I expect this study to generate some attention. The study tracked the differential of secondary student on homework relative to exams over the years. How does a researcher think of this or have access to this kind of data? The study found that in recent years the differential is much greater (exams are lower relative to homework scores). As tech folks might guess, the researchers speculated that many students had begun using the Internet to locate answers rather than generate them.
The researchers tested this hypothesis in the past couple of years by just asking students how they did their home work.
In the two most recent years of the research, students who benefitted from homework reported generating their own answers, whereas students who copied their answers from elsewhere, such as online sources, did not benefit from homework.
Recent years has seen a debate over the value of homework as a contributor to student learning. Clearly, if you let Google do the work, homework will be less productive.
I have not been able to read the original research as the publication requires a journal subscription not carried by the UND library.
This research does raise some interesting questions about the perspective learners have on homework and how this perspective may determine the effectiveness.
This study also reminds me of the work of Nicholas Carr and his proposal that Google is Making Us Stupid. Of course, this is not actually Google’s fault and the search capabilities they provide can be a great asset. The issue is substituting looking stuff up when the goal is learning.
