Abstract:

Homework is integral to the daily pupils‘ home preparation for school typical for the Czech school environment. Many previous studies on homework were focused mostly on parents. In this paper, we focus on the concept and importance of homework from a specific perspective, through the eyes of children – pupils in a primary school. At the same time, we deal with the role of the child in home preparation, which includes the specific tasks - homework. Children are seen to be the reflexive participants, competent producers of knowledge about their lives and about everyday experiences of education (Christensen & James, 2008). This presented qualitative research was selected through a focus group on Czech children in primary education to know their attitudes to homework. Children stood in a position of active participants in a semi-structured interviews focused mainly on how children perceive their homework, what do they think and how do they feel while completing homework. Furthermore, we wondered about which strategies children develop and how do they apply these strategies in homework. According to children’s answers, it is evident, that individual case of each child and a certain diversity of child’s evaluation of homework has to be given specifically. The family lifestyle, parental involvement on the one hand, and on the other hand teacher’s attitudes to homework form their image of homework. The types and assigning homework affect the effect of homework for the next child's education. These findings show the importance of the "voice of the child" as a reflection and an effort to understand everyday school and family reality perceived by a child.

Keywords:

Homework, children, attitude, strategies, evaluation.