Research Annotations

Annotation #1

Negru, I., & Sava, S. (2023). Homework’s implications for the well-being of primary school 

pupils—Perceptions of children, parents, and teachers. Education Sciences, 13(10), 

1–24. https://doi-org.dominican.idm.oclc.org/10.3390/educsci13100996

Summary

This study was conducted in a Romanian primary school and involved the participation of teachers, students and parents. The study looked at ways that educators made homework more engaging and enjoyable, it also attempted to identify practices that had both positive and negative effects on the students during the homework.  The study found that homework gave young children strong positive feelings when the homework was collaborative, gamified, creative and had parental involvement. Homework that resulted in negative feelings was characterized by being lengthy, tedious, repetitive and/or “overloaded”. The negative effects were strong and some were physical like anxiety, crying and sleep deprivation. The article surveyed teachers, students and parents about homework likes and dislikes and has a clear list for each demographic. 

Analysis

This article made me reconsider my idea that the idea of homework has a clear delineation of being good or bad. The types of homework described in this article are types of homework that I have never considered myself or seen in my teaching practice. The homework that was giving students positive feelings were types of homework that I think American instructors rarely give on a regular basis. 

This quote from the article: “… providing homework that gives them immediate satisfaction and increased self-esteem because they can solve it themselves;” particularly stood out for me. Much of what makes homework seem inequitable to me is the need for parental involvement to complete it. Many parents face huge barriers to assisting children with their homework. They might work late nights, they might not speak the language the homework is in, they might not have the reading level or math level required to do the work. This article acknowledges this issue clearly in the introduction, but does not qualify their results against this inequity. The study was conducted in Romania, where 89% of the population is of an ethnically Romanian background, so a very homogenous sample by nature. Economic differences were also not addressed in this study. 

I now want to examine the economic or other difference between children and how that has an effect on their experience with homework. Since homework in the U.S. might be a singular cultural experience, I also want to narrow my research to U.S. based only to see what my results might look like. 

While this study does have some deficits, the findings are helpful to consider because it opened my eyes to different types of homework. The study also has a lot of excellent charts on parent, teacher and students attitudes about different types of homework that could be very helpful.

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Annotation #2

Dumont, H., Trautwein, U., Nagy, G., & Nagengast, B. (2014). Quality of parental 

homework involvement: Predictors and reciprocal relations with academic functioning in the reading domain. Journal of Educational Psychology, 106(1), 144–161. https://doi-org.dominican.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/a0034100

Summary

As a caveat to this article right away, this study also took place in a fairly homogeneous country, Germany. However, the article does qualify that some of the students are immigrants, having one parent born outside of Germany. 

The goal of the study was to analyse the relationship between parental involvement in homework and student outcomes over time. The students in this study were primary school students. 

The study found that students with immigrant parents and other socioeconomic factors had little impact, although students with immigrant parents reported less parental involvement in general. 

The study showed that in the first cohort of students, grade 5 students, if the students had strong parental involvement in homework, they had increased levels of procrastination in grade 7. My interpretation of this data is that when parents help with homework, it lessens the student’s ability to plan and manage their own time. They also might be imbued with a sense that they can put homework off and someone will do it for them. 

As the students had a poor performance on their homework and at school, the parents increased their efforts with homework, creating a self-perpetuating cycle.

This study purposefully over-represented students from low-income families, and despite this, they found no significant difference in the homework assistance between parents with high and low educational and occupational backgrounds. Immigrant background parents was the only factor that impacted the quality of the help, resulting in a lower quality of help and less involvement. 

The primary focus of this study was the quality of parental help, it did not cover the presence or absence of it in educational outcomes. 

Analysis

This was a quantitative study. It was performed on a very large scale, 2,830 students participated. The students also rated their parent’s help with their homework with a scaled survey, rating the help in different ways and categories on a numbered scale. 

I do think this article helps me cover a certain question about help and no help with student homework. Even though this study did not cover students with no help, contrasting the two groups, it still showed that even the students who are receiving what might be considered high-quality help from their parents see an increase in procrastination. 

