• DOI: 10.18260/1-2--7561
  • Corpus ID: 63274729

Designing Homework Assignments: From Theory To Design

  • L. Feldmann
  • Published in Annual Conference Proceedings 20 June 1999
  • Education, Engineering
  • 1999 Annual Conference Proceedings

4 Citations

Ac 2010-848: individualized homework: an effective learning strategy, increasing student engagement and motivation by replacing homework with assignment-quizzes, using game theory to analyse homework administering in undergraduate teaching, multi-split optimized bagging ensemble model selection for multi-class educational data mining, 7 references, out-of-class assignments as a method of teaching and evaluating law students., homework as a learning experience.

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Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development

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How to Create Effective Homework

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Based on a recent spate of articles on homework, it’s clear that the homework wars -- how much? how often? -- are still topic of big interest to both parents and teachers. Some teachers hate to give homework; others see it as a vital necessity. But according to some research presented by Annie Murphy Paul, the question isn’t how much, but whether the homework teachers do give actually advances learning.

“A recent study, published in the Economics of Education Review,” Paul wrote in “How Can We Make Homework Worthwhile?” , “reports that homework in science, English and history has ‘little to no impact’ on student test scores. (The authors did note a positive effect for math homework.) Enriching children’s classroom learning requires making homework not shorter or longer, but smarter.” Paul goes on to describe specific practices, like spaced repetition (in which information is presented and repeated spaced out over time), retrieval practice (testing or quizzing not for assessment, but to reinforce material learned), and cognitive disfluency (“desirable difficulties” used to make learning stick) -- all memory/retrieval techniques that may help homework move beyond busy work and advance real learning.

But to get those elements to work, said Fires in the Mind author and speaker Kathleen Cushman, students must be motivated to do their homework in the first place. One example Cushman gave was creating a project so interesting and involved, students naturally wanted to keep working on it after the bell rang. She pointed to a chapter in the book where she describes a particular motivation for some high school students she interviewed, under the heading “Homework We Actually Want to Do”:

“Christina and Nicholas both remembered a global studies unit on the French Revolution in which students acted out a courtroom trial of the king and queen. The project brought even routine homework assignments to life, they said.

“I was the queen. So of course I wanted to do my homework all the time, so I could know the facts of what happened and what didn’t happen, know what I wanted to say when someone tried to say I did this or that thing. I could say, ‘Oh no, I didn’t!’ - because I’d read my homework,” said Christina.

Christina was using a form of retrieval practice -- but because it was so much fun to be the queen, she only knew she wanted to stay in character. The queen had to study the information to get it right.

Another way teachers can take a good, hard look at homework practices, said Cushman, is to ask themselves a few vital questions: “Does this homework ask each student to practice something that the student hasn’t yet mastered? Does the student clearly see its purpose? When students are asked to repeat or rehearse something, does it require them to focus? Or can they do it without really paying attention?” If the homework meets these criteria, she said, then it falls into the desirable realm of “deliberate practice .”

Dan Bisaccio, former high school science teacher and now Director of Science Education at Brown University, said that after years of experience giving homework to high school students, he now “preaches” to his future teachers: “Homework should be practice and extensions of what happens in class and should not be ‘new learning,’” he said. “That is, students [shouldn’t be] having to teach themselves new content or skills.”

He said he agreed with Cushman that motivation is key, and tried to design homework that kept students interested. “Teachers need to clue into what motivates their students, giving them something that they really want to complete, and complete well.” One assignment Bisaccio used, called an “Experience Map,” asked students to create a map of their experiences after a field study or other important project - a technique employing both retrieval practice and the somewhat trickier interleaving, a “desirable difficulty” in which problems of different types are presented in one assignment, making students think harder to come up with solutions and answers.

“We ‘map’ mentally and physically each day. It helps to keep us orientated through our frenzied sun-up to sun-down daily experiences,” reads the assignment. Directions are to draw a field experience map, including -- with regard to the class -- where students have been, what they have done, new challenges, and insights. Special suggestions for drawing include “a place of danger, a favorite place, a place of power, a place with a secret.” Students are also called upon to map the places where they learned the most, where they were challenged the most, and where the funniest experience happened.

In addition, Bisaccio asked students to write what had challenged them most as a learner, what had stretched their limits most -- meant to be reflections just for students themselves, and asked to be kept on the back of the map. “What they wrote on the back was not shared with others,” he said. Once the assignment was completed, maps were posted to form a class atlas of what they had learned.

All the examples included here, however, are examples of homework in a traditional classroom. What about homework in a flipped classroom , where the lectures, usually videos, are the homework? A recent New York Times article on flipped classrooms may provide insight into flipping homework on its head, too: it quoted high school senior Luwayne Harris, saying, “Whenever I had a problem on the homework, I couldn’t do anything about it at home. Now if I have a problem with a video, I can just rewind and watch it over and over again.”

How to Design Homework in CBT That Will Engage Your Clients

Homework in CBT

Take-home assignments provide the opportunity to transfer different skills and lessons learned in the therapeutic context to situations in which problems arise.

These opportunities to translate learned principles into everyday practice are fundamental for ensuring that therapeutic interventions have their intended effects.

In this article, we’ll explore why homework is so essential to CBT interventions and show you how to design CBT homework using modern technologies that will keep your clients engaged and on track to achieving their therapeutic goals.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Positive CBT Exercises for free . These science-based exercises will provide you with a detailed insight into positive CBT and give you the tools to apply it in your therapy or coaching.

This Article Contains:

Why is homework important in cbt, how to deliver engaging cbt homework, using quenza for cbt: 3 homework examples, 3 assignment ideas & worksheets in quenza, a take-home message.

Many psychotherapists and researchers agree that homework is the chief process by which clients experience behavioral and cognitive improvements from CBT (Beutler et al., 2004; Kazantzis, Deane, & Ronan, 2000).

We can find explanations as to why CBT  homework is so crucial in both behaviorist and social learning/cognitive theories of psychology.

Behaviorist theory

Behaviorist models of psychology, such as classical and operant conditioning , would argue that CBT homework delivers therapeutic outcomes by helping clients to unlearn (or relearn) associations between stimuli and particular behavioral responses (Huppert, Roth Ledley, & Foa, 2006).

For instance, imagine a woman who reacts with severe fright upon hearing a car’s wheels skidding on the road because of her experience being in a car accident. This woman’s therapist might work with her to learn a new, more adaptive response to this stimulus, such as training her to apply new relaxation or breathing techniques in response to the sound of a skidding car.

Another example, drawn from the principles of operant conditioning theory (Staddon & Cerutti, 2003), would be a therapist’s invitation to a client to ‘test’ the utility of different behaviors as avenues for attaining reward or pleasure.

For instance, imagine a client who displays resistance to drawing on their support networks due to a false belief that they should handle everything independently. As homework, this client’s therapist might encourage them to ‘test’ what happens when they ask their partner to help them with a small task around the house.

In sum, CBT homework provides opportunities for clients to experiment with stimuli and responses and the utility of different behaviors in their everyday lives.

Social learning and cognitive theories

Scholars have also drawn on social learning and cognitive theories to understand how clients form expectations about the likely difficulty or discomfort involved in completing CBT homework assignments (Kazantzis & L’Abate, 2005).

