Syftet med det här självständiga arbetet är att ta reda på hur lärare arbetar med återkoppling på läsläxan i år 1 samt hur strukturen i klassrummet organiseras för de övriga eleverna under tiden som återkopplingen sker. För att ta reda på detta har jag gjort kvalitativa intervjuer med sex lärare från tre olika skolor. Resultaten visar att lärarna oftast ger individuell respons till elevernas läsning, framför allt under höstterminen.  Återkoppling sker varje vecka och lärarna lägger stort fokus på strukturen i klassrummet med avsikt skapa arbetsro för såväl eleverna i klassrummet som för den eller de elever som ges respons. Det framkommer att samtliga lärare känner en viss stress över situationen då eleverna ännu inte är så självständiga i år 1. De lärare som ger respons i grupp känner mindre stress och upplever att de har bättre kontroll över situationen. Samtidigt är alla överens om att den individuella återkopplingen är väldigt viktig för att kunna hjälpa varje elev på rätt nivå. / The purpose of this independent work is to find out how teachers work with the feedback of the reading homework in first grade. At the same time I have looked at how the structure in the classroom is organized for the rest of the students´ while the feedback is going on. I have done qualitative interviews with six teachers from three different schools. The result shows that the teachers give individual feedback to the student´s reading, mostly during the autumn term. Feedback takes place every week and the teachers focus a lot on the structure in the classroom with the intention to create a working environment for both the students in the classroom and for the students giving feedback. It appears that all of the teachers feel some stress over the situation because of the students´ lack of independence in the first grade. The teachers who give feedback to a group feel less stressed because they feel they have better control over the situation. At the same time all of the teachers agree that the individual feedback is very important as it helps each student at the right level.

Homework or no homework has been frequently occurring discussions in society over the years. Today, more teachers than ever have taken sides about homework. But which purpose do the teachers that provide homework have, and can they see the advantage with homework? The purpose with this essay is to examine why teachers at younger ages provide homework in mathematics and what the benefits are? To reach some answers in order to find out some answers to my questions I have made a qualitative study by interviewing six teachers, teaching classes from grades1-3. I have also been studying some other research and literature that are dealing with these questions. The result shows that despite that the teachers have chosen to provide homework they cannot always see any effects. The most common type of homework has the purpose to repeat what has been taught at school. The pupils are supposed to manage to do their homework on their own without any help from their parents. Other purposes that are mentioned in the research are joy, motivation, responsibility and to create a link between school and the domestic environment. The follow-up of the homework consists of the teacher marks the homework and sometimes gives it back to the pupils with comments. / Läxor eller inte läxor har varit vanligen förekommande diskussioner i samhället genom åren. Idag har fler lärare tagit ställning för eller emot läxor än tidigare. Hur tänker då de lärare som ger läxor och vilka vinster ser de med läxor? Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka varför lärare som undervisar i de yngre åldrarna ger läxor i matematik och vilka vinster de ser med läxor? För att söka svar har jag genomfört kvalitativa intervjuer med sex lärare som undervisar i matematik i årskurserna 1-3. Jag har även tagit del av forskning och litteratur som behandlar frågorna. Resultatet visar att trots att lärarna valt att ge läxor så ser inte alla att den ger någon effekt. Den vanligaste läxan som ges handlar om färdighetsträning. Eleverna ska själva klara av de läxor som ges utan föräldrars inblandning. Andra syften som nämns handlar om glädje, motivation, ansvarstagande samt att skapa en länk mellan hem och skola. Den uppföljning som främst används är att läxan lämnas in för rättning och ibland lämnas tillbaka med kommentarer.

