Research on Habits and Homework vs. Practice (Part 3)

The typical structure of classes internationally is for the teacher to provide new information to the students, allow the students some time to practice, assign work for the students to do outside of class, and then start the next day asking students if they had any questions from the day or night before. In theory, this all works great and the loop makes sense. Students have a chance to practice right after they have acquired new information, and then a few hours later try it again, then get reinforcement on that learning which follows mostly the findings from Ebbinaus's research.

As is often the case, the theory and reality are often far apart. The two main assumptions that often fail to be true are that students will do the homework with fidelity, and then that students will be willing to ask questions in front of their peers to get help. It has already been established that 40 to 60% of students will not do their homework or will cheat on it, leaving reliance on the rest of the students. Obviously the students who didn't attempt their homework will not have the ability to ask questions related to that practice. For the remaining students who did the homework, the only questions we as educators receive are from those vulnerable enough to ask in front of their peers. Multiple social dynamics are at play to keep this from happening as well as it should.

The result is that half of our students are unprepared for the new material after not truly understanding or practicing from the day before, and another percentage are not willing to ask for the help they need to move forward. As teachers what me intend to be a formative assessment to help us adjust lessons to meet the needs of our students turns into a mere act of compliance with diminished impact. This leads to compounding inefficient learning, and eventually to a lower level of temporary mastery and even less ability for students to retain the information over a long period of time.

Many educators continue to utilize this form of education because it is how they were taught, or they believe that the responsibility is fully on the adolescent without a fully developed frontal lobe to make endless good decisions, or they have not yet developed a more creative approach to their instruction. Rather than maximizing their time and effectiveness, many teachers and therefore classrooms are stuck in endless loops of partial success. With a few small moves, the process of learning, receiving feedback, and correcting course can be incredibly altered for all people involved in the process.