What Are the Roles of Homework and Assessment?
The amount of time students spend on homework assignments is an important
consideration in examining their opportunity to learn science. Exhibit
6.15 presents the index of teachers’ emphasis on science
homework (ESH). Students in the high category had teachers who reported
giving relatively long homework assignments (more than 30 minutes)
on a relatively frequent basis (at least once or twice a week). Those
in the low category had teachers who gave short assignments (less
than 30 minutes) relatively infrequently (less than once a week or
never). The medium level includes all other combinations of responses.
Details from teachers’ reports about the length and frequency
of their homework assignments are found in the reference section in
Exhibit
R3.11.
The results show substantial variation across countries and Benchmarking
entities in the emphasis placed on homework. Together with Italy among
the comparison countries, the Academy School District had more than
half its students in the high category. For the remaining Benchmarking
participants, the majority of students were in the medium category.
Countries with one-third or more of their students in the low category
included Korea, Japan, Belgium (Flemish), and the Czech Republic.
Only the Fremont/Lincoln/Westside Public Schools had a comparable
percentage among Benchmarking participants. There was little relationship
between the amount of homework assigned and students’ performance.
Again, lower-performing students may need more homework assignments
for remedial reasons.
Since problem-solving activities will potentially be more beneficial
if they can be extended to out-of-class-situations and stretched over
a longer time, TIMSS asked teachers how often they assigned science
homework based on projects and investigations. The data in Exhibit
Exhibit
R3.12 in the reference section show that this was a more common
practice in the United States and the Benchmarking jurisdictions than
in the comparison countries, with the exception of Canada. Although
the percentage of students in classes where this type of science homework
is sometimes or always assigned was well above the international average
of 34 percent in most Benchmarking jurisdictions, it ranged from 18
percent in the Rochester City School District to 92 percent in the
Naperville School District. In some countries the students who were
sometimes or always assigned science projects as homework performed
slightly better than those who were rarely or never assigned it.
One theme in recommendations for educational reform is to make assessment
a continuous process that relies on a variety of methods and sources
of data, rather than on a few high-stakes tests. Exhibit
6.16 shows teachers’ reports about the weight
given to various types of assessment. Teachers in the United States
as a whole and in most of the Benchmarking jurisdictions reported
placing less weight on informal assessment approaches than did teachers
internationally. On average internationally, the most emphasis was
placed on teacher-made tests requiring explanations and on students’
responses in class, which were given quite a lot or a great deal of
weight for 76 and 75 percent of the students, respectively. The next
heaviest weight internationally was given to observations of students
(68 percent). While the weight given teacher-made tests requiring
explanations was similar to or greater than the international average
in many Benchmarking jurisdictions, students’ responses in class
and observations of students were given less weight in the United
States as a whole and in most Benchmarking jurisdictions (generally
for about half the students or less). Exceptions included Chicago,
the Delaware Science Coalition, Jersey City, and Miami-Dade.
Internationally, the least weight reportedly was given to external
standardized tests, with just 33 percent of students having science
teachers who reported giving them quite a lot or a great deal of weight.
Science teachers in the United States and across Benchmarking participants
generally gave less weight to these tests. The percentage of students
whose teachers give a lot of weight to such assessments ranged from
less than 10 percent in Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, the Academy
School District, First in the World, and Naperville, to more than
40 percent in the Jersey City Public Schools.
As shown in Exhibit
R3.13, eighth-grade students reported substantial variation
in the frequency of testing in their science classes. On average internationally,
58 percent of students in general/integrated science classes and about
50 percent of students in separate science classes reported having
a quiz or test almost always or pretty often. Testing was reported
to be relatively frequent in the United States, where 77 percent of
students reported often having a quiz or test in science class. Across
the Benchmarking participants generally, between 70 and 85 percent
of eighth-grade students were in science classes with frequent testing.
