Traditional Homework Research Articles

Designing Mini Modeling Projects

This paper is written as a guide for any instructor seeking to develop the mathematical modeling process or open-ended problem solving in their courses. We describe a pedagogical approach to create mini modeling problems to develop the modeling process. These are problems that fall between traditional homework problems and open-ended modeling problems, and focus on specific aspects of the modeling process. Implementing such mini modeling problems is a means of scaffolding the modeling process to engage the students in smaller stages of modeling and prepare them for the full modeling process. This is intended as a means to empower the students so they can engage confidently in the modeling process.

Case study of the use of learner-centered assessment in the math school of a large university in the United States

ABSTRACT This case study examined the current assessment practices in the math school of a large research university in the United States. After reviewing a sample of course syllabi offered in the spring 2021 semester, we descriptively summarized the use of 19 assessment methods in the school and examined the assessment patterns by subjects, class standings, and class size. Our study found that traditional homework and written tests were the most frequently used assessments in the school, while the use of learner-centered assessments was rare. Among the 19 assessment methods, we found significantly different usage of quizzes, participation scores, and projects by various course characteristics. Our case study demonstrates the gap between the recommended and actual assessment practice in U.S. higher education. We call for more future research that explores strategies to effect changes and increase the use of learner-centered assessment in higher education institutions.

Computer Games are Scalable and Engaging Alternatives to Traditional Undergraduate Mathematics Homework

Exercise is essential for mastering mathematics, but it faces two major hurdles. First, students are often not motivated to do their homework. Second, checking traditional homework is a manual and labor-intensive process that becomes harder to support as the number of students increases. We argue that computer games could alleviate both problems. In contrast to homework, students are willing to spend many hours playing video games. And because video games keep track of the gamers' performance, they offer a scalable solution to the problem of checking the homework. We describe an experiment to augment traditional homework with a computer game that we have developed for exercising the topics of symmetry groups in an undergraduate college course. We describe the mathematical background of the subject matter, how we have embedded the mathematics into the game, the empirical results of playing the game, and the insights we have gained from this experiment.

Research on the Effectiveness of English Unit Homework Design Based on Big Idea in Junior High School

Homework is a crucial aspect of curriculum that reinforce and expand upon classroom teaching and guide teachers in improving their instruction. After many years of reform, China’s curriculum has entered the era of core competence which should be taken by homework as its ultimate goal. Traditional homework often focuses too much on repetition and quantity over quality, potentially reducing students’ enthusiasm for learning. With the “Double Reduction” policy, homework must now focus on educational value with reduced quantity and higher quality. In this study, the integrated unit design of English homework based on big idea is introduced to the English course of junior high school, trying to verify its effectiveness in helping achieve the core competence of English subject from the perspective of homework. The research involved eighth graders from a Chengdu middle school and used core competency tests from the Jinjiang District for pre- and post-experiment data. Interviews with students and teachers showed a positive reception to this new approach. Despite some limitations, the study suggests that homework based on big idea can effectively boost English core competencies in middle schoolers.

No More Homework? Negotiations of Parental Engagement in All-Day Schools

In the course of the implementation of all-day schools in Zurich, traditional homework has been integrated within the new educational system. This action is altering the arrangement and opportunity of parental engagement and requires new negotiation processes between family and school. In this qualitative study including interviews with parents (n=8), three patterns of relational connection between parents and professionals were found. The integration of homework is perceived either as a relief or as a loss of control and requests an adaption of communicative forms. It can be seen that parental engagement in children’s learning at home highly depends on individual parents’ attitudes and trust toward school as well as the student’s success at school.