A client’s expectations can be based on a range of factors, including past experience, modeling by others, present physiological and emotional states, and encouragement expressed by others (Bandura, 1989). This means it’s important for practitioners to design homework activities that clients perceive as having clear advantages by evidencing these benefits of CBT in advance.

For instance, imagine a client whose therapist tells them about another client’s myriad psychological improvements following their completion of a daily thought record . Identifying with this person, who is of similar age and presents similar psychological challenges, the focal client may subsequently exhibit an increased commitment to completing their own daily thought record as a consequence of vicarious modeling.

This is just one example of how social learning and cognitive theories may explain a client’s commitment to completing CBT homework.

Warr Affect

Let’s now consider how we might apply these theoretical principles to design homework that is especially motivating for your clients.

In particular, we’ll be highlighting the advantages of using modern digital technologies to deliver engaging CBT homework.

Designing and delivering CBT homework in Quenza

Gone are the days of grainy printouts and crumpled paper tests.

Even before the global pandemic, new technologies have been making designing and assigning homework increasingly simple and intuitive.

In what follows, we will explore the applications of the blended care platform Quenza (pictured here) as a new and emerging way to engage your CBT clients.

Its users have noted the tool is a “game-changer” that allows practitioners to automate and scale their practice while encouraging full-fledged client engagement using the technologies already in their pocket.

To summarize its functions, Quenza serves as an all-in-one platform that allows psychology practitioners to design and administer a range of ‘activities’ relevant to their clients. Besides homework exercises, this can include self-paced psychoeducational work, assessments, and dynamic visual feedback in the form of charts.

Practitioners who sign onto the platform can enjoy the flexibility of either designing their own activities from scratch or drawing from an ever-growing library of preprogrammed activities commonly used by CBT practitioners worldwide.

Any activity drawn from the library is 100% customizable, allowing the practitioner to tailor it to clients’ specific needs and goals. Likewise, practitioners have complete flexibility to decide the sequencing and scheduling of activities by combining them into psychoeducational pathways that span several days, weeks, or even months.

Importantly, reviews of the platform show that users have seen a marked increase in client engagement since digitizing homework delivery using the platform. If we look to our aforementioned drivers of engagement with CBT homework, we might speculate several reasons why.

  • Implicit awareness that others are completing the same or similar activities using the platform (and have benefitted from doing so) increases clients’ belief in the efficacy of homework.
  • Practitioners and clients can track responses to sequences of activities and visually evidence progress and improvements using charts and reporting features.
  • Using their own familiar devices to engage with homework increases clients’ self-belief that they can successfully complete assigned activities.
  • Therapists can initiate message conversations with clients in the Quenza app to provide encouragement and positive reinforcement as needed.

The rest of this article will explore examples of engaging homework, assignments, and worksheets designed in Quenza that you might assign to your CBT clients.

homework assignment theory

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Let’s now look at three examples of predesigned homework activities available through Quenza’s Expansion Library.

Urge Surfing

Many of the problems CBT seeks to address involve changing associations between stimulus and response (Bouton, 1988). In this sense, stimuli in the environment can drive us to experience urges that we have learned to automatically act upon, even when doing so may be undesirable.

For example, a client may have developed the tendency to reach for a glass of wine or engage in risky behaviors, hoping to distract themselves from negative emotions following stressful events.

Using the Urge Surfing homework activity, you can help your clients unlearn this tendency to automatically act upon their urges. Instead, they will discover how to recognize their urges as mere physical sensations in their body that they can ‘ride out’ using a six-minute guided meditation, visual diagram, and reflection exercise.

Moving From Cognitive Fusion to Defusion

Central to CBT is the understanding that how we choose to think stands to improve or worsen our present emotional states. When we get entangled with our negative thoughts about a situation, they can seem like the absolute truth and make coping and problem solving more challenging.

The Moving From Cognitive Fusion to Defusion homework activity invites your client to recognize when they experience a negative thought and explore it in a sequence of steps that help them gain psychological distance from the thought.

Finding Silver Linings

Many clients commencing CBT admit feeling confused or regretful about past events or struggle with self-criticism and blame. In these situations, the focus of CBT may be to work with the client to reappraise an event and have them look at themselves through a kinder lens.

The Finding Silver Linings homework activity is designed to help your clients find the bright side of an otherwise grim situation. It does so by helping the user to step into a positive mindset and reflect on things they feel positively about in their life. Consequently, the activity can help your client build newfound optimism and resilience .

Quenza Stress Diary

As noted, when you’re preparing homework activities in Quenza, you are not limited to those in the platform’s library.

Instead, you can design your own or adapt existing assignments or worksheets to meet your clients’ needs.

You can also be strategic in how you sequence and schedule activities when combining them into psychoeducational pathways.

Next, we’ll look at three examples of how a practitioner might design or adapt assignments and worksheets in Quenza to help keep them engaged and progressing toward their therapy goals.

In doing so, we’ll look at Quenza’s applications for treating three common foci of treatment: anxiety, depression, and obsessions/compulsions.

When clients present with symptoms of generalized anxiety, panic, or other anxiety-related disorders, a range of useful CBT homework assignments can help.

These activities can include the practice of anxiety management techniques , such as deep breathing, muscle relaxation, and mindfulness training. They can also involve regular monitoring of anxiety levels, challenging automatic thoughts about arousal and panic, and modifying beliefs about the control they have over their symptoms (Leahy, 2005).

Practitioners looking to support these clients using homework might start by sending their clients one or two audio meditations via Quenza, such as the Body Scan Meditation or S.O.B.E.R. Stress Interruption Mediation . That way, the client will have tools on hand to help manage their anxiety in stressful situations.

As a focal assignment, the practitioner might also design and assign the client daily reflection exercises to be completed each evening. These can invite the client to reflect on their anxiety levels during the day by responding to a series of rating scales and open-ended response questions. Patterns in these responses can then be graphed, reviewed, and used to facilitate discussion during the client’s next in-person session.

As with anxiety, there is a range of practical CBT homework activities that aid in treating depression.

It should be noted that it is common for clients experiencing symptoms of depression to report concentration and memory deficits as reasons for not completing homework assignments (Garland & Scott, 2005). It is, therefore, essential to keep this in mind when designing engaging assignments.

CBT assignments targeted at the treatment of depressive symptoms typically center around breaking cycles of negative events, thinking, emotions, and behaviors, such as through the practice of reappraisal (Garland & Scott, 2005).

Examples of assignments that facilitate this may include thought diaries , reflections that prompt cognitive reappraisal, and meditations to create distance between the individual and their negative thoughts and emotions.

To this end, a practitioner looking to support their client might design a sequence of activities that invite clients to explore their negative cognitions once per day. This exploration can center on responses to negative feedback, faced challenges, or general low mood.

A good template to base this on is the Personal Coping Mantra worksheet in Quenza’s Expansion Library, which guides clients through the process of replacing automatic negative thoughts with more adaptive coping thoughts.

The practitioner can also schedule automatic push notification reminders to pop up on the client’s device if an activity in the sequence is not completed by a particular time each day. This function of Quenza may be particularly useful for supporting clients with concentration and memory deficits, helping keep them engaged with CBT homework.

Obsessions/compulsions

Homework assignments pertaining to the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder typically differ depending on the stage of the therapy.

In the early stages of therapy, practitioners assigning homework will often invite clients to self-monitor their experience of compulsions, rituals, or responses (Franklin, Huppert, & Roth Ledley, 2005).