This article helped me flesh out the cohort of students who do receive help and what that can look like in detail. The article also covers a lot of the different types of help that students receive and what the most effective parent help looks like. 

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Annotation #3

Fox, K. R. (2016). Homework as a family literacy practice: What counts as best 

practices for children deemed as high risk for academic failure due 

to socioeconomic status. School Community Journal, 26(2), 215–236.

Summary

I felt that this study might help me with my question from the last study as it focuses on families in a low socioeconomic and how they help their children with homework. This study explored how these families might approach homework differently than what is classically considered “best practice” for homework completion. 

This study is extremely limited, it only covered six African-American families all living in the same housing development. It also only focused on mothers. Parents felt that their efforts were undervalued if the homework wasn’t acknowledged promptly by the teacher. 

Standard teacher expectations of having a quiet focused place to complete work does not match with the reality of these households. The homework in these households is a group effort with many family members often becoming involved. 

Analysis :

This was very much a qualitative study, with the primary source of information being interviews with the mothers of the students. 

I do think that this article is a little helpful in that it shows a way that homework can be framed in differently structured households. It’s unfortunate that the sample size is so very tiny but I still think that the major takeaways can probably be universally applied as they feel logical to me. 

Something that came out of the study that I found interesting was that the mothers in this study wanted more homework for their children, not less because it keeps them busy and safe in the home. The other major takeaway for an educator was that if you are going to assign homework, especially to families experiencing any kind of hardship or stress, you must have a plan in place to properly acknowledge the work that the parents have put into their children completing their homework. Without this feedback, an educator can be creating a very negative experience for every member of the family around homework. 

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Annotation #4

Smith, T. J., Walker, D. A., & McKenna, C. (2022). Homework characteristics as predictors of advanced math achievement and attitude among US 12th grade students. SN social sciences, 2(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00300-9

Summary

“However, the complex interactions of various factors that influence the effectiveness of homework practices has made the study of homework practices and their effect on student academic achievement difficult for researchers to address.”  This quote from the start of this article might be part of the reason why I’ve been feeling a little challenged to find articles that address my exact questions about homework and its efficacy and effectiveness. Many of the studies cited in this article are nearly as old as I am, but the conclusion of them is.. “The authors also note that the effects of homework on achievement among K-6 students are weakest, and are stronger at the 7–12 grade levels.” Even though I plan on teaching K-6 and I’m not a single subject teacher, I want to include these grade levels in my website because I’d prefer to share universal information about homework. 

Other key bits of information from this study about older students.

• Using the internet for homework gave a positive correlation for attitudes about homework. 

• No significant effect of homework on actual math achievement, gains were made primarily in attitudes toward math.

• “A report by the U.S. Department of Education on teachers’ use of technology for school and homework assignments among children in grades 3–12 (Gray and Lewis, 2020) that was completed in response to a request by the U.S. Congress found that 77% of teachers assigned technology-based home- work to their students.” 

Analysis:

This was a quantitative study that used data from TIMSS 2015 Advanced dataset, so the data is pretty old. I would say the findings and the data pool are broad enough to still be valid, but I would wonder if the use of “The Internet” as qualified in this research would still apply. I think this article is a good validation of my overall hypothesis that homework for younger kids does not benefit them. It also shows that the benefits for older kids are so incremental as to be negligible. The broad use of technology in assigning homework is interesting to me and actually doesn’t pose an inequity issue because I believe that most schools are assigning students chromebooks. Access to Wifi would be a limitation here though. Anecdotally, from my own experience with the math-app prodigy which is a math game for kids, the amount of actual work in this game is so minimal as to be non-existent. Do this many kids, specifically younger ones, really need even more screen time?

This article really focused on older kids, and it also seemed centered around the enjoyment of the subject being a goal for the homework around it. It seemed that what enhanced the enjoyment of the subject was primarily discussion online. This would be interesting food for thought when considering homework for older grades, collaborating with peers on real-world math problems seems to be the strongest type of homework.  

