Comment by xp84

Comment by xp84 2 months ago

Homework is an incredibly controversial topic I think, because:

Homework, since you can get a lot or even full credit even if you get it wrong (haven't learned the material well), provides a big boost to the grades of a type of student who "tests poorly" -- whether because they failed to learn the material, or because of anxiety or whatever.

On the other side of the debate you have an alliance of:

• Parents who think "Jeez, my kid comes home from school with 3 hours of homework every night, WTF, let them live life"

• Kids who, to avoid using labels, I'll just say... they learn the material easily AND can prove it easily on a test. They say "WHY TF are you wasting hours of my time doing busywork??

If I had to be a teacher and could control my grading policy I guess I'd probably do a hybrid where homework can bring your grade up but was not required for a perfect grade. So,

GRADE = MAXIMUM(HW_GRADE * .15 + TESTS, 1)

With all due respect to the "can't take a test" crowd, it seems unfair to give homework a weight higher than that though. Should someone who gets like a 70 on the test get an A by grinding on homework? I'm glad I'm not a teacher so I don't have to actually debate anyone on that.

girvo 2 months ago

> homework can bring your grade up but was not required for a perfect grade

A biochemistry unit at a Uni in Australia I took in ~2010 operated this way, which was quite surprising to me. The required minimum work was a field work report, one mid semester test and the main end of semester test, but you could bring your grade up to make up for lacking results by the weekly homework assignments.

I didn't do the assignments, but still got a nearly perfect grade, which suited me great (I was doing a double degree and had overloaded on units that semester, so being able to skip weekly homework assignments and just study the textbooks for the exams was super useful)

Reply View 0 replies

dr_dshiv 2 months ago

In my high school, the harder the class, the less homework was assigned. Such a great incentive. I took AP everything because it had so much less busy work. Rock the test, that’s all that mattered.

Reply View 0 replies

AStonesThrow 2 months ago

I took a series of four classes with a very rigorous instructor who would issue a massive syllabus with a load of tasks that was like a scavenger hunt.

At some point down the road, he explicitly reminded us that every task was showing an associated point value, and rather than going down in listed order or spending hours on 1-pointers, we should prioritize the best scores according to our skills and competence.

With the entire list before us, we could work at a steady pace without sweating over busywork. And he encouraged us to watch videos and explore the interesting parts.

Reply View 0 replies