This serves two purposes. First, the information gathered through self-monitoring, such as by completing a journal entry each time compulsive thoughts arise, will help the practitioner get clearer about the nature of the client’s problem.

Second, self-monitoring allows clients to become more aware of the thoughts that drive their ritualized responses, which is important if rituals have become mostly automatic for the client (Franklin et al., 2005).

Therefore, as a focal assignment, the practitioner might assign a digital worksheet via Quenza that helps the client explore phenomena throughout their day that prompt ritualized responses. The client might then rate the intensity of their arousal in these different situations on a series of Likert scales and enter the specific thoughts that arise following exposure to their fear.

The therapist can then invite the client to complete this worksheet each day for one week by assigning it as part of a pathway of activities. A good starting point for users of Quenza may be to adapt the platform’s pre-designed Stress Diary for this purpose.

At the end of the week, the therapist and client can then reflect on the client’s responses together and begin constructing an exposure hierarchy.

This leads us to the second type of assignment, which involves exposure and response prevention. In this phase, the client will begin exploring strategies to reduce the frequency with which they practice ritualized responses (Franklin et al., 2005).

To this end, practitioners may collaboratively set a goal with their client to take a ‘first step’ toward unlearning the ritualized response. This can then be built into a customized activity in Quenza that invites the client to complete a reflection.

For instance, a client who compulsively hoards may be invited to clear one box of old belongings from their bedroom and resist the temptation to engage in ritualized responses while doing so.

homework assignment theory

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Developing and administering engaging CBT homework that caters to your client’s specific needs or concerns is becoming so much easier with online apps.

Further, best practice is becoming more accessible to more practitioners thanks to the emergence of new digital technologies.

We hope this article has inspired you to consider how you might leverage the digital tools at your disposal to create better homework that your clients want to engage with.

Likewise, let us know if you’ve found success using any of the activities we’ve explored with your own clients – we’d love to hear from you.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. For more information, don’t forget to download our three Positive CBT Exercises for free .

  • Bandura, A. (1989). Human agency in social cognitive theory. American Psychologist , 44 (9), 1175–1184.
  • Beutler, L. E., Malik, M., Alimohamed, S., Harwood, T. M., Talebi, H., Noble, S., & Wong, E. (2004). Therapist variables. In M. J. Lambert (Ed.), Bergin and Garfield’s handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change (5th ed.) (pp. 227–306). Wiley.
  • Bouton, M. E. (1988). Context and ambiguity in the extinction of emotional learning: Implications for exposure therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy , 26 (2), 137–149.
  • Franklin, M. E., Huppert, J. D., & Roth Ledley, D. (2005). Obsessions and compulsions. In N. Kazantzis, F. P. Deane, K. R., Ronan, & L. L’Abate (Eds.), Using homework assignments in cognitive behavior therapy (pp. 219–236). Routledge.
  • Garland, A., & Scott, J. (2005). Depression. In N. Kazantzis, F. P. Deane, K. R., Ronan, & L. L’Abate (Eds.), Using homework assignments in cognitive behavior therapy (pp. 237–261). Routledge.
  • Huppert, J. D., Roth Ledley, D., & Foa, E. B. (2006). The use of homework in behavior therapy for anxiety disorders. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration , 16 (2), 128–139.
  • Kazantzis, N. (2005). Introduction and overview. In N. Kazantzis, F. P. Deane, K. R., Ronan, & L. L’Abate (Eds.), Using homework assignments in cognitive behavior therapy (pp. 1–6). Routledge.
  • Kazantzis, N., Deane, F. P., & Ronan, K. R. (2000). Homework assignments in cognitive and behavioral therapy: A meta‐analysis. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice , 7 (2), 189–202.
  • Kazantzis, N., & L’Abate, L. (2005). Theoretical foundations. In N. Kazantzis, F. P. Deane, K. R., Ronan, & L. L’Abate (Eds.), Using homework assignments in cognitive behavior therapy (pp. 9–34). Routledge.
  • Leahy, R. L. (2005). Panic, agoraphobia, and generalized anxiety. In N. Kazantzis, F. P. Deane, K. R., Ronan, & L. L’Abate (Eds.), Using homework assignments in cognitive behavior therapy (pp. 193–218). Routledge.
  • Staddon, J. E., & Cerutti, D. T. (2003). Operant conditioning. Annual Review of Psychology , 54 (1), 115–144.

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16 Homework Assignments

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A major component of REBT & CBT therapies is the use of homework assignments . Research supports the conclusion that homework enhances therapy outcomes . Homework may be cognitive , behavioral , or emotional in nature. This chapter discusses the five important characteristics shared by effective homework assignments- negotiate, consistency, specificity, systematic follow-through , and efficiency. Examples of homework assignments are provided. Techniques to trouble-shoot homework problems are discussed.

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Homework assignments to enhance student engagement in secondary education

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  • Published: 20 June 2012
  • Volume 28 , pages 767–779, ( 2013 )

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homework assignment theory

  • Maartje Buijs 1 &
  • Wilfried Admiraal 2  

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Secondary school teachers often complain that their students show a disengaged attitude in class. Students do not prepare for lessons, they show a passive attitude towards classroom activities and they have a limited awareness of their own learning process. Based on a pilot study, four homework assignments were designed, implemented, and evaluated to stimulate students to prepare for history lessons and subsequently show a more engaged attitude and involvement in classroom activities. Two groups of, in total 50, 11th grade students of pre-university education participated in one group pre- post-test design. Data on student engagement in class is gathered by class observation: time on task, their level of activity, and amount and variety of questions students asked. Students’ motivation and perceived learning outcomes are measured by means of a self-report: Three of the four homework assignments (jigsaw, preparing analytical skills, and the fragmented assessment) showed increase in student engagement compared to the baseline of the first two classes. Implications for practice are discussed.

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Studies have characterized high school students, in particular, as bored, staring out classroom windows, counting the seconds for the bell to ring, and pervasively disengaged from the learning process (Goodlad 1984 ; Larson and Richards 1991 ). Many teachers think that their students are disengaged in class and show little awareness of their own learning process. The mostly heard complaint is that students do not prepare for class as they make only little use of instructional materials, extracurricular activities and assignments, and feedback of teachers to learn outside school. This lack of engagement outside school also leads to a passive attitude in class: Students complete the minimum of exercises that is needed for their exam (Battin-Pearson et al. 2000 ; Jonassen and Blondal 2005 ; Allen et al. 2007 )

However, certain educational designs might promote excitement and engagement. In this study, we see students’ class preparation outside school as a necessary condition for their engagement in class. The problem of this study therefore is how students can be encouraged to prepare class, not with the primary objective of gaining knowledge, but with the aim to become more engaged and active during the lesson.

Student learning, engagement, and homework

Recent thinking on teaching and learning has been influenced by several theories of learning, including behavioral learning theory, cognitive learning theory, and social learning theory, rooted in the works of Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky. Jonassen et al. ( 1999 ), in their constructivist approach to learning with technology, described instructional principles or characteristics of learning environments which are based on a synthesis of several theories of learning. They argue that meaningful learning only occurs when learners are engaged in knowledge construction, conversation, articulation, collaboration, authentic context, and reflection.