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Annotation #5

Williams, H., & Williams, K. (2020). Parental contributions and assessment for learning as a component of mathematics homework. Education 3-13, 50(2), 211–224. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2020.1842480

Summary:

This study took place in England and 9 different primary schools (students aged 6-11) participated with about 650 parents returning questionnaires. The study doesn’t cite exactly how many families participated but it is a significant number of participants. This study’s goal was to test the results of assigning children math homework that was more creative and project based and specifically called for parental involvement over drill-based homework that is so familiar as math homework. 

The study assigned families homework packets that contained real-life math problems for them to solve together in an open-ended fashion. Some of the problems were costing out a pizza that a family wants to eat together, building a castle out of cube blocks, and buying Legos for a club based on a budget. The study would hold meetings where the homework would be handed back and the participants would fill out questionnaires and get the next assignment. 

The findings were overwhelmingly positive. Parents felt more equipped to help children with homework that held real-life applications. It helped students see their own parents as knowledgeable, and it helped foster a positive relationship with their parents. 

The assignment’s open-ended nature also allowed students to be more receptive to feedback. The focus became on process and not correctness which is easier to receive critique on. It also mentioned that children who did not complete the homework were still able to benefit from discussions about the topics. 

The topics of the homework that was assigned but the method of completion was left up to the families. 

These new types of assignments lead to more harmony over homework at home, improved student’s agency and parents were more confident because they were not constrained by doing the math “right” per the instructions of the school’s curriculum. 

The schools used in the study were a mix of high and low-income neighborhoods. It seemed that these open ended tasks were much easier for the lower income families to complete because they used math that lay people can complete. The overall lack of rigidity benefited these families. 

Analysis:

This was a qualitative study that relied heavily on questionnaires and parent interviews. 

This study is great for my project because it contains many examples of the kind of homework that has the most positive impact on families and children. The focus on math homework is also excellent because I believe that math is generally where families feel the most angst over getting homework completed. 

This study will be great to cite also because it took place in a country very similar to the U.S. with a similar variety of economic backgrounds. While the study did not break down the results by socioeconomic class, it seems safe to assume that the positive benefits would reach these families as well. 

There were also some negatives, some parents were not comfortable with how open ended it was. I think for this type of homework to be successful in a school setting outside of a temporary study it would need a lot of lead up explanation and buy-in from parents. 

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Annotation #6

Kennewell, E., Curtis, R.G., Maher, C. et al. (2022) The relationships between school children's wellbeing, socio-economic disadvantage and after-school activities: A cross-sectional study. BMC Pediatrics 22, 297. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-022-03322-1

Summary:

This study looks into children’s after school activities. It has a focus on children from low socio-economic backgrounds to see how their after school activities have an effect on their well-being. The sample size of this study was huge, looking at about 61,000 students ages 9-15 in Australia. They measured the childrens’ SES status by their parent’s education. 

The findings around what kind of activities the students did after school is not surprising. The high SES participated in activities like music lessons, sports, homework and reading. Low SES students participated in things like video games, social media and hanging out with friends. 

The activity that had the most positive effect on the low SES students was participation in sports. Homework was close behind, it also improved SES student’s well being when it was participated in. The different activities were rated against 8 qualities or indicators. Homework scored the highest in the indicator of perseverance. 

An interesting finding was that after-school care was rated with video games and social media as an activity that resulted in poor well-being. The chaotic and unsupervised nature of after school care might be the culprit there.  

Analysis:

This was a quantitative study as it took numerical, self-reported data from a vast number of students. 

While this study did not specifically have a focus around homework, I felt it would be useful as homework is a traditional after school activity. This study was helpful in helping me see how homework stacks up against other after school activities, especially for low-income students. It supports homework as a preferred activity for students, but it does pose the challenge of how a community helps students who are low-income and have working parents complete their homework. I think an interesting initiative would be a publicly-sponsored after school program that merges sports and homework assistance. Many students are highly motivated to participate in sports, but not so motivated to participate in their homework. I think that this chart from this study is particularly interesting and helpful, though somewhat hard to interpret. 

