My experience as a math teacher is that if students are taught well and lessons have checks for understanding to ensure that 100% of students understand the lesson, most students will do homework honestly because they feel confident with the material. It is when students don't understand the math or when the homework is especially long/burdensome/difficult that students typically resort to cheating. So I think that the key is to make homework manageable and make sure that students are fully prepared and confident to handle the homework. It is also important to keep homework low-stakes (checked for completion, not correctness) so that students don't feel too much pressure to have all the right answers.
The homeworks in my classes are on paper and primarily topic-based, but I also often include some review problems to provide retrieval of previous topics. I know that the vast majority of my students do their homework honestly. I see mistakes in my students' work, and students will ask me about problems that they were confused about or left unfinished. I see this even with more challenging students/groups: when students feel confident and successful, they usually give it an honest try.
In the rare event that I do catch students cheating on homework, it is usually fairly obvious to me because I emphasize showing work carefully. When students copy work from technology, the work usually just has a different look to it than the way that we did the problems in class. When this happens, I usually make a big show of being puzzled by the way the student wrote up their work and might ask the student to redo it, and the student gets the message that I can tell that they used technology.
Thanks for the article and interesting discussion on this topic. I am a regular reader and enjoy reading your work!
That is the solution I came to about a year ago. The students receive feedback on a quiz. They say that it helps them know where they are. Still really in trial phase, but it is better than marking work parents, tutors or ai has done. Also I keep the quizzes really short
In Building Thinking Classrooms, Peter Liljedahl had already given up with homework as assessment due to the inability of knowing who exactly has done the homework. AI just makes it all the more likely. His solution I think lines up most with a combination of number 3 and number 4 above. It is to 'rebrand' homework as 'check your understanding', and instead make sure students know they you will never check that they have done it. By framing it psychologically as ENTIRELY for them, it inscreases the likelihood that they might do it and learn something from it. Of course, this interacts with various other techniques of his, such as the ongoing rubric style assessment.
My context is a little different these days. But it is interesting that the UK is still having to deal with these homework issues despite the fact that homework doesn't contribute towards any external assessment. I think that illustrates that students have always thought that homework is for their teacher, and not for themselves. I think that that is the biggest lesson here.
As a Maths teacher I have tried flipped learning to various levels of success, and is something I do want to persevere with. My latest however is Rehearsed Exercises (as opposed to calling them tests!), where I set them questions for prep (complete with answers to help them mark) which they hand in as a picture on Teams. They know come next lesson that the starter will be a quick discussion on the prep followed by one of the questions to do again under test conditions ... they then get an effort grade based on their work and this gets upgraded or downgraded depending on how their prep was. This has woken them up to the point of prep being something to prepare them for the lesson ... and so far its worked well
In my experience, even in classes where the students appear motivated in that they track the teacher and are looking at me when I’m giving instructions, it is the students who need the most help with their homework that either:
- don’t do it
- do it but it’s of poor quality
- do it and it’s of good quality (but they don’t stop being in the 5% of the students that always need help and support throughout the year)
I agree that since there is no way to be sure of the conditions under which homework is competed, it can’t be used for assessment.
I’m going to trial homework forming practice for the Do Now at the start of the next lesson and see how that goes for the year.
I have been very underwhelmed by maths tech platforms for homework setting. I have currently used Mathspad, Mathswatch and Dr Frost. After doing some research, the pupils did not like any of these platforms.
In your view, is ixl.com better than these? Would like to understand more about the pros and cons if you are able to share them. Currently looking at Sparx as well
Unfortunately, I cannot seem to share the images, but I have a folder on my desktop filled with 20+ screenshots of middle school (6th-8th) math problems ChatGPT got wrong. -even after I gave it the answer and explained why it was wrong! It is absolutely horrid at exponents. And, it is worse at certain types of language puzzles.
if you really want a platform that works to build maths skill mastery... try ixl.com. It is not fun or engaging. But, it is effective and it tracks skill mastery at a level that allows for targeted intervention.
As for maths homework being dead, I certainly hope not. Maths homework is like piano practice; it is necessary for students to advance and maintain mastery.
I'm wondering if we could use homework for fluency practice... You have to answer each maths fact questin in 5 secs, or the system measures how long you took. You work to improve accuracy and response time...
This year, with the support of my Head of Department (who actually suggested this change), I still set homework for A-Level maths, but didn’t mark it. I provided fully worked solutions alongside all questions. The questions ranged from basic practising of technique to exam style and standard questions. Every week or every second week I set a test selecting questions from those set for homework. The thinking of this approach being that even if the student didn’t fully understand the answer, they had to understand some of it to be able to reproduce a correct answer in a written test. Others may disagree. The incentive of the approach being that some engagement with the questions and solutions would yield a good test result. The test marks would range from 3% to 97% and a fairly even distribution of marks between.
One problem with this no-marking of homework approach, which has nothing at all to do with effective teaching or learning, is that the inspection regime wants to see lots of evidence of busy work which means marked homework, marked tests with individual feedback and improvement plans, inspected folders etc. etc. Luckily I have relatively small classes so giving detailed individual feedback isn’t too onerous – it wouldn’t be feasible if I had 20 or more students in the group.
