Overseas homework research and its enlightenment to China homework design

At present, the whole country has entered the popularization stage of new curriculum, and the concept of new curriculum has penetrated into the classroom, which is reflected in all aspects of classroom teaching. However, homework, as an important part of teaching, has been neglected, and it seems that whenever homework is mentioned, it is associated with increasing students' burden. In this way, homework has become a vacuum zone, which is incompatible with the new curriculum concept. How to make homework reflect the new curriculum concept, make it play its greatest role and promote the all-round development of students has become a top priority. Here, we can learn from some foreign research on homework in order to help the homework design under the new curriculum.

I. Study and homework

Behaviorism and cognitive school define learning from different angles. Taken together, learning can be defined as "a relatively lasting change in an individual's ability or tendency caused by contact or experience in a specific situation" [1]. Many learning principles can be directly applied to homework tasks. Courses should have clear learning objectives, and homework tasks should correspond to these objectives. In order to study, students need to practice, and homework just provides a place for this kind of practice. However, just practicing is not enough. There should be correct practice methods, which can be different for different students. At this time, teachers need to carefully design their homework. In order to achieve the expected results, students need feedback, and students' success and appropriate challenges are very encouraging.

Practice is one of the main reasons for asking students to do homework, but it is not the only reason. Only when students actually do their homework can it be effective. Traditional homework only allows students to practice and acquire knowledge, while ignoring other goals of homework. Taylor re-divided the educational goal into two dimensions in 1949, one is "knowledge" and the other is "cognitive process" [2]. Knowledge dimensions can be divided into four categories: facts, concepts, procedures and metacognition. The dimensions of cognitive process are mainly divided into six categories: memory, understanding, application, analysis, evaluation and creation. These goals are scattered among the classroom teaching goals. Therefore, as an important part of classroom teaching, homework should also include these goals, not just the reproduction of memory.

As a tool of active learning, homework should be reflected in its diversified learning results, not just homework. Otherwise, students are just learning the memory of knowledge, just an armchair strategist. Students should learn self-discipline and active lifelong learning through homework, and form the habit of thinking and character. From this point of view, homework plays an important role in a wide range of educational philosophy system, which is a learning philosophy that recognizes social and cultural background. Gagne put forward the "five-component goal method" to state the teaching goal on the basis of classifying the learning results. The five-element goal stipulates the behavior situation, the type of academic achievement, the object of behavior, the concrete actions of students and the related special conditions. Homework, as the main project of students' study, should contain these goals and be designed according to these goals, so that students can not only acquire knowledge, but also improve their skills and develop their thinking quality through homework.

Kolb classifies the characteristics of learning into four main forms, namely, concrete experience, thoughtful observation, abstract concept and active experiment [3]. He suggested that students learn homework through these four forms. In the classroom, due to the complexity of the problem, students are allocated little personal time, so students must be allowed to learn independently through extracurricular homework. Teachers can help students make progress in the maze by choosing homework. Carefully arranged homework can help students understand the questions in the exam, and can also rely on it to achieve the course objectives.

Second, the principle and type of work

The principle of homework is how to arrange the best homework, make the whole homework link in the best state, give full play to the maximum function of homework and promote the all-round development of students. In order to achieve the maximum effect, teachers must consider several special principles in the process of preparing lessons. Cooper carefully defined the principles of homework and the best scheme related to it. These principles are: (1) Carefully determine the factors of homework. (2) Leave enough time for teachers and students to finish their homework. (3) Collect the completed homework. (4) Evaluate students' performance and give timely feedback to students. (5) Evaluation of teaching achievements. (6) Quickly distribute the evaluated homework to students [4]. Through these principles of assigning homework, we can see that teachers should consider many factors when assigning homework. The design of homework is a complex and systematic process. But the fact is, often at the end of a class, the teacher will quickly pick out some questions from the back of the chapter to assign homework. This kind of homework is inefficient because it doesn't consider the principles of homework and the needs of students. The homework designed by the teacher must be able to cultivate the skills of solving new problems and integrate the skills learned before.

Lee and Priutt defined four main types of work [5]. The first is skill development. The homework problems assigned by the teacher are very similar to the examples in textbooks or blackboards. Students' simple use of the demonstration process of memory can easily lead to superficial learning, but this kind of homework is necessary and usually arranged after new knowledge is acquired. In this way, students can consolidate what they have learned. The second is preview, which is arranged before the new class. Students need to read in advance and complete a problem similar to the textbook example. This kind of homework can save a lot of time and focus on the key points when teachers impart new knowledge. The third type of homework is expansion, that is, recalling previously learned materials and integrating them into solutions. Extending homework to develop students' ability is an advanced form of learning. The fourth is synthesis, which will increase the difficulty of solving problems. Students must be able to apply their knowledge to unfamiliar situations. Therefore, we believe that different situations should give play to different functions of homework, so that homework can meet the needs of students at all levels and help to complete the classroom teaching objectives.

Third, the value orientation of homework design under the new curriculum

1. Experience the acquisition process of knowledge

The process of students' homework is not only the process of acquiring knowledge, but also the embodiment of emotions, attitudes and values. Let students design, plan and arrange their own homework, emphasizing that students should show autonomy, initiative and creativity in the process of completing their homework, and have the power and ability to dominate and control their own learning activities [6]. The arrangement of homework should enable students to construct knowledge more actively and acquire knowledge through a lot of inquiry, thus enhancing students' autonomous learning ability and inquiry ability.

