When discussing the topic of teaching and research I believe that they go hand in hand. Starting off with teachers, I believe that they can benefit greatly from researchers. If teachers tap into data bases that allow them to find all different studies done on a certain topic that they are focusing on in the classroom, that allows them to formulate more ideas based off of the research. The research may give the teachers different points of view of teaching that they never thought of before. On the other hand I also think that researchers have much more to gain from the teachers. Researchers are able to survey and observe the teachers and their students to formulate more research to publish. The teachers are what fuel the research for the researchers in this field. By both parties working together they both indeed gain from each other.
The proper use of information literacy is crucial if you are a teacher. The ability to be able to see that information is needed, and then to locate, evaluate, and effectively use the information is a skill that should be required of a teacher. Take the argument of students should not be given homework. If a teacher is able to locate, evaluate and then effectively use the findings to provide a well thought out explanation to back up their own thoughts, it provides credibility for the actions being taken by the teacher regarding homework. What this means for me and my future career path is that I should become particularly strong with this content area. It will be important to be able to effectively use information and relay that information in the best way possible to the students.
There was a recent teacher that decided that she was not going to give her class homework the whole school year because of research she had looked over. The research she found showed no correlation between homework and better grades. I support and stand behind the decision of this teacher. After looking at research myself I found multiple sources saying that, the more homework assigned to the students the higher amount of stress levels (Scholastic Choices, 2017); (Cooper, 2001). These two researchers both found that with more homework assigned not only did the students stress rise, but also the family of the student was effected by the stress as well. In two other research findings I found that, there is little correlation between the amount of time spent on homework and the success or accomplishment of the student (Valle, 2015); (Kalenkoski, 2017). Both of these studies are focused on high school level students and how more homework does not necessarily lead to better overall grades for students. These research articles that I found helped me to know that I agree with the ideas of the teacher that decided to give no homework. I do still think that it is important for students to be able to have access to more work if they feel like they need it, but I do not think that students should have to take home more work. This is because they need to spend the time they have away from school doing non school things such as, after school activities, clubs, sports, family time, and hanging out with friends. This is an important part of the students lives that they need to develop as well.
I like your philosophy on whether or not students should be given homework. The amount of homework given to a student and their stress definitely go hand-in-hand and they shouldn’t have to spend every waking hour of their day sitting inside doing work. I agree with what you said about there being other aspects of kids’ lives that should be developed besides academic. Balance is definitely important and it should be taught at a young age. I also like what you said about students taking home extra work if they feel like they need more help. I think that’s a smart idea and could even be taken a step further so only students that are struggling are assigned extra work and those who do not need it are not.