Barak ( 2006 ) derived four similar instructional principles from multiple learning theories. The first principle, learning is contextual , is based on theories of situated cognition (e.g., Brown et al. 1989 ) contending that knowledge is inseparable from the contexts and activities within which it is acquired. Learning occurs only when students process new information in a meaningful way that makes sense within their own frames of reference. The second principle is learning is an active process . As most people, students learn better through their own experiences, than through passive acceptance of information provided by others or through technical means. Students actively construct knowledge by integrating new information and experiences into what they have previously come to understand, revising, and reinterpreting old knowledge in order to reconcile it with the new. Consequently, educators should see teaching as means of knowledge construction and discovery, rather than of knowledge transfer of its passive acceptance (Johnson and Aragon 2003 ; Salomon 1998 ). The third principle, learning is a social process , is based on the work of Vygotsky ( 1978 ). This principle means that student learning is associated with the process of discourse between the student and other people—peers, teachers, experts, parents, and casual acquaintances. Lave and Wenger ( 2002 ) combine the first and third principle as they claim social learning to be a function of the activity, context, and culture in which it occurs (i.e., it is situated). Social interaction is a critical component of situated learning—learners become involved in a community of practice which embodies certain beliefs and behaviors to be acquired. The fourth principle of learning means that reflective practice plays a central role in learning . In his landmark work on reflection, Schön described the concept of reflection-in-action as consisting of “on-the-spot surfacing, criticizing, restructuring and testing of intuitive understanding of experienced phenomena which often takes the form of a reflective conversation with the situation” (Schön 1983 , pp. 241–242).

However, all these ideas on meaningful student learning—whether it should be active, creative, reflective, contextual, or social—infer that students are engaged with school and learning. Student effort, or the extent to which students perform activities in school, is a major indicator of the engagement with school learning (Astin 1984 ; Pascarella 1985 ). Kuh et al. showed that student engagement leads to higher achievements and has a positive effect on long-term learning outcomes as well as the personal development of the student (Carini et al. 2006 ; Kuh 2009 ). Stoeber et al. ( 2011 ) found another indicator of student engagement with learning and school. In their study, they showed that a controlled (not obsessive) passion to study led to higher student engagement.

Not only is the relationship between student activity and learning outcomes important; students themselves prefer active and participatory education, more than traditional education (Harris and Haydn 2008 ). Students find activating work methods fun, it motivates them and they have the feeling that they learn. Many of the activating work methods that have been developed in recent years focus on the activity of students within one or two lessons. The extent to which activating work methods in class actually lead to activities of students is often impeded by a lack of class preparation of the students. Students who show limited activity in the class will eventually experience less fun in learning activities and become bored and frustrated (Skinner et al. 2008 ).

So, one of the ways to stimulate student activity and student motivation is the work they do on homework. Homework can be defined as any task assigned by schoolteachers intended for students to carry out during nonschool hours (cf., Cooper 1989 ). Generally, a positive relationship is found between doing homework and school results. In their review of research on effects of homework, Cooper et al. ( 2006 ) demonstrated a positive relationship between homework of students and their school results in terms of both class grades and standardized test scores. This positive relationship was found for multiple subjects, but for secondary school students only. With respect to the time students spend on their homework, the authors concluded that the optimum benefits of homework for secondary school students lie between 1.5 and 2.5 h. Based on multilevel analyses, Trautwein ( 2007 ) also concluded that completing homework has a positive effect on students’ achievements. The author only found a positive effect of the frequency of working on homework assignments, not of the average amount of time students spent on their homework. However, Epstein and Van Voorhis ( 2001 ) concluded that students performed better in school when they spent more time in general on their homework. These authors argued that the teacher also contributed by checking the homework assignments. Finally, Paschal et al. ( 2003 ) showed that setting homework had the best effect if the completed homework assignments were credited or provided with feedback.

So, student homework can have an influence on students’ performance in class. Despite the growing knowledge based on the relationships between homework and achievements, four problems came up with drawing conclusions about the value of homework assignments in secondary education (cf., Cooper et al. 2006 ; Corno 1996 ). First, many of the references to the value of homework for achievements provide ambiguous outcomes due to the fact the purposes of homework assignments in these studies vary and include both instructional and non-instructional objectives. Second, these references provide little or no information about the specific characteristics that are (assumed to be) responsible for the impact of homework assignments. Third, as Cooper et al. ( 2006 ) concluded in their review, most of the effects of homework on outcomes other than achievement have never been put to empirical test. Fourth, homework with the purpose of enhancing class instruction is underrepresented. Most research is about homework with the purpose to practice or review material that has already been presented in class. Mulhenbruck et al. ( 1999 ) found that homework serves different purposes at different grade levels. Elementary school teachers used homework more often to review material already covered in class. Secondary school teachers were more likely to use homework to prepare students for work yet to come and to enrich classroom activities. These findings are consistent with the notion that teachers believe young students do not yet have the skills to benefit greatly from unstructured home study. Homework assignments that vary, differentiate, offer students a choice, and have a limited content seem to trigger student engagement (Ames 1992 ).

Therefore, in this study, we focused on the relationship between homework in terms of preparation assignments with the purpose to enhance class instruction. The problem of this study can be formulated as What kind of homework assignments trigger student class participation? Five research questions were distinguished:

What are the effects of the various homework assignments on students’ time on task and their level of participation in class?

Are these effects different for boys and girls?

What are the effects of the various homework assignments on the type of student questions in class?

What are the effects of the various homework assignments on students’ class motivation and their perceived learning outcomes?

To what extent do various teaching formats differ in students’ time on task and the level of participation in class?

The research design can be understood as a series of design experiments with a pre-test post one-group only design. The effects of four homework assignments were examined in two groups of 25 students (see Table  1 ). In each group, two pre-tests were carried out to set a baseline of time on task and the level of student participation. In these two lessons, students were provided with homework assignments in a regular manner: a combination of text reading and textbook assignments. In both groups, four post-tests were administered; one in each instructional strategy, and a delayed post-test was administered for group 1 only. The study was carried out in teaching history.

Intervention

The four homework assignments were developed in a pilot study. Eight students, five secondary school teachers, and two teacher trainers were interviewed on design principles of effective homework assignments. These interviews revealed four main design principles that were used to setup the four homework assignments of the current study:

Students benefit from the possibility to choose their assignments. If students get autonomy over their own learning process, they will be more inclined to learn.

Students should be aware of the aim of each homework assignment. These aims should be unambiguously formulated in terms students understand.

Homework assignments should be straightforward. Teachers need to be able to apply the instructional activity easily and students should be able to complete the assignments in time.

Homework should be preparatory for the lesson. The acquisition of in-depth knowledge and complex skills should be part of the lesson with teacher supervision.

Prior to the research, the four homework assignments were piloted with a panel of five teachers, including a teacher trainer, to examine if it is doable and similar in difficulty.

Homework assignment 1: preparing analytical skills ( lesson 3 )

This homework assignment 1 promoted knowledge acquisition at home in order to prepare them to practice analytical skills in class. The strategy included four phases, two at home and two in class. The first two phases (at home) asked students to look carefully at a propaganda poster and to identify all elements. This means answering questions as; ‘what is happening in the poster’, ‘who are the people in het poster’, and ‘do you recognize any symbols used’. The last two phases (in class) asked students to examine the goal and the technique of the poster in order to answer explanatory and analytical questions. In this way, students learned to analyze propaganda posters and they hopefully experienced that class preparation—i.e., going through all phases—resulted in a more profound analysis.