Guadalingo in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language (FL): Practical Insights

The main objective of this study is to provide practical solutions in the teaching of Spanish as a Foreign Language (FL) based on the Common European Framework for Languages (CEFR) in combination with a video game, adapting it to the requirements of L2 language learners. Since video games appeared, they have been increasingly used globally as tools for learning and teaching subjects related with languages, culture, social topics, gender, education, and global citizenship. This article focuses on how to use the serious game Guadalingo and does so through a reflexive approach and using qualitative data. The research was a three-month qualitative study supplemented with numerical values for pre-course information related to participants’ attitude to traditional homework, game-based activities, and device predilection (handheld mobile devices with a touchscreen interface versus PC with a physical keyboard). The findings reveal high presence of female participants and their readiness for playing a video game to learn a new language. Further work is required in the study of motivational out-of-classroom tasks in teaching Spanish with focus on gender (male versus female), age (digital and/or not digital generations), and game graphics.

Research on Optimization Design of English Homework in Junior Middle School under the Background of Double Reduction

The "Double Reduction” policy was issued in July 2021, emphasizing the need to comprehensively shorten the total amount and duration of homework, and reducing students' excessive academic burden, so as to improve the quality of school education and teaching, and make homework assignments more scientific and reasonable. Homework after class is an important part of school education. Students' high-quality completion of homework is not only conducive to improving the efficiency of learning, but also conducive to reducing students' learning pressure and psychological burden. After class homework management is not only an important subject of school education and teaching, but also a key issue in the comprehensive reform of education. Over the years, students' heavy learning burden has become a hot issue of general concern in society. The state has also issued policies to reduce students' learning pressure and burden. The traditional homework design is basically in the form of reading and writing, with a large amount of tasks, and it is very single and mechanical. For a long time, the reduction of students' learning initiative and enthusiasm will inevitably have a great impact on improving students' comprehensive quality. Therefore, in order for primary and secondary school students to grow up healthily and use English flexibly, it is necessary to realize English teaching with higher standards. We should always pay attention to the physical and mental development of students and promote them to become a person with all-round development. The promulgation of the "Double Reduction” policy will inevitably have a certain impact on junior high school English homework. Whether the current junior high school English homework design implements this requirement needs to be carefully considered. Therefore, this paper starts from the actual situation of junior high school English homework design, finds out the problems in homework design, and analyzes the main reasons, so as to better promote the implementation of the "Double Reduction” policy.

Design of Student Homework Management System in Private Colleges and Universities Based on Computer Software Technology

This paper takes the job management of a private university as the research object and analyzes the function, performance, and operating environment of the job management system. We design the overall design scheme of the job management system according to the requirements and carry out the general design, detailed design, and database design of the system. By comparing and analyzing the characteristics of different MPPT algorithms, in view of the shortcomings of the fruit fly optimization algorithm, this paper proposes an improved fruit fly optimization algorithm to realize the maximum power point tracking of photovoltaic systems. The initialization position is improved, and the iterative optimization is carried out by means of variable step size. Compared with the traditional fruit fly optimization algorithm, the improved algorithm has a faster convergence speed, and the optimization process is stable and less oscillating, and the tracking of MPPT is improved. The accuracy can effectively avoid the system falling into local optimum. Based on the understanding of user demand analysis, the problems to be solved by this system are obtained, and solutions to these problems are given. Through the analysis and comparison of various technologies commonly used in the current website development and combined with the characteristics of the problem, the ASP-based Browser/Server (B/S) architecture is used to realize it. This system realizes the digitization of traditional paper work, solves the problems of slow speed, poor real-time performance, difficult inquiries, and difficult statistics in traditional homework management, effectively improves the quality of homework management in private colleges and universities, and has certain effects on improving the quality of school teaching.

