Homework and reflection

Yesterday in a curriculum meeting the topic of assessments, student workload and homework came up. As the different ideas went around the table ranging from “students have questions that they can do if they want” to what seemed to amount to another day’s work in the evening, I interjected.

I suggested that there is no one correct strategy for homework as the homework needs to fit the style of the instructor and the limitations of the material (you are not going to do NMRs at home, but you can read spectra), but more importantly, it needs to provide a way for the student to reflect on what they have recently learned, test themselves on working with that concept – together with other concepts that have been covered or with knowledge that should be transferred – and then ideally discussing how they did. The reactions were mixed, but what seemed to  be more objectionable or problematic?

It was the reflection. There was a bit of discussion as to how to get students to reflect – why reflect… just “drill and kill” was the feeling that I got from one end, and “how do I mark refection or track reflection” on the other end. There wasn’t time for answers, but to the later I would suggest that the way to moniter reflection is to provide activities that involve synthesis and analysis of related concepts and the former? Well you can still drill, but why until it’s second nature (it might be wrong, but still second nature…)? You can drill all you want, but then perhaps include some open ended or application questions that deal with the concept and not with the data.