Homework assignment 2: the fragmented assessment (spread over six lessons)

This homework assignment meant that each lesson students completed a part of a test, spread over six lessons. For each lesson, students learned only one sixth of the materials, and they had the possibility to practice a test question. In class, they had the opportunity to ask questions before completing the part of the test about the materials they studied at home.

Homework assignment 3: jigsaw assignment ( lesson 4 )

With the jigsaw assignment, students prepared at home different materials on a complex concept. For example, the concept of National Socialism is spread over four questions (What is an ideology, and what are the characteristics of fascism, racial doctrine and Lebensraum). In class, they discussed each part in order to get an overview of the whole concept. Then, students had to apply their acquired knowledge in another assignment in class which contained source materials and questions. Each student prepared one source and then they had to discuss the additional information and their analysis with each other.

Homework assignment 4: student choice ( lesson 5 )

This homework assignment meant that students were allowed to choose their own assignment. All assignments were grouped on topic and difficulty. Students started at home and completed the assignments in class. Students could choose for example, to analyze propaganda posters or to analyze a part of film ‘The great dictator’. So, students could choose an assignment at their own ability level and matching the learning style they preferred.

Participants

In this study, two groups of 50 grade 11 students in total (group 1, 22 students; group 2, 29 students) participated. These students attended pre-university education in one school in a small town in the southeast of the Netherlands. The students were 16 or 17 years old and 35 of them were female.

Data and measures

Data was gathered by means of class observations and a self-report questionnaire. Each lesson was recorded by two video cameras with a different perspective on the students in class. With the observational data, four variables were measured: students’ time on task in class, their level of student participation, the questions students asked in class and the teaching formats applied in class. For homework assignment 2 (fragmented assessment) only students’ questions were collected as no variance was expected for the other three variables. A delayed post-test was administered in lesson 7 for group 1 only. Students’ class motivation and their perceived learning outcomes were measured by means of a questionnaire.

Time on task

The coding units were 3 × 6 units of 30 s of each lesson. This means that there were eighteen 30-s coding units per lesson. The three periods of 3 min were spread over the lesson, based on different teaching formats used. Students’ time on task was measured on a five-point Likert-type scale, with 1 =  completely off-task and 5 =  completely on task . Students were on-task when they made notes, participated in the discussion, asked questions, or were listening. Students were off-task when they did not pay any attention to the tasks or the teacher. The time on task was registered for each individual student in class. Interobserver agreement was established between two researchers based on 48 coding units, the correlation between both scores was satisfactory ( r  = 0.74).

Level of participation

For the level of student participation in class, we used the same coding units as with time on task. Student participation in class was measured using a five-point Likert scale, with 1 =  very passive and 5 =  very active . Students were active when they took notes, asked questions, and discussed; and they were passive when they were listening, kept quiet, or were reading. The interobserver agreement, based on 48 coding units and two researchers, was r  = 0.72.

Student questions

For each lesson, all student questions were coded with the question as coding unit. Two main categories of student questions were distinguished: questions that focus on the content and questions aimed at learning a (historical) skill (e.g., How can I see the propaganda technique ‘prestige’ from the source?). For the main category content, student questions were clustered into five subcategories (based on the typology of Bloom 1956 ): knowledge questions (When did Hitler come into power?), comprehension questions (How did Hitler come into power?), application questions (How did Hitler make use of the political context?), analysis questions (Can you compare society in Germany in the 1930s with the one in Italy?), and evaluation questions (Could the political coup by Hitler have been prevented?).

Motivation and perceived learning outcomes

Students’ motivation and their perceived learning outcomes with respect to the four homework assignments were measured in both groups by means of a questionnaire in lessons 7 and 11, respectively (i.e. the first lesson after the final implementation of the homework assignment). The questionnaire was piloted with grade 10 students. Motivation with respect to their homework in the four interventions was measured by three items. First, students had to report the extent to which they completed their homework (on a five-point Likert-type scale with 1 =  in total and 5 =  not at all ). Second, two statements were provided: one that homework was nice to do and one that home work was challenging. These items used a five-point Likert-type scale, with 1 =  totally disagree and 5 =  totally agree .

Perceived learning outcomes were measured by four statements (on a five-point Likert-type scale, with 1 = totally disagree and 5 = totally agree), for each of the four interventions (By doing my homework it improved my understanding of the lesson, doing homework was a meaningful activity, I learned a lot of doing my homework, and it would be good to repeat this homework next time).

Teaching format

Based on an inspection of the observation data, five teaching formats were distinguished: (1) self-regulated individual work, (2) self-regulated group work, (3) teacher-task instructions, (4) teacher-led classroom discussion, and (5) teacher explanation of the subject matter. Each time on task/level of participation unit received a teaching format code (W1, W2, W3, W4, or W5)

Data analysis

As the two groups did not differ significantly in time on task and level of participation, we merged the data from both classes. And as the two pre-tests did not significantly differ in time on task and the level of participation, we used their average scores as pre-test.

Paired t tests were used between the pre-test, on the one hand, and each of the post-tests and the delayed post-test, on the other hand, to answer research question 1 (with time-on task and level of class participation as dependent variables) and research question 4 (with student motivation and perceived learning outcomes as dependent variables). Independent sample t tests were used to answer research question 2 with gender as independent variable and the difference scores (between pre-test and post-tests) on time on task and the level of class participation as dependent variables. As we performed a series of t test in these cases, we adapted the original significance level of 5 % based on the Bonferroni correction method (5 % divided by the number of analyses).

Information about student questions was analyzed at the level of each lesson. Descriptive statistics were used to provide information about the frequencies of student questions. Univariate analysis of variance with Scheffé post hoc analyses were used to answer the research question about differences between teaching formats (question 5). Teaching format was the independent variable and time on task and level of class participation were the dependent variables.

Time on task and level of class participation

In Tables  2 and 3 , the results for time on task and the level of participation are summarized. For the first homework assignment (preparing analytical tasks), the results of the paired t test showed that students were more on-task and participated more, compared with the pretest ( t (44) = −3.64, p  = 0.001, d  = 1.1 and t (44) = −2.53, p  = 0.02, d  = 0.76, respectively). We found similar results for the jigsaw assignment. Students were more on-task and participated more, compared with the pre-test ( t (41) = −6.83, p  < 0.001, d  = 2.06 and t (41) = −6.81, p  < 0.001, d  = 2.05, respectively). In the lesson in which students were allowed to make a choice (lesson 5), fewer students were on-task ( t (40) = 2.81, p  = 0.01, d  = 0.85) than in the pre-test. No significant difference was found in the level of class participation.

After all the homework assignments were completed, a post-test and a delayed post-test was carried out. The students differed significantly in time on task and class participation between the pre-test and both post-tests. Students were more time-on task in lessons 6 and 7 ( t (36) = −7.35, p  < 0.001, d  = 2.22 and t (26) = −7.95, p  < 0.001, d  = 2.4), compared to the pre-test. Similar results with respect to class participation which showed that students participated more in lesson 6 ( t (36) = −6.01, p  < 0.001, d  = 1.81) and in lesson 7 ( t (1.26) = −7.48, p  < 0.001, d  = 2.26) compared with the pre-test. This describes the effect of the total amount of homework assignments.

Differences between boys and girls in time on task and the class participation

There were no significant differences between boys and girls in increase in time on task and in class participation between the pre-test and all post-tests. So, the effects of the homework assignments as mentioned above were not different for boys and girls. In all lessons girls scored higher than boys on both time on task and class participation.