A Research Report submitted to the School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education Johannesburg, February, 2016 / Homework as an activity of formative assessment is a key instructional strategy in South African schools. However, it is a controversial topic, as there seems to be no consensus among researchers about its contribution to learning and learner outcomes (Cooper, 2007). To find out more about homework, this study explores school leaders’ views and opinions about homework: its practices, perceived value and challenges. The purpose of the study is to use what is learnt from school leaders about homework to improve its practice and enhance the contribution homework can make to learning and learner outcomes. This research reviews literature that forms the conceptual framework in line with assessment theory. It also examines literature that focuses on distributed leadership, i.e. shared leadership of two or more people sharing power and joining forces towards the accomplishment of a shared goal (MacNeil & McClanahan, 2005). This involves school leaders at different levels. This study is based on qualitative research, using a case study of one primary school in Soweto, Johannesburg west. The primary school is purposefully sampled because it does homework and is situated in a multiple deprived community (Maringe & Vilakazi, 2015). Interviews were conducted, using audio-tape recordings, with people in different levels of school leadership. The school homework policy was also analysed. Data collected were presented and analysed based on the research questions. The evidence from the research findings reveal that the school leaders view homework as a task given to learners to practise, search for knowledge, and prepare for future lessons. Although the participants acknowledged that homework is valuable they identified some factors as militating against its practice, thus affecting the contribution that it can make to learning and learner outcomes Four such factors include: incomprehensive school homework policy; teachers’ incompetency in the practice of homework; poor socio-economic status of parents; and lack of parental support. Based on the findings, the researcher concludes that if the factors inhibiting the effective practice of homework are interrogated, the practice of homework will improve and thus enhance its contribution to learning and learner outcomes. This is supported by international and national literature (see for example, Cooper, 2006; Bennett & Kalish, 2006; Eita, 2007; Felix, Dornbrack & Scheckle, 2008). This study also discovered the use of the Extra School Support Programme (ESSP) to aid struggling learners and orphans in the completion of their homework, which was found to be helpful. The study concludes by identifying policy, practice and research implications emerging from the findings. Keywords: Homework; formative assessment; Assessment; Homework policy; School leadership; Principal; Head of Department; Teachers; Learners; Parents

Dès le CP - et jusqu’au CM2 - un écolier est susceptible de s’engager quotidiennement dans des tâches scolaires, une fois passé le temps de la classe. En étant réalisés au domicile familial dans la grande majorité des cas, les devoirs forment une catégorie de tâches scolaires dans lesquelles un élève s’engage seul ou sous la responsabilité potentielle d’autres personnes que son enseignant. Si chaque professeur justifie sa démarche pédagogique en fonction des projets qu’il s’est fixés, les directives du ministère de l’Education nationale établissent de manière claire les bénéfices que ces activités permettent d’atteindre : établir de bonnes relations et assurer une coopération de travail active entre l’école et les familles afin de contribuer à la réussite des élèves dans leurs apprentissages. En réalité, la concision de ces textes empêche les enseignants d’accéder à la connaissance d’un cadre de travail plus précis et plus structuré. En l’absence d’un tel référentiel, ni ces derniers, ni les parents d’élèves ne disposent d’une base solide d’informations sur laquelle s’appuyer pour développer cette pratique. Alors que certains chercheurs ont interrogé la pertinence de ces tâches au regard des avantages procurés sur les apprentissages scolaires de l’enfant, ceux auxquels nous appartenons se sont intéressés aux bénéfices auxquels pouvait mener la réalisation des devoirs sur le plan du partenariat école-famille. Les données empiriques rassemblées au cours d’une enquête exploratoire antérieure nous ont permis, dans un premier temps, de constater qu’elle pouvait autant être une source de stress, qu’un outil au service du partenariat éducatif. La recherche-action qui fut engagée dans un second temps nous permit ensuite d’étudier quatre variables distinctes (communication, feedback, outil et taxonomie) - dans quatre écoles d’une même circonscription - afin d’établir et d’évaluer un catalogue de pratiques enseignantes propres à encourager, maintenir et développer la participation des parents d’élèves dans l’aide qu’ils apportent à leur enfant au moment des devoirs. / During his primary school years and after class, a pupil may do daily school assignments. When done at home, this homework falls into a subgroup of assignments that involves the child only or other people than his teacher. As each primary school teacher gives reason for his educational approach, the Ministry of National Education guidelines have all the more well-defined the advantages of such school tasks, for it ensures a good and dynamic working relationship between school and families as an important factor of success in the learning process of pupils. However, those guidelines impede the teachers to better understand and enhance the studying environment of their pupils. If the teachers aren’t informed enough about such an environment, they will not be able to yield its full benefit. Even though some researchers have already questioned the relevance of homework in the light of the advantages they may bring to the child’s learning, we particularly focused on the valuable sides of a partnership between schools and families to facilitate homework. The empirical data we gathered for our exploratory study enabled us to notice that those school tasks may produce stress as well as it favours our educational partnership. The action-research we then started allowed us to study four different variable (communication, feedback, tool and taxonomy), in four schools in the same district, in order to establish and assess teaching methods that may support, maintain and extend the participation of parents when they help their children to do their homework.

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The assignment is the teacher's one best chance of stimulating children with a desire for the work that is to follow. For this reason it should be carefully and methodically given and should be definite and clear. Study increases in intelligence somewhat in the degree that the main or salient features of the material to be studied are emphasized in the assignments.