Comparison of Students’ Performance Using Web-Based and Paper-Based Homework in an Undergraduate Statistics Course

Our institution is heavily invested in improving the learning outcomes of our students, especially in core courses like statistics which is taken by majority of freshmen students. As such, we have been reviewing our existing pedagogy and exploring novel ways to improve students experience in statistics course. In this study we compare web-based vs paper-based traditional homework models and their impact on students’ performance in an undergraduate statistics course. In web-based model, students used MyStatLab to complete the homework assignments along with additional resources offered by this platform. On the other hand, in paper-based model students used traditional approach in completing the homework and was manually graded by the instructor. Our analysis indicated that there is no statistically significant difference in students’ final course grades between the two modalities. Additionally, we conducted a chi-square test of independence and found no statistically significant relationship between students’ final course grades and homework models. However, our analysis concluded that student performance and perceptions improved with online homework model compared to the traditional model. Keywords: Web-based online homework, Traditional homework, Student performance, Undergraduate Statistics DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-27-09 Publication date: September 30 th 2022

ANCAT: An Autonomous Learning Card Kit to Help Students Write Ionic Formula

The fundamental of introductory chemistry is formula writing. The basic requirements of high school chemistry subjects are writing chemical formulas, including writing an ionic formula. Students require good practice and knowledge of the formula and charge of the ions to write the ionic formula and name the ionic compound. A set of cards called "Ancat" consists of the basic atom of the ion on one side, and on the reverse side is the name and formula of the ions. The set of cards comprises the anion and cation cards distinguished by color. High school students would use these cards as a self-directed learning tool. As a selfdirected learning tool, students will construct the ionic formula using the card; then, write the formula and vice-versa. By using the cards, students will be able to identify the symbol of each ion, the charge of each ion, the name of the ions, determine the correct formula of each ionic compound by considering the total charge of an ionic compound is zero, and learn the name of the ionic compound. Teachers can replace the traditional homework with this ductile method that can aid motivation in students; besides that, these cards are suitable for blended learning tools in the classroom.

DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATICS AS A DISCIPLINE IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS: FROM THE APPEARANCE OF THE FIRST COMPUTERS TO THE PRESENT

Introduction. From the middle of the XX century. A significant role in progressive scientific discoveries is played by computer science, which appears as a science, as a branch of production and as a discipline. Intensive development of information technologies since the middle of the XX century. is of scientific interest in connection with their demand in all spheres of human life, including education. An important role is given to information and communication technologies, thanks to which the student must work with all kinds of information. The teacher in the information society, in contrast to the traditional, ceases to be the only carrier of knowledge. The role of the modern teacher is mainly the role of a leader in the world of information. Today, computer science appears as a science of the laws of information processes (obtaining, creating, accumulating, disseminating, storing, searching for information) in various systems, which contributes to the formation of modern scientific worldview, development of intellectual characteristics and cognitive activity of students. Informatics also orients those who study to master the necessary key educational competencies based on the use of information technology in the learning process, in everyday and future life. Originality. One of the fundamental problems of modern education, based on the active use of ICT, is the expansion of knowledge about its nature, principles of development and transformations that occur in the process of evolution and lead to transformations of basic processes that support modern education. The reasons for innovation are: the requirements of the production process, changes in the structure of the industry, changes in user sentiment, new scientific knowledge. Social demand through the transformation of the information society, the struggle for quality and efficiency, has stimulated the mass creation and implementation of innovations in education and training. Based on the topical issue is the study of the development of computer science as a discipline in higher education. Purpose. The purpose of the study: to investigate the history of the beginnings of computer science and analyze the development of computer science as a discipline in higher education. Results. The main results of the study: information technology and related educational components are actively implemented in educational programs of universities, the number of hours to study these subjects is actively increasing. Thanks to this, it became possible to use computer programs as illustrative material, conduct testing and tests, solve creative tasks, participate in distance learning, combine traditional homework with tasks that use computers for each student and more.

