Page 5 - IDEA Studie 03 2019 Zatizeni domacimi ukoly

Study 3/2019
The school homework load in the Czech Republic and in international comparison2 april 2019
VáclaV Korbel, Daniel Münich
Summary of key issues
• The quantity and usefulness of homework (HW) is a matter frequently discussed by teachers, parents, and the public, not to mention pupils themselves, in the Czech Republic and across the globe. Quite apart from the fact that expert studies in this area did not reach consensus about the benefits of HWs on pupils’ education so far. And, no research has ever previously charted the HW load in the Czech Republic in comparison with other countries, nor what factors (schools, teachers, pupils) affect it.
• Our findings based on data from TIMSS surveys among pupils in the 4th and 8th grades at school in natural sciences and mathematics show that Czech pupils are rather underburdened with HW in comparison with those in other countries. In the 4th grade Czech pupils spend 13 minutes on average doing homework related to each school lesson, which is below the average among the countries participating in the survey. In the 8th grade the average time spent on homework per lesson is just 9 minutes, which is the lowest value among all 45 participating countries.
• OuranalysisofthefactorsmostaffectingthenumberandlengthofHWtasksrevealsthatbothin the Czech Republic and globally there is a marked difference between mathematics and natural sciences: pupils are given approximately one third more homework tasks in mathematics and these are approximately one third longer than those given in the natural sciences. In the Czech Republic, teacher characteristics such as their age, experience and teaching style, also play a certain role. On the other hand, teacher, school and pupil characteristics only explain 5% of overall differences in HW load. These findings indicate that the characteristics of particular schools, teachers and pupils do not have any substantial effect on the HW load.
2 Thanks are due to Karel Gargulák and Tomáš Protivínský for their useful comments on the working version of this study. Any inaccuracies or mistakes are entirely the authors’ responsibility and all opinions expressed in the study are the authors’ own. The study was produced as part of the Czech Academy of Sciences’ AV 21 Strategy and is the result of research within Czech Science Foundation’s project GA ČR P402/12/G130.
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