In Table  4 , we summarized the results with respect to the student questions. In the pre-test lesson, the average number of students’ questions was 23. In lesson 3 (with the preparation of analytical skills), students asked 26 questions and in the six lessons with the fragmented test, a total amount of 70 questions were asked (only in the first 10 min of each lesson). In the other lessons (4, 5, 6, and 7) fewer questions were asked.

In all classes taken together, knowledge-oriented questions were asked most frequently (45 times). Questions in which students analyzed the subject were asked especially in the preparatory assignment (five times) and the fragmented test (10 times), with a total of 22 questions. Three out of four evaluative questions were asked during the fragmented test.

Student motivation and perceived learning outcomes

In Table  5 , we present the results for motivation and perceived learning outcomes, clustered per intervention. Most students (87.8, 91.2, 80, and 75.6 % scale 3 or higher) indicated that they did their homework. Although there were no significant differences between the four homework assignments, the student choice showed the lowest mean score ( M  = 3.61) and the jigsaw assignment the highest ( M  = 4.24). Also with respect to the two items that refer to student motivation (items 6 and 7), we did not find only one significant difference between the four interventions: students reported that they experienced the fragmented test more challenging than the jigsaw assignment ( t (39) = 2.96, p  = 0.005).

Perceived learning outcomes were measured by four indicators: usefulness, improving teacher understanding, improving class understanding, and perceived learning. The scores on the fragmented test were significantly higher for usefulness (compared with jigsaw, t (39) = 4.99, p  < 0.001 and student choice, t (38) = 3.32, p  = 0.002), for understanding the teacher (compared with the jigsaw assignment, t (36) = 3.40, p  = 0.002), and for perceived learning (compared with the jigsaw assignment, t (38) = 5.07, p  < 0.001). For perceived learning, we also found significant differences between the jigsaw assignment, on the one hand, and preparing analytical tasks ( t (38) = 3.07, p  = 0.004) and student choice ( t (35) = −3.04, p  = 0.004), both with lower scores for the jigsaw assignment. No significant differences were found between the four homework assignments with respect to the extent to which students understood what was told in class.

Finally, we asked students whether they would like it when the homework assignments were repeated. In two cases, we found a significant difference. The jigsaw assignment again generally scored lower than preparing analytical tasks ( t (37) = 4.71, p  < 0. 001) and student choice ( t (36) = −3.52, p  = 0.001).

Teaching formats and time on task and activity

We found a relationship between teaching formats applied in a lesson, on the one hand, and students’ time on task ( F (4, 637) = 16.72, p  < 0.001) and class participation ( F (4, 637) = 45.43, p  < 0.001), on the other hand. Post hoc analyses (Scheffé) showed that teacher’s task instructions led to less time on task of students (all differences with p  < 0.029) and lower class participation of students (all differences with p  < 0.01). Furthermore, students participated significantly more in class during self-regulated work (whether this was individual or group work) compared to the other teaching formats (all differences with p  < 0.001).

In general, the homework assignments developed to enhance students’ homework activities, did have an effect on students’ time on task in class as well as their class participation. Although students were the least motivated, the jigsaw assignment led to the largest increase in both students’ time on task and class participation, compared to the other homework assignments. The strategy of preparing analytical tasks also increased students’ time on task and their class participation, compared to the baseline as indicated in the pre-test. Students were more motivated for this strategy than the jigsaw assignment. Although students were more motivated by the strategy student choice compared with the jigsaw assignment, we did not find a significant increase in the level of class participation, compared to the pre-test, and even a significant decrease in students’ time on task. Subsequently, students reported to be mostly motivated by the fragmented test: they experienced the strategy as meaningful and challenging, and they perceived the largest learning outcomes. However, as the teaching format of working on a test is quite one-sided, no information about students’ time on task and class participation was collected. Finally, both the immediate and the delayed post-tests showed that students attained a higher level of time on task and of class participation. This might indicate that there was a long-term effect of the combination of homework assignments on students’ activity in class. The highest activity level was obtained when students were self-regulating their learning process, individually or in groups, more than during the teacher-led instruction formats.

Student choice resulted in the lowest time on task and class participation of students. Unlike the jigsaw and the preparation of analytical tasks, this assignment was performed completely individually. The other two assignments had a shared goal, in small groups or in class. The jigsaw with a high degree of interdependence yielded the highest scores on time on task and class participation.

Some critical reflections are justified here. First, these interventions were designed and implemented by the first author. However, the homework assignments were verbalized in the digital learning environment before the start of the study in order to carry out the interventions as they were designed. Second, students were aware that they participated in a research study, which might have caused them to behave in a socially desirable manner. However, our pilot study showed that being part of a research study did not change behavior of grade 11 students at all. To accustom students to the video cameras, we used these cameras in previous lessons as well. Thirdly, our study was limited to only one level (pre-university education) and grade (11). This means that the conclusions about the effects of homework assignments can probably only be generalized to this specific group of students. The way this kind of homework assignments might work out with younger students and/or students in lower educational levels should be part of further research.

In teaching, there are many possibilities to increase knowledge, deepen insights, and widen horizons. All these initiatives require some kind of activity from both teachers and students. Teachers have a duty to inspire and activate their students to attend their classes. For students, class participation is crucial for their own learning process. Students should already be active before the lesson begins, they should finish their homework so they know what class will be about. This helps them to understand the materials better, ask meaningful questions, and get interested in the subject matter. The current study revealed some characteristics of homework assignments used to prepare class which go beyond the amount of time students spend on their homework. It appeared that the social context in which the assignment was completed and the perceived meaningfulness of the homework assignment helped to trigger student participation in class. Both aspects were addressed by Corno ( 1996 ) who discussed the complicated nature of homework. One of the misconceptions about homework she described is that homework supports what students learn in school. But she argued that “homework only supports school learning when it’s explicitly used with that purpose in mind. That is, teachers have to give assignments that both reinforce what they are teaching in school and prompt students to reorganize and extend their learning into new and richer areas” (Corno 1996 , p. 28).

But reality is different. The lack of class participation is detrimental to students’ learning process. Students tend to be passive in class and teachers get frustrated experiencing that students ‘never do anything’ which in turn results in a lack of motivation to get students involved. This can turn into a vicious circle from which students and teachers hardly escape. Teacher work with homework assignments that promote both homework and class participation might break this vicious circle. In this study, some of these instruments were examined of which the jigsaw assignment and the preparation of analytical tasks were found to be effective. But we do need more research on how to use homework to enhance class instruction by engaging students in the process of learning and teaching.

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Buijs, M., Admiraal, W. Homework assignments to enhance student engagement in secondary education. Eur J Psychol Educ 28 , 767–779 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-012-0139-0

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Assigning Homework in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

A counselor discusses this week's therapy homework with a man in blue.

It’s certainly true that therapy outcomes depend in part on the work taking place in each session. But for this progress to reach its full impact, clients need to use what they learn in therapy during their daily lives. 

Assigning therapy “homework” can help your clients practice new skills during the week. While many types of therapy may involve some form of weekly assignment, homework is a key component of cognitive behavior therapy. 

Types of Homework

Some clients may respond well to any type of homework, while others may struggle to complete or find benefit in certain assignments. It’s important for clients to step outside of their comfort zone in some ways. For example, it’s essential to learn to challenge unwanted thoughts and increase understanding of feelings and emotions, especially for people who struggle with emotional expression. 