Since its publication in 1898, The Turn of the Screw has been the focus of diverse critical interpretation. It has reflected shifts in critical theory that include the Freudian, psychoanalytic, mythological, structuralist, reader-response, linguistic, and new-historical schools. The majority of critical interpretations have focused on the governess's narrative and have excluded the prologue, or frame narrative, that begins the novella. The critics who did examine the prologue overlooked James's departure from the traditional use of frame narration and the importance of the structure of the frame in creating a text of insoluble ambiguity. James departed from traditional frame narration in four ways. By using only an opening frame, the reader is forced to rely on the prologue in order to determine narrative reliability. By creating a condition of reciprocal authority between the unnamed narrator and Douglas, the opening frame denies the possibility of using either character to substantiate the reliability of the other. The condition of reciprocal authority is constructed through a dialogue pattern in which the narrator and Douglas interpret each other's gestures and comments and finish each other's sentences. It is the use of the pattern in the prologue that prepares the reader to accept it in the governess's narrative. The governess repeats the dialogue pattern with Mrs. Grose and Miles. Their discussions appear to validate the governess as a reliable narrator when in fact her reliability is as impossible to determine as the reliability of Douglas or the frame narrator. The result of these departures from traditional frame narration is the construction of a text of insoluble ambiguity.

Lack of parental involvement is an issue in the educational system because parents and teachers do not understand each other's views. Research has shown that when parents and teachers provide students with support, student achievement increases. The problem of teachers' and parents' lack of common understanding of parental involvement was addressed in this study. Epstein's model of parental involvement and the theory of planned behavior served as the theoretical framework of this qualitative, exploratory, phenomenological study to explore the perceptions of 5 teachers and 10 parents who were purposefully sampled. The research questions were focused on parents' and teachers' perceptions on parental involvement in supporting students' achievement. Data were analyzed using of Moustakas's steps for phenomenological model. Trustworthiness was ensured through peer review, member checking, and descriptive research notes. Findings from the data collected from face-to-face interviews identified 3 themes: parenting and learning at home, volunteering and decision making, and communicating and collaborating with the community. The 3 themes overlapped with components of Epstein's model of parental involvement and were evident in the participants' answers to the interview questions. The resulting project was a white paper designed to educate the community about problems with parental involvement, provide solutions to the issue, and help parents and teachers to work collaboratively to improve student achievement. The project contributes to social change through formative feedback for the major stakeholders regarding ways to promote efficient and effective practices for both parents and teachers to promote student learning.

This study compared the effectiveness, in terms of mathematical achievement and mathematics self-efficacy, of online homework to textbook homework over an entire semester for 145 students enrolled in multiple sections of college algebra at a large community college. A quasi-experimental, posttest design was used to analyze the effect on mathematical achievement, as measured by a final exam. A pretest-posttest design was used to analyze the effect on mathematics self-efficacy, as measured by the Mathematics Self-efficacy Scale. The control group completed their homework using the textbook and the treatment group completed similar homework using an online homework system developed by the textbook publisher. All class sections followed a common syllabus, schedule, and homework list and completed a common, departmental final exam. Classroom observations were also used as a way to establish the similarity between groups. The results of the study found that while the treatment group generally scored higher on the final exam, no significant difference existed between the mathematical achievement of the control and treatment groups. Both the control and treatment group did experience significant improvements in their mathematics self-efficacy, but neither group demonstrated more improvement than the other. When students were divided based on incoming math skill level, analysis showed that low-skilled students who used online homework exhibited significantly higher mathematical achievement than low-skilled students who used textbook homework. Exploratory analysis also showed that more students with low incoming skill levels and more repeating students received a passing grade when using online homework than did their higher-skilled, first-time counterparts, although the differences were not significant. Based on this study it appears as if online homework is just as effective as textbook homework in helping students learn college algebra and in improving students' mathematics self-efficacy. Online homework may be even more effective for helping the large population of college algebra students who enroll in the course with inadequate prerequisite math skills. Instructors and researchers should consider the possibility that online homework can successfully help certain populations of students develop understanding better than traditional approaches. This study has implications for mathematics instructors and for online homework system developers.

<p>The aim of this research is to examine how the homes of children, in cooperation with the schools, are offered opportunities to communicate and discuss mathematics together with the children in relevant situations. The overall intent of the study is manifest in scientific questions with focus on how parents view the subject and the opportunities to support their children with math homework as well as possibilities to actively support their child´s mathematics progress. The paper has a pfenomenographic approach, which means that it in a qualitative way describes similarities and differences in the ways the homes perceive this issue. The examination is implemented through a survey in which responds from 73 parents in four classes have been studied. Within this study six semi constructed interviews have been conducted. The result of the study indicates that parents are positive to math homework, but that their ability to guide and support the child's math studies are to some extent limited. There is a need for an increased collaboration between the school and the homes, for instance by instructing the parents on modern math methods.</p>