More Time For Homework & Analysis of Student Homework vs. Quiz Scores (Continued)
For my inquiry question, “should homework be eliminated?” I was interested in whether there was a positive correlation between homework and academic achievement in the form of quiz scores. In order to perform this study, I chose to analyze the students’ quiz scores, homework completion, and homework accuracy. For homework accuracy, I pulled my homework (Extra Electron Configuration Practice) data (Artifact 3A), and I was also able to use Artifact 3A to record homework completion. I used “100” to indicate students who turned in completed homework and “0” to indicate students who did not complete the homework. The key piece to this artifact involved the survey that I had each of my students fill out about their quiz on electron configuration. The survey consisted of 4 questions asking students to reflect on the electron configuration quiz and the prior associated homework.
In addition to determining the potential existence between homework and achievement, I now incorporated a metacognitive piece to explore whether my students’ beliefs about their quiz performance aligned with their actual performance. I thought it would be interesting to investigate my students’ beliefs because it could provide me with insight about the reasons why students may or may not do homework. My initial thoughts were that students who believed there existed a positive relationship between homework and achievement would be more willing to engage in homework because completing homework would lead to success on assessments. On the other hand, students who believed there existed a negative relationship or no relationship between homework and assessments would be less inclined to complete homework. In order to get student feedback I asked students to fill out a “Quiz #7 Survey” (Artifact 4B) after they took their quiz (Artifact 4A).
In addition to determining the potential existence between homework and achievement, I now incorporated a metacognitive piece to explore whether my students’ beliefs about their quiz performance aligned with their actual performance. I thought it would be interesting to investigate my students’ beliefs because it could provide me with insight about the reasons why students may or may not do homework. My initial thoughts were that students who believed there existed a positive relationship between homework and achievement would be more willing to engage in homework because completing homework would lead to success on assessments. On the other hand, students who believed there existed a negative relationship or no relationship between homework and assessments would be less inclined to complete homework. In order to get student feedback I asked students to fill out a “Quiz #7 Survey” (Artifact 4B) after they took their quiz (Artifact 4A).
The follow-up for this artifact was to compare students’ self-reported confidence for writing electron configurations for the elements on the periodic table and how accurately they wrote the electron configurations on the homework assignment. The purpose of this artifact was to start building in the self-assessment component of my original inquiry question, “What happens to students’ learning when a teacher uses homework to facilitate peer and self assessment?” Black et al. (2003) in “Putting the Ideas Into Practice” state that self-assessment is an essential component of formative assessment, or homework in this case, in order for students to “understand the main purposes of their learning and thereby grasp what they need to do to achieve” (p. 44). It is my hope that students see the connection between what is in their homework assessments and what is covered on their quiz. The learning objective for my students in this lesson was to be able to use the periodic table to write electron configurations for elements. I attempted to reiterate this goal during instruction, for homework assignments, and throughout the quiz review. As shown in Figure 3, it was evident that out of all the students who took the survey the majority of students saw the connection between what the homework covered and what the quiz covered. This does not account for the 13 students who were not surveyed however.
Out of the 28 students who participated in my inquiry, only 16 students filled out the survey. This disparity arises because some students did not turn in their surveys, some students did not take the quiz to fill out the survey, and some students were absent. Throughout my inquiry, one of the most challenging dynamics that I have had to work with has been school absences and class cuts. The prevalent school absences have complicated my inquiry because there appear to be holes in my data but I have no control over when students are out sick for consecutive days or when they are suspended from school for days or a week at a time.
Out of the 28 students who participated in my inquiry, only 16 students filled out the survey. This disparity arises because some students did not turn in their surveys, some students did not take the quiz to fill out the survey, and some students were absent. Throughout my inquiry, one of the most challenging dynamics that I have had to work with has been school absences and class cuts. The prevalent school absences have complicated my inquiry because there appear to be holes in my data but I have no control over when students are out sick for consecutive days or when they are suspended from school for days or a week at a time.