The BPS Education Section Conference 1998.

Homework is not always a good thing. While it is proven to be of value at secondary level, the case for homework at primary level is less clear. Moreover, while parents generally want to support their children doing homework, helping children with homework can create extreme tensions in the family.

These are some of the findings gathered together in a review paper presented on Friday 18 September 1998, at The British Psychological Society's Education Section Conference, held at the University of Exeter. The paper's authors are Dr Susan Hallam and Dr Richard Cowan, of the Institute of Education, University of London.

In their review, Drs Hallam and Cowan discovered that homework has a long and controversial history. As early as 1935 His Majesty's Inspectorate of Schools recommended, 'a reduction in the amount of homework, and no homework for children under 12'.

Over the years, the fashion for homework has waxed and waned. Other findings have included that the four most common types of homework are: finishing work started in class; self-contained homework; spontaneous work arising out of a project; and preparation or research work done in advance of the lesson.

Researchers have also discovered that teacher expectations are one of the most decisive factors in motivating pupils to do homework, and that many pupils listen to music while doing homework as it seems to help them concentrate.

With the current government emphasis on the importance of homework, research which has already been carried out can inform the debate, and Drs Hallam and Cowan urge that in future, 'research needs to consider under what circumstances homework is most effective, taking into account the complexity of factors which might influence it'.