HOMEWORK IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: PRACTICES AND PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

By reviewing the literature about homework we come to realize that homework is very often the epicentre of interest in education science and educational policy, while also drawing attention of the mass media. This situation has led to the division of two “camps”: on the one side are those who believe in the value and importance of homework, while on the other, there are those who reject homework and propose its integration in everyday schoolwork. In this study we investigated the conditions under which elementary school teachers assign and appraise the homework of their students. We also tried to find the reasons and the consequences that (could) explain and influence the attitude and practices of teachers and students in this field. Moving in this direction we used on the one side, the method of observation in the school classroom and on the other side we used the method of interviewing the pupils and handing out questionnaires to teachers, so that we could form a more complete picture. The observation was conducted in 52 classrooms of elementary schools in Greece (in a total of 104 teaching hours) and the interviews took place with 260 pupils, while the questionnaires were answered by all of the teachers of these classrooms. We conclude that the practices of teachers concerning homework are not in accordance with the modern pedagogic opinion and are rather moved in accordance to a traditional picture. The findings of this study do not differ a lot from other research on an international level and the problems seem common.