Measuring how to evaluate the impact of doing student’s homework using the distance e-learning process in the computer science course, and access its efficiency in developing academic achievement: قياس أثر كيفية تقييم أعمال الطلبة في تنفيذ الواجبات المنزلية خلال عملية التعلم عن بعد في مادة الحاسوب ومتابعة مدى فعاليتها في تطوير التحصيل الدراسي

This study aimed to investigate the efficiency of teaching students on distance learning platforms and its impact on academic achievement. Specifically, it tried to answer the following question: “How to evaluate the impact of doing student’s homework using the distance e-learning process in the computer science course, and access its efficiency in developing academic achievement?” The study was conducted by using experimental methodology. The study samples consisted of 30 students from the ninth grade, at King Abdullah-II School for Excellence in Ajloun, Jordan. The first half of the samples represents the experimental-group that studied using specific teaching strategies and the homework method used the Internet platform for implementation and follow-up. The second half represents the control-group who studied with the same strategies, but used the traditional homework method within the classroom environment and follow-up traditionally. The efficiency evaluation for teaching the two groups was by preparing an achievement test consisted of 25 multiple-choice items. The study showed the following results: The experimental-group students who studied using homework via the internet platform outperformed the control-group students who studied using traditional homework, with a constant factor of 0.97. In light of the result, the researcher recommended a number recommendations: the necessity of using homework via Internet platform, considering individual differences in achievement by distributing duties in terms of ease and difficulty, using a reasonable duties amount so it doesn’t burden students, coordination between teachers of other subjects when assigning students’ homework, and finally recommendations to study other variables such as parents' academic level and teachers strategies of preparing homework.

Improving the Effectiveness of Physics Homework: A Minds-on Simulation-Based Approach

Students spend much time in doing their physics homework. Whether this effort results in deep learning depends on the quality of the mere homework. Therefore, we designed a minds-on simulation-based approach to physics homework and conducted a pretest-posttest quasi-experiment to compare its effectiveness to the effectiveness of traditional homework. Our student sample consisted of 39 first year high-school students from Bosnia and Herzegovina. In two school hours, all students received the same lectures about gas laws. Next, the experimental group students solved simulation-based homework in which their planning of actions, execution of actions and self-reflection was supported by a carefully prepared worksheet and survey. The traditional group’s homework consisted of three textbook problems and covered the same content, which is gas laws. Through analysis of covariance it was shown that the minds-on simulation-based homework was significantly more effective in developing students’ understanding of gas laws than traditional homework. The experimental group students perceived the simulation-based homework as interesting, challenging and useful.

The Effect of Online Homework (IXL) on Students' Mathematics Achievement

We examined the potential different effectiveness of an online homework system (IXL) and the traditional paper-and-pencil homework. A study involving 98 participants was conducted in a middle school (grade 8). We compared the post-test results from the online homework group with the traditional homework group. Both homework assignment effect (class-level) and homework completion effect (student-level) proposed by Trautwein (2007) were investigated. No significant difference was found among the students who were assigned different types of homework (class-level). We conclude that IXL is as effective as the traditional homework on students' learning. Meanwhile, not surprisingly, we revealed that students who complete the homework outperformed the students who did not (student-level). We suggest that teachers give students an option to do online or traditional homework based on their preference, as long as they complete the homework.

Parent Attitudes Towards the Integration of Digital Learning Games as an Alternative to Traditional Homework

The COVID-19 pandemic caused children to distance learn at home, but with technical and pedagogic difficulties. Digital learning games offer effective tools for pedagogic difficulties, such as active and relevant learning. Using mixed-methods research, this study examined 1) parents' perceptions about digital learning games and 21st century skills and 2) parents' attitudes towards digital learning games instead of traditional homework. The findings are based on both qualitative (in-depth interviews) and quantitative (online survey) data. The results of the study revealed that parents do not object to replacing traditional homework with digital learning games. They saw digital learning games as relevant for their children's digital lives and acknowledged their potential to reduce arguments over homework. Therefore, digital learning games should be employed in school and as an alternative for traditional homework, both in routine and crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Effects of Interactive Homework Assignments on Parental Involvement in Homework and Public Primary Schools’ English Learning in Tanzania