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Annotation #7

Ronning, M. (2011). Who benefits from homework assignments? Economics of Education Review, 30(1), 55–64. https://doi-org.dominican.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2010.07.001

Summary:

This study took place in Norway and examines if homework has a different academic effect on different students. It addresses concerns that homework would amplify socioeconomic inequities. The study included about 4k students. The variable in the study was some students were assigned homework and others were assigned none. The study adjusted for variables like teacher quality. The study found that homework does increase test score variance between higher and lower SES students. Higher SES students show significant gains when homework is assigned, while SES students show no measurable benefit from homework. The effect is slightly positive across all students but not significantly. 

Assigning homework uniformly may unintentionally exacerbate inequities between students with different backgrounds unless there are mechanisms to put in place that assist low SES students in a way that helps them benefit from homework.  

Analysis:

This was a quantitative study, the study used data and statistical models from a large number of students. 

This study does show something that I was thinking was true after all the other studies that I have read, that homework only benefits students who are already benefiting. The students benefiting from homework are the students who probably don’t actually need homework to be assigned by school. These are the students whose parents have the resources to provide them what they need to excel academically already. 

But to deprive these students of homework and the potential gains that it gives them, in order to narrow the achievement gap? Is that fair? 

This study also covers my original question, about when homework becomes more effective but I’m not sure how universal the results are since the study took place in Norway. 

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Annotation #8

McJames, N., Parnell, A., & O’Shea, A. (2024). Little and often: Causal inference machine learning demonstrates the benefits of homework for improving achievement in mathematics and science. Learning & Instruction, 93, N.PAG. https://doi-org.dominican.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2024.101968

Summary:

This study tries to determine whether the frequency and volume of homework has a positive benefit on a student's academic achievement. It uses machine learning, which uses algorithms to control background variables like gender and SES. Machine learning can also use algorithms to predict what would have happened if the student had not done the homework. These methods allow the researchers to draw stronger conclusions about just the effects of more homework and nothing else. 

The study looked at 150,000 middle school equivalent students in the UK. This focus, as well as the subject matter, is similar to most of the other studies that I have looked at. 

The study found that students who were assigned homework more frequently performed better on tests. The strongest effect was assigning small amounts of homework very frequently. Infrequent or excessively large homework loads were less effective than regular, manageable assignments.There was no evidence that homework negatively impacted any subgroup. Everyone either benefited modestly or showed no significant negative effect. However, this study did not look at completion or quality of homework turned in, only the assignment of homework. So in a class where homework was assigned at the correct volume and interval had a positive effect on the students even if they didn't do it or did it poorly. 

Overall the study recommends the use of homework “little and often” to reach academic success. 

Analysis:

This is a quantitative study and has interesting implications. I’m a little disappointed that I keep finding studies looking at the same ages of students, and the same subject matter, but I understand why it is a popular area to study for homework. The “little and often” methodology of homework tracks with much of the other research that I have done. It is nice to see it proven in such a very comprehensive study. I think it’s also important to note that another trend that I am seeing is that homework assigned correctly does not have a negative impact on any students. It is also important to note that this study did not measure student mental health or happiness. So homework not affecting grades negatively might not be a total net positive. 

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Annotation #9

Liang, K., Qu, D., Zhu, A., & Chi, X. (2025). How much homework is too much? Identifying thresholds for adolescent sleep and mental health by school stage. Journal of Affective Disorders, 389. https://doi-org.dominican.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.119636

Summary:

This study was trying to find the threshold of “too much homework” as it relates to students’ mental health and sleep quality. It also looks at how this varies across ages of students. The 47k students in the study were ages 9-18 located in China. It used self-reporting questionnaires about volume of homework, sleep quality and mental health. 

