Homework: A Math Dilemma and What To Do About It

By Patricia Deubel, Ph.D.

The issue of assigning homework is controversial in terms of its purpose, what to assign, the amount of time needed to complete it, parental involvement, its actual affect on learning and achievement, and impact on family life and other valuable activities that occur outside of school hours. I have encountered all of those controversies in my years of teaching mathematics.

Math homework is usually a daily event. Unfortunately, many teachers assign most homework from problem sets following the section of the text that was addressed that day. There is little differentiation. For the most part the entire class gets the same assignment. (In fairness, teachers do take into consideration the nature of those problems, which are often grouped by difficulty, deciding which to assign based on the general ability level of students in the class: below average, average, above average, or mixed.)...

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MNPS Rolls Out VOD District-wide

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools in Tennessee is deploying video on demand and digital asset management tools across all of its 135 schools. The district, one of the 50 largest in the United States, signed a five-year contract with Library Video Co., which will supply the services through its Safari Montage video on demand system....

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Toshiba Ships Combo Projector/Document Camera

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Hitachi Whiteboard Adds Multi-Touch Interactivity

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Bellevue Deploys Hosted Apps for 24/7 Access

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2008 ExploraVision Science Awards Open

Toshiba and the National Science Teachers Association have launched the 2008 ExploraVision Awards Program. The annual student science competition, now in its 16th year, is open to K-12 students in the United States and Canada, offering prizes of up to $10,000 in savings bonds for the winners....

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Animated Science: Site Expands Multimedia Content

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T.H.E. Journal is currently looking for the following types of articles for future issues and for our eNewsletter, T.H.E. SmartClassroom:

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