The factors associated with students’ success in learning may have been addressed but the impact of parental involvement continues to be a significant issue. Some schools in Tanzania post poor learning achievement amid claims that the traditional homework used in Public Primary Schools limit parental involvement and thus parents become not supportive to their children’s’ learning. This paper aimed at evaluating the effects of weekly Interactive English homework on parental involvement in homework and pupils’ English learning. Standard five pupils (N = 100) with their parents and 02 teachers participated in the 08-week study. 02 classes completed IHA (Interactive Homework Assignments) with directions for family and parent involvement. Two classes completed Non-Interactive Homework (no family involvement directions). Parents in Interactive homework group reported significantly higher levels of involvement than did Non-Interactive Parents. Pupils in IHA who more regularly involved parents significantly improved their behavior and skills needed for successful learning than Non-IHA pupils. The findings of this study support the hypothesis that IHA enhances parental involvement in homework and pupils learning in English than did the Non-IHA.

Technology-mediated tasks in the young learners’ EFL classroom

For the last few decades, technology has been commonly integrated into various foreign/second language teaching contexts. A significant amount of research has been conducted to investigate the effects of technology integration on student learning and demonstrated its effectiveness in improving language areas such as grammar and vocabulary and four language skills as well as in raising cultural awareness, increasing student motivation and autonomy and creating a student-centred learning environment. Despite research interest into the use of technology in education, studies depicting technology-integration practices in young learner classrooms are not many in number. The present quasi-experimental study conducted in the Turkish context aimed to investigate whether the completion of technology-mediated tasks would improve young EFL learners’ achievement in listening and reading and writing tests. The analysis of data indicated a higher improvement in the experimental group, compared to the control group who completed traditional homework assignments, but not at a significant level. The study also explored the experimental group learners’ opinions about technology-mediated tasks they completed and revealed their self-perceived higher ability in English, enhanced self-efficacy beliefs in technology use and positive attitudes towards technology-mediated tasks.

Playing Settlers of Catan Enhances Student Learning of Probability in Liberal Arts Mathematics

ABSTRACT Playing board games is known to improve pre-school student numeracy and many board games are used to motivate and explore concepts in probability. This study investigates whether college students in liberal arts mathematics courses assigned to play the board game Settlers of Catan develop a stronger grasp of basic probability concepts than those assigned more traditional homework problems via an analysis of pre- and post-assessments and final exam questions.

Metacognitive Skills of Students in a Mathematics Class with Supplemental Instruction and Online Homework

Improving students’ performance in Calculus is a challenge for many colleges and universities. One way of improving students' performance as well as their metacognition and study skills is to provide opportunities for them to receive support outside of the lecture. A modified version of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was used to reveal any significant differences in metacognition and study strategies between students in a class with supplemental instruction with peer tutors and a dynamic online homework software (WebAssign), and students in a traditional class without these additional supports. Surveys and interviews were utilized to provide anecdotal evidence on the influence of WebAssign and supplemental instruction sessions on study skills and metacognition and whether students preferred WebAssign to traditional homework. Overall, the study showed no significant difference between the two groups in seven out of eight sub-scales of metacognitive skills and study strategies. Students reported that the supplemental instruction sessions and the WebAssign software were beneficial to their success.

The Design and Development of Student Electronic Homework Management System

With the continuous development of information technology, computers and networks have been deeply integrated into the basic process of teaching and learning. In order to solve the basic problems of the traditional homework management mode, on the basis of demand analysis, this paper designs and develops a student electronic homework management system, which provides teachers and students with a convenient and efficient electronic homework online management platform. The system adopts a three-tier architecture system of B/S mode, with clear navigation, convenient use, high operating efficiency, and strong security. It implements user management, course management, job management, announcement management, link management, communication management, system management, etc. The function has solved the collection, management, review, communication and other problems of students’ electronic homework, and can effectively improve the efficiency of electronic homework management in the teaching and learning process.