Child psychologist Kenneth Barish wrote in Psychology Today that battles over homework rarely result in a child’s improvement in school. Children who don’t do their homework are not lazy, he said, but they may be frustrated, discouraged, or anxious. And for kids with learning disabilities, homework is like "running with a sprained ankle. It’s doable, but painful."

Should Students Have Homework?

It used to be that students were the only ones complaining about the practice of assigning homework. For years, teachers and parents thought that homework was a necessary tool when educating children. But studies about the effectiveness of homework have been conflicting and inconclusive, leading some adults to argue that homework should become a thing of the past.

What Research Says about Homework

According to Duke professor Harris Cooper, it’s important that students have homework. His meta-analysis of homework studies showed a correlation between completing homework and academic success, at least in older grades. He recommends following a "10 minute rule": students should receive 10 minutes of homework per day in first grade, and 10 additional minutes each subsequent year, so that by twelfth grade they are completing 120 minutes of homework daily.

But his analysis didn’t prove that students did better because they did homework; it simply showed a correlation. This could simply mean that kids who do homework are more committed to doing well in school. Cooper also found that some research showed that homework caused physical and emotional stress, and created negative attitudes about learning. He suggested that more research needed to be done on homework’s effect on kids.

Some researchers say that the question isn’t whether kids should have homework. It’s more about what kind of homework students have and how much. To be effective, homework has to meet students’ needs. For example, some middle school teachers have found success with online math homework that’s adapted to each student’s level of understanding. But when middle school students were assigned more than an hour and a half of homework, their math and science test scores went down.

Researchers at Indiana University discovered that math and science homework may improve standardized test grades, but they found no difference in course grades between students who did homework and those who didn’t. These researchers theorize that homework doesn’t result in more content mastery, but in greater familiarity with the kinds of questions that appear on standardized tests. According to Professor Adam Maltese, one of the study’s authors, "Our results hint that maybe homework is not being used as well as it could be."

So while many teachers and parents support daily homework, it’s hard to find strong evidence that the long-held practice produces positive results.

Problems with Homework

In an article in Education Week Teacher, teacher Samantha Hulsman said she’s frequently heard parents complain that a 30-minute homework assignment turns into a three-hour battle with their kids. Now, she’s facing the same problem with her own kids, which has her rethinking her former beliefs about homework. "I think parents expect their children to have homework nightly, and teachers assign daily homework because it’s what we’ve always done," she explained. Today, Hulsman said, it’s more important to know how to collaborate and solve problems than it is to know specific facts.

Child psychologist Kenneth Barish wrote in Psychology Today that battles over homework rarely result in a child’s improvement in school. Children who don’t do their homework are not lazy, he said, but they may be frustrated, discouraged, or anxious. And for kids with learning disabilities, homework is like "running with a sprained ankle. It’s doable, but painful."

Barish suggests that parents and kids have a "homework plan" that limits the time spent on homework. The plan should include turning off all devices—not just the student’s, but those belonging to all family members.

One of the best-known critics of homework, Alfie Kohn, says that some people wrongly believe "kids are like vending machines—put in an assignment, get out learning." Kohn points to the lack of evidence that homework is an effective learning tool; in fact, he calls it "the greatest single extinguisher of children’s curiosity that we have yet invented."

Homework Bans

Last year, the public schools in Marion County, Florida, decided on a no-homework policy for all of their elementary students. Instead, kids read nightly for 20 minutes. Superintendent Heidi Maier said the decision was based on Cooper’s research showing that elementary students gain little from homework, but a lot from reading.

Orchard Elementary School in South Burlington, Vermont, followed the same path, substituting reading for homework. The homework policy has four parts: read nightly, go outside and play, have dinner with your family, and get a good night’s sleep. Principal Mark Trifilio says that his staff and parents support the idea.

But while many elementary schools are considering no-homework policies, middle schools and high schools have been reluctant to abandon homework. Schools say parents support homework and teachers know it can be helpful when it is specific and follows certain guidelines. For example, practicing solving word problems can be helpful, but there’s no reason to assign 50 problems when 10 will do. Recognizing that not all kids have the time, space, and home support to do homework is important, so it shouldn’t be counted as part of a student’s grade.

So Should Students Have Homework?

Should you ban homework in your classroom? If you teach lower grades, it’s possible. If you teach middle or high school, probably not. But all teachers should think carefully about their homework policies. By limiting the amount of homework and improving the quality of assignments, you can improve learning outcomes for your students.

Homework Encourages Practice

Homework can develop time management skills, forcing students to plan their time and make sure that all of their homework assignments are done on time. In an article in Education Week Teacher , teacher Samantha Hulsman said she s frequently heard parents complain that a 30-minute homework assignment turns into a three-hour battle with their kids.

Homework is a way for the student, the teacher, the school, and the parents to stay in touch. It lets everyone learn more about each other, and parents can see where their kids are having trouble. In a similar way, parents can see where their kids are doing well. In turn, homework can help the student get a better, more focused educational plan.

