Homework - Necessity or Myth?

Abstract

Throughout generations a question has been posed: do students benefit from writing homework and does homework fulfill its purpose? The debate about the usefulness of homework causes many doubts in the educational public. Learning outcomes and the importance of homework are different today than twenty or more years ago. Contemporary students are not very interested in this type of activity, showing a high degree of non-independence in performing tasks outside the school environment. The author discusses the expediency of writing homework and its impact on students' learning achievements in class. Accordingly, the author examines the positive and negative sides of this extracurricular activity. This article was created based on the analysis of previous research and knowledge about this subject. Some Croatian and Slovenian didacticists believe that homework should not be abolished, but it should be functional, comprising of various exercises aimed at encouraging students to be active. Tasks are justified if they expand the possibility of learning and serve to develop students' abilities and skills. The author states that homework is necessary in the mother tongue teaching, especially at the initial level of primary school education. The teacher must control the quality and quantity of the homework, taking into account the time the student needs to complete it and the type of goals he wants to achieve in relation to the linguistic and literary material. The article offers the examples of homework in the fields of mother tongue, literature, written expression, reading and media culture. Modern technology offers numerous possibilities for creating creative homework.