2. Pursuing diversification of goals

Homework should not only be used as a tool to manage students, but also the achievement of three-dimensional goals, the development of students' creative thinking and critical thinking, and the transformation from knowledge-based to developmental. Traditional homework is undoubtedly the product of reinforcement theory. The more you train, the stronger you will be. Therefore, teachers also insist that giving students a lot of homework is the main way to master knowledge. Homework should allow students to gain the most knowledge in the least time, develop students' ability, shift from pursuing the quantity of homework to the efficiency of homework, and reduce students' burden. Therefore, the topic of homework should be carefully designed to meet the requirements of the new curriculum.

3. Reflect the times, science, foundation and diversity.

The new curriculum advocates autonomous learning and inquiry learning, which is helpful to cultivate students' problem awareness and improve their ability to solve problems. Homework should be diversified and scientifically designed, so that homework can lead the classroom and meet the needs of different students.

4. Student-oriented

The arrangement of homework should give full consideration to the needs of students, taking into account their learning styles, personalities, attitudes and emotions, and should not be "one size fits all". It is necessary to know what students know and don't know at present, and how to let students master unknown knowledge through homework, consolidate the skills they have learned, and develop students' emotions, attitudes and values. Therefore, teachers should assign homework at different levels and give different homework to different students to adapt to the development of students at all levels. Assign homework in the students' recent development area, so that homework comes before study.

Fourthly, the enlightenment of foreign homework research on homework assignment in China.

1. Set clear and proper homework.

First of all, the homework should be clearly expressed, so that students can see the topic unambiguously. Before doing homework, let students know the goal and rules of homework. Students should know what tasks can be accomplished through homework, to what extent, and what learning goals can be achieved. Teachers need to pay special attention when assigning homework. If the homework task is too difficult, it will be considered as a heavy learning burden by students, or it will take a lot of time to complete. Students may refuse to do their homework or even copy it. Don't give students homework that they can't finish. Secondly, the homework assigned to students by teachers should be appropriate, that is, students have the ability to finish their homework and ensure that students have enough time to finish their homework. Remind students of the deadline for homework. The difficulty of homework should not be too great, so that students can't finish their homework, otherwise it will affect their enthusiasm for doing homework.

Teach learning skills

Most children are unwilling to do their homework or hand it in late, or even copy it. The poor foundation of students is certainly one of the reasons, but we should clearly see that the lack of students' learning skills is one of the important factors. Poor students, in particular, can't finish their homework, and more often they lack learning ability. Therefore, teachers should give students the necessary guidance, ask students to finish their homework on time, let students know how to get help, and ask others for help when they need help. Let students know clearly how to finish their homework under the condition of cooperation, have a clear study plan, allocate homework time reasonably to finish their homework on time, make good classroom study and homework notes, and check whether the homework is correct before handing it in. Students should be taught how to get the information needed for homework and how to get the information to complete homework.

3. Arrange homework suitable for students

Before assigning homework, teachers should repeatedly check and scrutinize the homework, personally do the homework they want to assign, and make necessary corrections to the homework. Only in this way can homework help students to the greatest extent. The difficulty of homework should be suitable for students, let students at different levels do different homework, provide students with various conditions to complete homework, and provide students with one-on-one help when necessary. Allow students to finish their homework in different forms and leave enough time for them to finish their homework on time. Students with difficulties can be allowed to finish their homework in groups.

Use a work calendar

Using the homework calendar is a foreign practice, which can be used as a reference for our homework assignment. Let the students make their own homework calendars. Each page of the calendar reflects the situation of the week, leaving a blank space, and a column can be set next to the blank space for teachers and parents to comment and note. Students are required to finish and hand in their homework on time every day. Teachers should establish an incentive system, evaluate students who hand in homework, encourage students to make self-monitoring charts and record their homework every time. If the homework is completed and handed in, color the box of this day green, if the homework is not finished, color it red, and if the homework is late, color it red and yellow. If students meet the criteria for success, they will be rewarded at the weekend.

5. Keep communication between home and school.

Homework is a bridge between home and school. Through this platform, parents can supervise students' learning process. The new homework assigned by the teacher can only be successfully completed with the support of parents. Teachers and parents must communicate on homework policies, mutual expectations, students' performance in homework, difficulties in completing homework and other matters related to homework. Educational administrators should provide convenient conditions for teachers to communicate with their parents smoothly. The homework under the new curriculum needs to be completed by using a variety of curriculum resources. As an important part of curriculum resources, family will play a very important role in the process of students' homework.

refer to

[1] Pi Liansheng. Instructional design-psychological theory and technology. Beijing: Higher Education Press, 2000.

[2] Zhang Yan, Ronghuai Wang. Enlightenment of the Classification of Educational Objectives 200 1 Edition to China's Teaching Reform, China Audio-visual Education, 2005(7).

[3] Kolb, D, Experiential Learning: Experience as a Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliff, New Jersey, prentiss Hole, 1984.

[4] H. Cooper Homework: Longman, New York, 1989.

[5]J. Lee and k. Pruitt, "Homework: Classroom Games or Teaching Tools?" : clearing house, 1 979,53, (1).

[6] Song Qian Qiu. Implementation strategy of effective job. Educational Theory and Practice, 2007(5).

(Editor Fu Yijing)