Resources:

Top 21 Reasons Why Should Students Have Homework? ^(https://digitalculturesandtranslation.com/goto/https://www.javaassignmenthelp.com/blog/should-students-have-homework/)

https://www.wgu.edu/heyteach/article/should-students-have-homework1808.html
https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/the-pros-and-cons-of-homework/
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If an assignment is difficult, going to a professor or a peer for help can be useful, as they may help clarify the assignment and help students develop original ideas.

What is Plagiarism? Definition, Consequences & Prevention

Plagiarism refers to intellectual theft i.e. using someone else’s thoughts in your work without referencing them. It’s taking the credit for someone else’s work, which goes against the rules of academia. Quoting is not banned, quite the opposite in fact. However, the author must be named.

Plagiarism can take on a number of different forms. It does not just consist of copying but can also be an uncredited translation or the use of someone else’s ideas without referencing the author.

Plagiarism can definitely be uncovered. There is special software for this. If plagiarism is detected, there are serious consequences such receiving a failing grade for your work, being kicked out of your program, or being denied your academic title. Copyright infringement and fraud are punishable criminal offences.

So you should familiarize yourself with the conventions of quotation to know the what the gray areas are and avoid plagiarism in all its forms.

What is a plagiarism checker?

An online plagiarism detector sorts through online, freely accessible sources and compares them to your academic work. At the end of the plagiarism check, you are given a plagiarism report with any possible areas that have been plagiarized, highlighted in your text. Your plagiarism rate should be under 5%. Few pages in your plagiarism report is a good sign- it means that you’ve referenced correctly and haven’t accidentally plagiarized anything.

What happens if you plagiarise?

If you’re accused of plagiarism and it’s found to be true, then your academic paper or thesis will automatically be a fail. You can also be stripped of your titles and in extreme cases, plagiarism is a criminal offense. This is why it is smart to play it save and run your academic work through a plagiarism detector before handing it in.

How can I avoid plagiarism?

To avoid plagiarism, you need to ensure that everything you write is in your own words. If you’re using someone else’s ideas, or quoting them for example, you need to ensure that you’ve properly cited and referenced the original author. If you want to quote a passage from a book that has been quoted from another author, this can get a little bit tricky. But you can see why a plagiarism detector is such a helpful tool.

What are the types of plagiarism?

There are many different types of plagiarism and often, plagiarism is commited without the author of the academic work even being aware of it. It is vital that you are using the correct citing and referencing method and that you’re using it properly.

What are some examples of plagiarism?

Even if you change a text and put it into your own words with a citation, you may still be unknowingly plagiarizing. Analogous or half analogous quotations are great examples of accidential plagiarism. Scroll down to ‘Examples of Plagiarism’ for more information.

Plagiarism: Second Hand Creativity

OR why, with the theft of intellectual property, you’re only kidding yourself

When a writer copies from another, it’s called plagiarism.

When a writer copies from many others, it’s called science (anonymous, quoted in Winter 2004: 88)

Quotations represent the measure of how academic a text is, as growth of knowledge is always based on existing knowledge. Once this becomes clear, it is necessary to be aware of what happens when sources are NOT correctly cited or when intellectual property is NOT shown as such. You can see this behavior as intellectual theft.

But what exactly is intellectual theft in academia, or so-called plagiarism, and how can it be prevented?

“Plagiarism means to present someone else’s text as your own” (Kruse 2007: 82).

So, when you take passages of text from someone else but don’t name the author of these passages, and then insert it into your own text without acknowledging it, it becomes plagiarism. But already “taking the content, not just the words, of longer passages of texts also falls under the term plagiarism if it’s not identified as paraphrasing” (Gruber, Huemer & Rheindorf 2009: 161).

This means that taking someone else’s idea without acknowledging them sufficiently is plagiarism.

What is a plagiarism checker?

An online plagiarism detector sorts through online, freely accessible sources and compares them to your academic work. At the end of the plagiarism check, you are given a plagiarism report with any possible areas that have been plagiarized, highlighted in your text. Your plagiarism rate should be under 5%. Few pages in your plagiarism report is a good sign- it means that you’ve referenced correctly and haven’t accidentally plagiarized anything.

If you’re accused of plagiarism and it’s found to be true, then your academic paper or thesis will automatically be a fail. You can also be stripped of your titles and in extreme cases, plagiarism is a criminal offense. This is why it is smart to play it save and run your academic work through a plagiarism detector before handing it in.

Types of Plagiarism

If you are accused of Plagiarism as a student, you must know that you can easily get suspended or, worse, expelled from your school without any warnings. It is common for students to be in a rush before an assignment is due and use an assignment that another student completed or a paper that they found online.

Plagiarism can also damage you legally, and that too very seriously. If you end up copying or using content protected with copyrights, you will face not only legal penalties but also be charged with a criminal offence. If you don’t want to enjoy your good days in prison living your sentence, you must be careful while using another person’s content.

Resources:

https://www.bachelorprint.com/plagiarism-checker/plagiarism/
https://aijr.org/blog/plagiarism-types-consequences-prevention/
https://www.studysmarter.us/explanations/english/5-paragraph-essay/plagiarism/
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