Sally Cameron – Health & Technology Teacher

The Health and Technology staff, together with their pupils and parents, carried out a study into pupil centred learning approaches. We had identified that homework was being poorly completed by a number of pupils, was not being completed at all by some pupils and was doing little to promote learning. Research suggests that there is a substantial link between homework and attainment and our aim was to enhance the learning via the creation and implementation of a pupil-centred approach to homework in S2 H&T.

As partof the study we tried to answer 3 questions:
• Can a pupil-centred approach improve homework returns and quality?
• Can parental involvement in a pupil-centred approach improve the number and quality of homework returns?
• Will a pupil-centred approach to homework improve learning?

Teachers worked closely with their pupils to develop a new approach to homework. Over a period of eight weeks, the teachers provided pupils with opportunities to choose and complete several newly designed, fully inclusive, creative homework activities. Pupils, together with their parents, were asked to comment on, and sign, each completed homework task.

Any change in homework returns and quality was examined by analysing responses from pre- and post-enquiry questionnaires completed by pupils and their parents, the quality of pupils’ homework and classwork before and during the enquiry and observations carried out by their teachers together. In addition, pupil discussions were held to explore the reasons behind the findings in more depth. Improvement in learning was assessed by looking at progress toward achieving learning targets, together with pupil homework and pupil comments about their learning.

Results indicate that, there has been a positive impact on all factors examined. The number of pupils completing all homework rose from 82% prior to the enquiry to 90% of pupils during the enquiry. The number of pupils who were submitting satisfactory homework rose from 62% prior to the enquiry to 80% during the enquiry.  Prior to the enquiry 38% of parents were aware that their son or daughter had Health and Technology homework and this rose to 58% following the enquiry, with 50% of all parents and carers becoming involved in checking and signing homework.  Finally, prior to the enquiry 67% of pupils were making satisfactory progress towards achieving all of their learning targets and this rose to 80% during the enquiry.  Even those pupils who were not fully achieving their learning targets were reported by their teachers to be more motivated and engaged in the learning experience. 

A number of our pupils gained confidence from their involvement in this enquiry and the results show that the majority of pupils reported that they enjoyed the new homework much more than previously.  The data suggests that pupils are more likely to complete homework when they have some input into the selection of the activity and that pupils are more likely to complete work that they find interesting and challenging rather work that is assigned without consideration of individuality, likes and dislikes.  The majority of pupils have found that this new approach to homework has had a positive impact on their learning experiences which has implications for teachers as this suggests that personalisation and choice have a direct impact on the engagement of learners.

If you would like more more information about this project, please just ask in H&T!  Examples of pre-enquiry and enquiry homework exercises.