Homework Education: A Powerful Tool of Learning (Paperback - 2006)

Very fundamental thing about learning is to be willing to learn and Homework provides a good opportunity to learn. Homework opens the prime window of opportunity for students to reinforce and recreate learning, for teachers to extend, create and facilitate creative learning, for parents to be involved and to observe child’s progress in education, for school to disseminate and implement homework policies and practices and for administrators to review and monitor all teachers’ homework guidelines and make appropriate recommendations for the development and progress of students’ learning capacity and capability. All the guardians of education — administrators, schools, teachers and parents — through homework can spark enthusiasm in a child and help teach the most important lesson of all — that learning can be fun and is well worth the effort.

Some of the questions most frequently enquired are:

• Why do teachers assign homework?
• Why is student supposed to do his/her homework?
• Do homework assignments really help the child learn?
• Why is he/she getting so much or so less homework?
• How can I get my child to his/her homework?
• How can I help my child with his/her homework when I myself do not understand it?

The book in hand helps answer these questions and many more that parents and others who care for children most often ask about homework at various levels of school education. It examines the efficacy of homework as an instructional method, develops a sequential model of the factors that influence homework outcomes and proposes homework policy and guidelines for teachers, schools, students and parents. Included are pragmatic ideas for helping students complete homework assignments successfully, for teachers to create and assign creative and challenging homework that may make the students to think.

In short, it has been tried to traverse the whole terrain of homework education. Without presuming to be encyclopedic, an attempt has been made to take cognizance of the predominant elements, concepts and assumptions that have characterized homework as an intellectual discipline.

Dr Arbind Kumar Jha is one of those researchers of education at the Department of Education (Central Institute of Education), University of Delhi, who has four feathers in his cap — Bachelor, Master, M.Phil. and Ph.D. — all in Education. He has studied Mathematics and Education. His area of interest and specialization is Epistemology in general and Educational Problems and Practices in particular. Currently, he is either conducting himself or helping and guiding others to conduct research on Homework Policies and Practices.

He is credited with widely acclaimed book entitled as Nyaya Philosophy: Epistemology and Education. He is credited with participation, presentation and acceptance of papers in many national, international conferences, seminars, symposia etc. His papers are published by journals of repute. He has acted as Resource Person, too.

He as a Teacher Educator is consistent and prolific contributor to Philosophical and Educational Studies and Research.