But there isn’t just one way to achieve these goals. Finding the right type of homework for each client can make success more likely. 

There are many different types of therapy homework. Asking your client to practice breathing exercises when they feel anxious or stressed? That’s homework. Journaling about distressing thoughts and ways to challenge them, or keeping track of cognitive distortions ? Also homework.

Some clients may do well with different assignments each week, while others may have harder times with certain types of homework. For example:

  • An artistic client may not get much from written exercises. They might, however, prefer to sketch or otherwise illustrate their mood, feelings, or reactions during the week. 
  • Clients who struggle with or dislike reading may feel challenged by even plain-language articles. If you plan to assign educational materials, ask in your first session whether your client prefers audio or written media. 

When you give the assignment, take a few minutes to go over it with your client. Give an example of how to complete it and make sure they understand the process. You’ll also want to explain the purpose of the assignment. Someone who doesn’t see the point of a task may be less likely to put real effort into it. If you give a self-assessment worksheet early in the therapy process, you might say, “It can help to have a clear picture of where you believe you’re at right now. Later in therapy I’ll ask you to complete another assessment and we can compare the two to review what’s changed.” 

Mental Health Apps

Some people may also find apps a useful way to develop and practice emotional wellness coping skills outside of therapy. Therapy apps can help people track their moods, emotions, or other mental health symptoms. They can provide a platform to practice CBT or other therapy skills. They can also offer structured mindfulness meditations or help clients practice other grounding techniques. 

If you’re working with a client who’s interested in therapy apps, you might try using them in treatment. Just keep in mind that not all apps offer the same benefits. Some may have limitations, such as clunky or confusing interfaces and potential privacy concerns. It’s usually a good idea to check whether there’s any research providing support for—or against—a specific app before recommending it to a client. 

Trusted mental health sources, such as the American Psychological Association or Anxiety and Depression Association of America websites, may list some popular mental health apps, though they may not specifically endorse them. These resources can be a good starting place. Other organizations, including Northwestern University’s Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies and the Defense Department of the United States, have developed their own research-backed mental health apps. 

You can also review apps yourself. Try out scenarios or options within the app to get to know how the app works and whether it might meet your client’s needs. This will put you in a position to answer their questions and help give them tips on getting the most out of the app. 

Benefits of Homework

Some of your clients may wonder why you’re assigning homework. After all, they signed up for therapy, not school. 

When clients ask about the benefits of therapy homework, you can point out how it provides an opportunity to put things learned in session into practice outside the therapy session. This helps people get used to using the new skills in their toolbox to work through issues that come up for them in their daily lives. More importantly, it teaches them they can use these skills on their own, when a therapist or other support person isn’t actively providing coaching or encouragement. This knowledge is an important aspect of therapy success. 

A 2010 review of 23 studies on homework in therapy found evidence to suggest that clients who completed therapy homework generally had better treatment outcomes. This review did have some limitations, such as not considering the therapeutic relationship or how clients felt about homework. But other research supports these findings, leading many mental health experts to support the use of therapy homework, particularly in CBT. Homework can be one of many effective tools in making therapy more successful. 

Improving Homework Compliance

You may eventually work with a client who shows little interest in homework and doesn’t complete the assignments. You know this could impede their progress in therapy, so you’ll probably want to bring this up in session and ask why they’re having difficulty with the homework. You can also try varying the types of homework you assign or asking if your client is interested in trying out a mental health app that can offer similar benefits outside your weekly sessions. 

When you ask a client about homework non-compliance, it’s important to do it in a way that doesn’t anger them, make them feel defensive, or otherwise damage the relationship you’re working to develop. Here are some tips for having this conversation:

  • Let them know homework helps them practice their skills outside of therapy. In short, it’s helping them get more out of therapy (more value for their money) and may lead to more improvement, sometimes in a shorter period of time than one weekly session would alone. 
  • Bring up the possibility of other types of homework. “If you don’t want to write anything down, would you want to try listening to a guided meditation or tips to help manage upsetting emotions?” 
  • Ask about it, in a non-confrontational way. You might say something like, “Is something making it difficult for you to complete the homework assignments? How can I help make the process easier for you?” 

The prospect of homework in therapy may surprise some clients, but for many people, it’s an essential element of success. Those put off by the term “homework” may view “skills practice” or similar phrasing more favorably, so don’t feel afraid to call it something else. The important part is the work itself, not what you call it.    References:

  • Ackerman, C. (2017, March 20). 25 CBT techniques and worksheets for cognitive behavioral therapy. Retrieved from https://positivepsychology.com/cbt-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-techniques-worksheets
  • ADAA reviewed mental health apps. (n.d.). Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Retrieved from https://adaa.org/finding-help/mobile-apps
  • Mausbach, B. T., Moore, R., Roesch, S., Cardenas, V., & Patterson, T. L. (2010). The relationship between homework compliance and therapy outcomes: An updated meta-analysis. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 34 (5), 429-438. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2939342
  • Mental health apps. (n.d.). The American Institute of Stress. Retrieved from https://www.stress.org/mental-health-apps
  • Novotney, A. (2016). Should you use an app to help that client? Monitor on Psychology, 47 (10), 64. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/client-app
  • Tang, W, & Kreindler, D. (2017). Supporting homework compliance in cognitive behavioural therapy: Essential features of mobile apps. JMIR Mental Health, 4(2). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5481663

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IMAGES

  1. ECE 332 Week 1 Assignment Theory Summary

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  2. Homework Assignment #1

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  3. Homework Assignment 1

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  4. Homework Assignment Progression

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  5. ECE 332 Week 1 Assignment Theory Summary

    homework assignment theory

  6. Homework Assignment #2

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VIDEO

  1. Homework 09

  2. Video assignment

  3. Introduction to Assignment Problem Unbalanced Hungarian Method|Linear Programming|Dream Maths

  4. Read theory 🪦🐀homework #home #math

  5. Homework Lesson One And Two 1Sec 1

  6. ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM: meaning, formulation, Hungarian method

COMMENTS

  1. Designing Homework Assignments: From Theory To Design

    This paper defines the four basic types of homework, how the homework assignment should be processed, and what the instructor and the student can expect from well designed and executed homework assignments. Implied by the university teaching contract, rather than explicitly detailed, is the expectation that faculty will make the very best possible effort to help the student "learn" the ...

  2. Designing Homework Assignments: From Theory To Design

    Designing Homework Assignments: From Theory to Design. Lloyd J. Feldmann Purdue University School of Technology at Columbus. Abstract. Implied by the university teaching contract, rather than explicitly detailed, is the expectation that faculty will make the very best possible effort to help the student "learn" the subject matter under ...

  3. PDF Designing Homework Assignments: From Theory To Design

    First, the instructor has to decide upon the type of assignment that will maximize student learning while addressing the current course topic. Secondly, the assignment should include the course's specific student achievement objectives. Homework types Lee and Priutt [8] have defined four principal types of assignments.

  4. The Creation and Implementation of Effective Homework Assignments (Part

    Abstract. Two special issues of PRIMUS focus on The Creation and Implementation of Effective Homework Assignments. In this introduction to the first issue, we discuss the tensions facing instructors today surrounding homework design and implementation and provide an overview of recent PRIMUS articles published on the subject. Using the notion of "learning goals" as an organizing theme, we ...

