How Effective Science Teachers Handle Homework

From the Marshall Memo #449

In this Teachers College Record article, Jianzhong Xu and Linda Coats (Mississippi State University) and Mary Davidson (Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science) report on their study of how successful science teachers deal with homework. The authors start with research findings indicating that science homework is a crucial factor in students’ science achievement, especially at the secondary level, and, done right, has the potential to help narrow the racial achievement gap. They also note that science is one of the more difficult subjects for low-income black students, especially when it is presented “in a rational, technical, distant, and depersonalized form.” 

The authors explored two theories about effective instruction for African-American students. The first is that black students do better when teachers are tuned in to what Boykin has called an “Afro-cultural ethos.” It has nine dimensions:

• Spirituality – emphasizing the spiritual instead of the physical world;
• Harmony – emphasizing the whole rather than the parts that constitute the whole;
• Movement – valuing physical motion that is distinguished by a noticeable rhythm;
• Verve – valuing variability and intensity in activities;
• Affect – valuing interest and emotion;
• Expressive individualism – valuing a person’s uniqueness and creativity;
• Communalism – valuing the importance of the group over the significance of the individual;
• Orality – valuing oral and aural communication;
• Social perspective of time – valuing social interaction and the building of relationships.

The second theory is that African-American students do best with teachers who are “warm demanders” – that is, personable, caring, and responsive while simultaneously acting as authority figures fully in control of their classes and holding students accountable for meeting high and rigorous academic standards. For example, one science teacher said this to her class after only half of them handed in homework: “I do not give you homework every day, but when I do it’s a practice skill that needs to be done. It’s something that you need: it’s not just something for you to do… And I expect you to do it. Now from now on, if you cannot do it, then you need to write me a note of explanation. And the only reason I’ll tell you that you cannot do your homework is that you are dead – and you won’t be here then… We are not here to play, I’m getting you ready for middle school.”

Xu, Coats, and Davidson chose eight African-American grade 3-6 science teachers who had distinguished themselves by winning awards (including the Milken Family Foundation National Teacher Award), had earned National Board Certification, were nominated by administrators, colleagues, or former students, and had a track record of getting high achievement with their students. The authors conducted several in-depth interviews and focus groups and found that the teachers had remarkably similar teaching styles. Here were the common characteristics:

• Frequency – The teachers in the study assigned homework 2-3 times a week and expected students to take 20-30 minutes on each assignment. 

• Urgency – “Science homework is a must; it is not a choice that you have,” said one teacher. The teachers in the study believe that African-American students need to be twice as prepared as their white classmates to achieve in school.

• Critical thinking – These teachers believed science homework was an arena in which students could learn to think critically about science content and stretch their thinking.

• Scaffolding – The teachers made special provisions to ensure that students had the materials, literacy support, and computer access needed to succeed with their science homework. 

• Relevance – The teachers were at pains to link science concepts to students’ everyday lives, for example, having them interview family members about inherited diseases. 

• Choice – The teachers gave students some autonomy with homework, thus building their interest and buy-in. 

• Hands-on – The teachers had students construct their own ecosystems, collect different kinds of leaves and insects, make a solar system model, or record the weather for a week.

• Family involvement – Teachers placed homework in the context of students’ everyday lives, asking them to share problems and questions with family members.

• Afro-cultural ethos – The authors found that teachers incorporated six of Boykin’s nine elements in their science homework assignments: expressive individualism, affect, verve, harmony, communalism, and orality. 

• Warm demanding – The teachers in the study fit this profile to a T: they set high expectations for student performance on science homework, made personal connections to help students succeed, provided students with the necessary scaffolding to succeed, and insisted that students take homework seriously and put forth effort to perform at the required level.

“Making Science Homework Work: The Perspectives of Exemplary African-American Science Teachers” by Jianzhong Xu, Linda Coats, and Mary Davidson in Teachers College Record, July 2012 (Vol. 114, #7, p. 1-32),