Too much homework can be counterproductive

This one is for Bess: Too much homework can be counterproductive.

Their findings indicated a frequent lack of positive correlation between the average amount of homework assigned in a nation and corresponding level of academic achievement. For example, many countries with the highest scoring students, such as Japan, the Czech Republic and Denmark, have teachers who give little homework. “At the other end of the spectrum, countries with very low average scores — Thailand, Greece, Iran — have teachers who assign a great deal of homework,” Baker noted.

The perception that rote memorization is useful and that quantity equals quality still exists at many levels. While certain things do need to be memorized, it shouldn’t be at the expense of teaching students how to learn on their own.