  5. PDF Increasing the Effectiveness of Homework for All Learners in the ...

    between homework activities and self-efficacy, responsibility for learning, and delay of gratification. "Homework assignments can enhance the development of self-regulation processes and self-efficacy beliefs, as well as goal setting, time management, managing the environment, and maintaining attention" (Bem-benutty, 2011c, p. 449).

  6. PDF Assigning Effective Homework

    ˝ Homework is most e˚ective when it is used to rein-force skills learned in previous weeks or months. ˝ Homework is less e˚ective if it is used to teach complex skills. Characteristics of Good Assignments When teachers plan homework, they should consid-er the characteristics listed below. Good homework assignments:

  7. The Creation and Implementation of Effective Homework Assignments (Part

    1. EFFECTIVE HOMEWORK PRACTICES. This issue of PRIMUS is the second of a two-part special issue on The Creation and Implementation of Effective Homework Assignments. Part 1 of the special issue focused on the creation of effective homework and featured papers that discussed elements of effective homework design and presented innovative homework systems targeting specific learning goals.

  8. Designing and Assigning Effective Homework.

    Similarly, in a survey by Kazantzis and Deane (1999), 98% of psychologists stated they gave homework assignments in an average of 57% of therapy sessions. Thus, homework is considered by most psychotherapists as an integral part of the change process. This chapter discusses how to design, assign, and review homework assignments to maximize ...

  9. How to Create Effective Homework

    Enriching children's classroom learning requires making homework not shorter or longer, but smarter.". Paul goes on to describe specific practices, like spaced repetition (in which information is presented and repeated spaced out over time), retrieval practice (testing or quizzing not for assessment, but to reinforce material learned), and ...

  10. Reflecting on the Homework Ritual: Assignments and Designs

    This article fo- cuses on topics that teachers should reflect on in. order to determine how the homework process un-. folds for students and families, with an emphasis. It is 7:00 p.m. at the Landis residence, and the three on the value of interactive homework. Specific is- children start the nightly homework ritual.

  11. A Comprehensive Model of Homework in Cognitive Behavior Therapy

    Homework is both a process and a specific task in therapy. Definitions have varied, but those from integrative and non-CBT modalities agree that the concept of "between-session assignments" are relevant and important for the range of psychotherapy approaches (see special issue in Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, Vol. 16, No. 2). One point of differentiation has been the process for ...

  12. Key Lessons: What Research Says About the Value of Homework

    Homework assignments that require interaction between students and parents result in higher levels of parent involvement and are more likely to be turned in than noninteractive assignments. ... Homework as the job of childhood. Theory Into Practice, 43, 227-233. Cosden, M., Morrison, G., Albanese, A. L., & Macias, S. (2001). When homework is ...

  13. The First Word: Homework's Theory, Research, and Practice

    Homework completion: The role of self-efficacy, delay of gratification, and self-regulatory processes. The International Journal of Educational and Psychological Assessment, 6, 1-20. Google Scholar. Bembenutty H. (2011). The last word: An interview with Harris Cooper—Research, policies, tips, and current perspectives on homework.

  14. Using homework assignments in cognitive behavior therapy.

    Homework assignments are a core and effective component of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), allowing patients to maintain and enhance the progress made during sessions. This volume first provides the reader with a concrete theoretical and empirical basis for the use of homework in CBT. Then, in a series of practice-oriented chapters, experienced practitioners from around the world present ...

  15. How to Design Homework in CBT That Will Engage Your Clients

    Homework assignments have been a central feature of the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) process since the 1970s (Kazantzis, 2005). ... Another example, drawn from the principles of operant conditioning theory (Staddon & Cerutti, 2003), would be a therapist's invitation to a client to 'test' the utility of different behaviors as avenues ...

  16. Increasing the effectiveness of homework for all learners in the

    This article discusses how teachers can increase the effectiveness of homework assignments for all learners. Homework, when designed and implemented properly, is a valuable tool for reinforcing learning. This essay provides a summary of educational research on homework, discusses the elements of effective homework, and suggests practical classroom applications for teachers.

  17. Homework Assignments

    REBT theory and the practice of challenging IBs and persuading clients of their new RBs suggests that there be some understanding, insight, or conviction in the new rational philosophy. ... and L'Abate's (2005), Using Homework Assignments In Cognitive Behavior Therapy. The specific goals of the homework assignment could be to change a ...

  18. Homework assignments to enhance student engagement in ...

    Students' motivation and perceived learning outcomes are measured by means of a self-report: Three of the four homework assignments (jigsaw, preparing analytical skills, and the fragmented assessment) showed increase in student engagement compared to the baseline of the first two classes. ... including behavioral learning theory, cognitive ...

  19. Types of Homework and Their Effect on Student Achievement

    The best kind of homework should broaden student understanding and build on essential skills (Vatterott, 2010). According to Vatterott, the best homework tasks should exhibit five characteristics. These five hallmark characteristics of homework are: purpose, efficiency, ownership, competence, and aesthetic appeal..

  20. PDF The application of constructivist learning theory to homework practice

    homework; innovative, discussion-based science homework tasks are trialled. A review of the existing literature reveals that primary homework is largely ineffective in enhancing children's learning, and can often cause or contribute to stress for children and parents; this stress often contributes to arguments in the home. A

  21. Assigning Homework in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

    Assigning Homework in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is known to be a highly effective approach to mental health treatment. One factor underlying its success is ...

  22. PDF Ma 308 ~ Theory of Interest Homework Assignments

    Theory Assignment 14-15 Homework: 5.6 # 1-4, 10, 11, 13a, 15 Handout 2.2.3 Continuous Compounding Theory Assignment 16 Homework: 5.7 # 2, 3, 8, 9, 11 2.3 Perpetuities - 5.5 Theory Assignment 17 Homework: 5.5 # 1, 3-5, 11, 13, 19 (use 8%(1) instead), 21, 22 2.4 Continuous Streams - 9.1 Homework: 9.1 # 2, 3, 5, 6

  23. PDF Group Theory Homework 1 Solutions

    Karthik B. Group Theory Dr. Suciu Group Theory Homework 1 Solutions Karthik Boyareddygari Professor Alexandru Suciu Problem 1: For both parts, the Euclidean algorithm will be used in its matrix form as demonstrated by Dr. Suciu during lecture. In particular, augmented matrices will serve to condense the notation according to c 1 c 2 d 1 c 3 c 4 ...

  24. 7 Best Java Homework Help Websites: How to Choose Your Perfect Match?

    Among them are Reviews.io (4.9 out of 5), Sitejabber (4.5 points), and, of course, their own website (9.6 out of 10). The rate of the website speaks for itself. When you place your 'do my Java ...

  25. Homework Helper: Scan & solve 4+

    Homework Helper is designed to revolutionize the way you tackle assignments across various subjects. Just snap a picture of your homework, chat with our intelligent assistant, and get the answers you need in no time! Key Features: Scan & Solve. • Instant Solutions: Take a picture of your math, science, or any subject problem, and get ...

  26. Need Assignment Help Fast? Get US-Based Experts Now!

    Get in touch with us for affordable and the best assignment help in the USA. For all subject assignments, our team of assignment helpers will assist in submitting plagiarism-free and accurate solutions on time. 5000+ Experts. Skilled and experienced writers for variety of subjects. 4.7/5 Quality Score. Students all over world adore our services.