Abstract:

The homework is the subject of the day (Simões, 2006) and on that there isn’t a consensus about its definition, objectives and even if parents should help. There isn’t even a consensus about its importance in school success, as there are those who support homework as a significant contribution to a good performance at school (Silva, 2009) and others that find homework in the first school years as less important (Cooper, 2008) . In spite of this, the homework is a resource of common use and for what “we should be attentive not to ask students to do what they weren’t taught doing” (Meirieu, 1998, p.15).

Based on memories and experiences about the homework practice and, in the same way, with the aim of identifying ways to a better implementation and development, it was established as a main objective of this study: Understanding the Perspectives and the Practices about the Homework Completion.

This study was developed in two different contexts: in a private school and in a public school, in the city of Lisbon, in the 1st and 2nd CBS (Cycles of the Basic School). In both contexts are adopted a number of practices and perspectives related to homework. In the public school, the groups that participated in the study, have daily homework, although teachers say that these homework are short and of fast resolution. Its correction is done in group and each student corrects its own homework in the means where it was done. In opposition, the private school, asks the homework once a week, and the homework can be completed during a week (after being done an individual planning of that homework), being done until the following week. On the scheduled day of the delivery of the done homework, teachers collect and correct them. Then they hand them back to students, giving them the chance to improve what they have done and to clarify any questions with the teachers support.
122 individuals were involved in this study. From these individuals, 68 are students, 50 are parents and 4 are teachers. From the 68 students, 30 attend a private school (19 in the 1st CBS and 16 in the 2nd CBS) and the remaining 38 attend a public school (19 in the 1st CBS and 19 in the 2nd CBS). From the 50 parents, 28 are parents of students from public education and 22 are parents of students that attend private education. The 4 teachers are the teachers from the 4 groups that were the object of this study.

The data was collected through a questionnaire taken by students, parents and teachers, based mainly on questions with closed answer. The processing of data was conducted using the programme SPSS.

Focusing only on some of the obtained results, it was found that there are main differences in the frequency on which the students from the contexts in study say that they do the homework. The results allow us identifying differences in the perception of time that students, parents and teachers think necessary to complete the homework asked. Regarding the perspectives related to homework, most parents agree with its assignment. It was found that there is an important connection between the way homework is corrected and the frequency that students say doing it. It was also found that there is no connection between the frequency on which students have homework and their availability to other activities, after having done the homework assigned.

The results show that the homework organization, implementation and correction can be connected to its effectiveness.

Keywords:

Homework.