The study found the volumes of homework per night where sleep and mental health started to decline:

• Ages 9-12: Sleep decline: 1.2 hours, mental health 1 hour

• Ages 12-15: Sleep decline: 1.7 hours, mental health 1.5 hours

• 15-18: 2.0 hours for sleep and mental health decline

• Sleep declines steeply beyond these points, students reporting more than these amounts had significantly higher levels of stress, anxiety, or depression symptoms.

This study identified clear markers where sleep and mental health started to affect children’s mental and physical health. 

Analysis:

This is a quantitative study because of the data collected and the volume of participants in the study. 

I find this study interesting because China does have a very different culture around school than the U.S. However, based on what I have looked at so far, I do not think that these numbers would be much different for students in the U.S. 

I asked ChatGPT, and it found me a study done in 2013 by Stanford that showed about 3 hours per night started to affect the students sleep and mental health. However, this study has no differentiation between students as far as age and only looks at 10 high performing high schools. It is worth noting that the average school day length in China is 8 hours while it is a little shorter in the U.S. at 6.5 to 7 hours on average. However, one must also consider the extreme difference between the culture in the U.S. vs. China. It’s truly a world apart.

In that sense, if you think about the broad generalizations about Chinese culture that they value school highly, have a great sense of community well-being, and respect their older generations more, you might think that they would have a greater threshold for homework than is suggested by this study. I think this study holds a universal truth, that homework in great volume is detrimental to any child, no matter how much rigour is instilled in them culturally. 

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Annotation #10

Holland, M., Courtney, M., Vergara, J., McIntyre, D., Nix, S., Marion, A., & Shergill, G. (2021). Homework and children in grades 3–6: Purpose, policy and non-academic impact. Child & Youth Care Forum, 50(4), 631–651. https://doi-org.dominican.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s10566-021-09602-8

Summary:

This study was based around the responses to surveys by 86 teachers. The study took place in Texas and surveyed a variety of schools with different racial and economic backgrounds of students. There were urban, suburban and rural schools in the study. The focus was on children grades 3-6. It looked into the non-academic effect that homework had on these students. The teachers in the study did not have formal training on how to assign homework. The study found little consistency throughout the schools around homework policies or types of homework. There was a wide range of types of homework assigned, even in the same school. Teachers were unaware of any homework policies, if there even were any at their school. Negative effects of homework were common. Children experienced stress, fatigue, and loss of family/personal time. Families struggled with evening routines and emotional tension. Some students developed negative attitudes toward learning due to overwhelming or unclear assignments. However, all this is based on teacher reporting. Homework had limited academic justification at this level. It showed notable emotional and social costs for families. 

Teachers reported that the negative impact of homework appeared to be greater for low-income families, who might have less time to support homework due to work schedules and also might lack internet access, materials, or a quiet space for students. It also had a negative impact on Single-parent households or families with language barriers, who may struggle to support or monitor assignments. Families with multiple children, where parents had to divide attention among siblings also showed struggles with homework. 

The teachers in the study justified homework in vague terms and rarely had academic research or data to justify their assignments to children. “Some homework is better than none.” Teachers said they assigned homework to: Reinforce classroom instruction, build responsibility or work habits, and/or prepare students for future academic demands (especially middle school).However, most of these justifications were general beliefs, not grounded in specific academic research. It is important to keep in mind that the study did not look at academic benefit at all, it was not a unit of measure considered by the study. 

Analysis:

Due to the low number of participants actually responding to the survey and the nature of the study, it is qualitative. This study is so interesting and I do wish it had been a lot more comprehensive. Why didn't they survey the same students and parents? That part of this study is frustrating to me. I also wish that they had considered academic benefits against any emotional negative effects. 

I do think this study shines a really important light on the lack of teacher training around homework. Teachers assign homework as a knee-jerk activity and don’t consider the impact on families. 

Since this study is all teacher reported, it makes the family information difficult to interpret but I would assume that if a teacher is perceiving family challenges, they would have to be pretty strong. 

I think that while this study shows a strong case for a negative emotional impact on homework for students and families it also sheds a light on how unprepared and often thoughtless teachers can be when assigning homework.