnaires about whether or notthey believed that they can learn better with or without homework, such as fill-in-the

blank answers and reviewing material. This can be found in Appendix A. Students will


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Homework 32

also write in their journal about the effectiveness of the homework in a journal entry (one

entry per week, the writing will be done in class, ending with three total journals). The

journals will be collected at the end of each three week period. The questions will be in

Appendix B.

Quantitative: This question would be answered by case studies. Students would be givenhomework (such as worksheets for review purposes) to do for the first three weeks.


Qualitative: Students will be given a survey, in which they will be asked if theythink that homework can be beneficial or not, and why or why not this is the case.

Students will write in their journals, again once a week for three weeks, about

what uses homework could have in these three weeks. The specific question,

prompt, will be found in Appendix C.

Quantitative: Students will not be given homework for three weeks. Studentsgrades will be compared to the previous three weeks to look for differences.

Upon the conclusion of these two sections, the three weeks of homework and no homework, a

final survey will be given in which students will be asked to reflect on their experience. The

prompt for this survey can be found in Appendix D.

Data Analysis:


The data will be analyzed by comparisons of the survey statistics, grades with or without

homework, and the analysis of the journal entries. The results will be broken down to include


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Homework 33

male versus female results, high grades versus medium or low grades, and also statistics based

on grade levels (ninth grade, tenth grade, eleventh grade, twelfth grade). The data will then be

plotted and graphed. To preserve the identity of the surveyed students, real names will be

replaced by other words (for example: dragon, firefly, etc). Names will not give indicators of

the person's race (for example seeing dragon as a name will not imply the person to be of Asian

descent).

The data was collected over six weeks. The first data points collected, codes one through six

respectively, were from Appendix A. This was the first survey, specifically the pre-project

survey, in which the participants (Patton, Ike, Bradely) gave their opinions on homework, and

whether they thought that their minds would change about homework in foreign languages. This

was done on the Thursday before the actual project began. Also, the first worksheet was given

out on this day to be due in seven days. This survey was collected upon completion.

The second part of this research project was the three weeks of homework, which in this case

consisted of three worksheets and three journal entries. Each Thursday, the day that the

worksheet was due, the participants would react to the helpfulness of the worksheet as a review

sheet. The participants retained their journals through the entire six weeks, though. These first

journals were categorized as codes seven and eight.

The third part of this research project, then, was the three weeks in which no worksheet was

assigned. The participants wrote three journal entries for this time, too. In this section, they

wrote about whether not having a worksheet hindered their better understanding of the topics

discussed, as well as what they would have like said worksheet for the week to be on. After the


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Homework 34

six weeks were over, all the journals were collected. The codes for this data collection were

codes nine and ten.

The last section of the data collection, consisted of an exit survey. In this survey the students

were asked if their opinion on homework had changed, if they preferred having worksheets, how

not having the worksheets affected their learning, and finally what they did to supplement those

worksheets. The surveys were collected upon completion, just like the entrance survey. The

data from this survey made up codes eleven through fourteen.


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Homework 35

References:

Hunt, M., Barnes, A., & Redford, J. (2009). MFL Homework in Year 9 French: Rising to the

Challenge.Language Learning Journal,37(1), 35-49.

Kohn, Alfie.Abusing Research The Study of Homework and Other Examples. (2006).

www.alfiekohn.org

Kraloved, Etta. (2007). New Thinking About Homework. Encounter Education for Meaning and

Social Justice, Volume 20 (Issue 4), Pages 3-7.

North, Sarah, Pillay, Hannah (2002). Homework: Re-examining the Routine. ELT Journal

Volume 56/2, 137-145.

U.S. Department of Commerce United States Census Bureau, 2011. Retrieved from

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.html.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.htmlhttp://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.htmlhttp://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/04/04003.html


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Homework 36

Appendix A:

1.) What is your opinion about homework? Please explain your opinion. ____________

_______________________________________________________________________

2.) Do you think that your opinion on homework could change with this research project?

________________________________________________________________________

3.) How much time do you spend every night doing homework for your foreign language

classes? _________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

4.) How many hours a night do you spend doing busywork? _______________________

________________________________________________________________________

5.) Is the time spent doing homework beneficial to your education, and understanding of the

subject that you are learning about? Why or why not? ____________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

6.) What techniques do you think would be beneficial to use, for remembering lessons, if you

were not assigned homework? _________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________


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Homework 37

Appendix B:

Question for reflection: Journals 1-3

1.) Did this homework assignment help or hinder you in the understanding of the topics

discussed this week? Explain. ________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

2.) Did the homework assignment help prepare you for the next day's topic? Explain. (This

question will be asked following the class discussion/lecture of the topic. _______________

___________________________________________________________________________


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Homework 38

Appendix C:

Journal 4-6

1.) Did not having homework help or hinder you in your understanding of the topics for this

week? Explain. _____________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

2.) If you had to choose one homework assignment for the topics covered this week to help you

further your understanding, what would it have been? Explain. _________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________


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Homework 39

Appendix D:

Questions for last survey:

1.) Did not having homework help your understanding of the topics covered during the three

weeks of no homework being assigned? Explain why or why not? _____________________

___________________________________________________________________________

2.) Did not having homework negatively impact your studies? Explain why or why not.

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

3.) What techniques did you use to remember the course material when you did not havehomework assigned? _________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

4.) Has your opinion on homework changed in the past six weeks? Explain.

___________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________


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Homework 40

Appendix C

Action Research Proposal Summary


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Homework 41

Project Summary

The main question of this Action Research Project is whether or not homework can be saved.

Homework has been called both good and bad by various people who are authorities in

education. With there being opinions that homework is detrimental to both education and to the

health of students, as well as statements that homework can actually help improve the studies of

students, the question is whether there is any middle ground to be found. Is there a way that

homework can be both beneficial to students, and can it be given in an amount that will not be

detrimental to the studies and health of students? The plan of action for this Action Research

Project, then, is to survey ten students, in order to see first of all what students think about

homework. This will be a survey about the question of homework, and about how many hours

students spend doing homework. The next step in this six week project would be to assign

homework to students for three weeks, and have the students react once a week in a journal as to

the effectiveness and benefit of the homework. After the end of the first three weeks, the

subsequent three weeks will be followed by no homework being assigned. The students will,

though, be asked to reflect at the end of the week on whether or not they thought that homework

would have helped them learn the lesson, and if so what kind of homework they would have

preferred to do. After the six weeks, then, the students will reflect on whether they found having

homework more beneficial than not. The data, then, will be analyzed based on gender and age,

to discern whether homework was beneficial, and to what extent (if any) it was seen as such.

action research report-wolfe-final draft

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