Homework is a long lever to elevate education but where is the fulcrum?

Abstract

Homework effectiveness has long been a controversial issue for many educators, schools and parents. Throughout the years, many researchers have tried to prove homework is not just a nuisance we all have to face but really “build characters” and “is good for you” like teachers and parents normally say. This bibliometrics review studied 429 documents related to homework in education from Clivate Web of Science from 1977 to 2020. The aim of this study is to record the volume, growth pattern of homework literature as well as identify key author, publication and topic of this knowledge base. The review found that the homework literature has grown remarkably over the past 43 years, with most cited authors are from the US, Spain and China. Using co-citation, co-occurrence and bibliographic coupling analysis from VOSviewer program, this research also indicated some significant results and suggestions for future research.