How much homework is too much?

With students returning to class full-time this fall and workloads increasing, you may be wondering: What is the right amount of homework? how much is too much

Those might be the wrong questions, say educators. Rather, it depends on whether the homework serves a clearly defined purpose, is properly planned and encourages independent thinking.

“Some teachers give homework because they didn’t finish their lesson,” says Greg Thomas of the University of Alberta’s School of Education, an expert on educational “metacognition,” or stepping back to ask why and why how you are doing each given task.

“It’s not a great class at all – you blame the students for what you failed to do as a professional.”

Views on homework have evolved significantly over the past few decades. It was once given almost as a matter of course. Experts are now saying that strategy is everything, along with the realization that students these days have a lot to do in their lives.

“We want students to be involved in multiple activities, both in school and outside of school,” says Thomas.

“We want them to have a balanced education because you learn a lot of things outside of school,” particularly those intangible soft skills around communication and interpersonal relationships that are so important in today’s workplace.

“In my final years as a teacher, I rarely gave homework assignments because I realized that many of my students had lives outside of school,” says Thomas.

“Or I’d say, ‘By the end of next week I want you to have these things done.'”

The best way to find this balance, and one that Thomas has used in a number of schools, is with a homework schedule so students know in advance when they will be given homework in a particular subject.

For example, math homework might fall on Tuesdays, with a set deadline for completion a few days later.

“Then you can talk to the students about how they want to use their time instead of demanding that they use their time in the way you, the teacher, require,” says Thomas.

“You suggest to them that you value their time outside of school, and you try to help them use that time most effectively.”

It can also be easy to mistakenly assume that students have a learner-friendly environment at home, Thomas notes, or that parents are involved in supporting them. If students come from families where the language of instruction in their school is not spoken or read at home, this may not be possible.

To help these students, schools should have access to an extracurricular learning space, preferably with staff supervision.

But no matter how much homework is given, the purpose and outcomes must be crystal clear — either reinforcing material learned in class or preparing for an upcoming class, says Thomas.

“That’s where metacognition comes in. What did I learn from my homework that I didn’t know before? Where is it going and how can it help me in the future?”

Thomas’ views are supported by an extensive survey conducted by an American nonprofit organization called Challenge Success in the decade leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is based on research by Denise Pope of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education.

When 200,000 middle and high school students from high-performing schools were asked what stressed them out most in life, homework was a common answer. But it wasn’t just the crowd that caused anxiety levels to skyrocket.

Tasks perceived as boring or repetitive — or too advanced and confusing — were also to blame, along with concern about how well they were doing at tasks.

That’s why, alongside a clear purpose for homework, there must be clear expectations about how it will be graded and what the consequences will be for students if they don’t do it, says Thomas.

In middle school, it’s important to enforce a structure so they know how to respond to outside expectations in their lives. It works best when it’s regular and achievable.

“And you have to make sure those who are struggling are still getting something on their homework and not getting to that level of frustration,” he adds.

For older students in high school, it’s crucial to encourage them to really engage with ideas and think about not just what they’re learning, but how they’re learning, “given the speed of change in today’s world,” says he.

But according to Challenge Success, some studies have shown that there is little to no evidence that homework in elementary school has a positive effect on achievement in most subjects.

The underlying principle in assigning homework at all levels, says Thomas, is that balance is everything.

“We take the mental health of students very seriously these days. We try to help them find well-being – whether physically, intellectually or mentally. It’s about the whole person.”