As has always been true, the biggest variable is the aptitude and attitude of the student. The gap between aspiration and effort is mind-boggling. The questions asked most by students are about “grade boundaries” and “predicted grades” closely followed by “mitigating circumstances”, rarely about problems encountered in tests.
Atomise their homework. Masses of very simple questions, many multi choice means they won't bother with AI, loads of scope for retrieval. Set the same questions (different numbers) each week and tracking them has more meaning.
Hi, thank you for this. What are your thoughts on using homework as a flipped classroom opportunity? I make a video or set a reading that I then do a quick mini- whiteboard check for understanding in a later lesson. They then use the lesson for the consolidation with me there to help. To be honest though I do this mainly with older classes and success has definitely been variable! I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this.
I think that there is another way.
My experience as a math teacher is that if students are taught well and lessons have checks for understanding to ensure that 100% of students understand the lesson, most students will do homework honestly because they feel confident with the material. It is when students don't understand the math or when the homework is especially long/burdensome/difficult that students typically resort to cheating. So I think that the key is to make homework manageable and make sure that students are fully prepared and confident to handle the homework. It is also important to keep homework low-stakes (checked for completion, not correctness) so that students don't feel too much pressure to have all the right answers.
The homeworks in my classes are on paper and primarily topic-based, but I also often include some review problems to provide retrieval of previous topics. I know that the vast majority of my students do their homework honestly. I see mistakes in my students' work, and students will ask me about problems that they were confused about or left unfinished. I see this even with more challenging students/groups: when students feel confident and successful, they usually give it an honest try.
In the rare event that I do catch students cheating on homework, it is usually fairly obvious to me because I emphasize showing work carefully. When students copy work from technology, the work usually just has a different look to it than the way that we did the problems in class. When this happens, I usually make a big show of being puzzled by the way the student wrote up their work and might ask the student to redo it, and the student gets the message that I can tell that they used technology.
Thanks for the article and interesting discussion on this topic. I am a regular reader and enjoy reading your work!
That is the solution I came to about a year ago. The students receive feedback on a quiz. They say that it helps them know where they are. Still really in trial phase, but it is better than marking work parents, tutors or ai has done. Also I keep the quizzes really short
In Building Thinking Classrooms, Peter Liljedahl had already given up with homework as assessment due to the inability of knowing who exactly has done the homework. AI just makes it all the more likely. His solution I think lines up most with a combination of number 3 and number 4 above. It is to 'rebrand' homework as 'check your understanding', and instead make sure students know they you will never check that they have done it. By framing it psychologically as ENTIRELY for them, it inscreases the likelihood that they might do it and learn something from it. Of course, this interacts with various other techniques of his, such as the ongoing rubric style assessment.
My context is a little different these days. But it is interesting that the UK is still having to deal with these homework issues despite the fact that homework doesn't contribute towards any external assessment. I think that illustrates that students have always thought that homework is for their teacher, and not for themselves. I think that that is the biggest lesson here.
As a Maths teacher I have tried flipped learning to various levels of success, and is something I do want to persevere with. My latest however is Rehearsed Exercises (as opposed to calling them tests!), where I set them questions for prep (complete with answers to help them mark) which they hand in as a picture on Teams. They know come next lesson that the starter will be a quick discussion on the prep followed by one of the questions to do again under test conditions ... they then get an effort grade based on their work and this gets upgraded or downgraded depending on how their prep was. This has woken them up to the point of prep being something to prepare them for the lesson ... and so far its worked well
In my experience, even in classes where the students appear motivated in that they track the teacher and are looking at me when I’m giving instructions, it is the students who need the most help with their homework that either:
- don’t do it
- do it but it’s of poor quality
- do it and it’s of good quality (but they don’t stop being in the 5% of the students that always need help and support throughout the year)
I agree that since there is no way to be sure of the conditions under which homework is competed, it can’t be used for assessment.
I’m going to trial homework forming practice for the Do Now at the start of the next lesson and see how that goes for the year.
I have been very underwhelmed by maths tech platforms for homework setting. I have currently used Mathspad, Mathswatch and Dr Frost. After doing some research, the pupils did not like any of these platforms.
In your view, is ixl.com better than these? Would like to understand more about the pros and cons if you are able to share them. Currently looking at Sparx as well
Just wait for it, they will soon figure it out.
Unfortunately, I cannot seem to share the images, but I have a folder on my desktop filled with 20+ screenshots of middle school (6th-8th) math problems ChatGPT got wrong. -even after I gave it the answer and explained why it was wrong! It is absolutely horrid at exponents. And, it is worse at certain types of language puzzles.
if you really want a platform that works to build maths skill mastery... try ixl.com. It is not fun or engaging. But, it is effective and it tracks skill mastery at a level that allows for targeted intervention.
As for maths homework being dead, I certainly hope not. Maths homework is like piano practice; it is necessary for students to advance and maintain mastery.
I have evolved to assigning no grade points for homework for all the reasons stated. I still assign it, and now assess them on that work.
Yes, it’s time consuming to mark regular quizzes, but it’s (still) the most reliable way to assess learning and adjust instruction accordingly.
I'm wondering if we could use homework for fluency practice... You have to answer each maths fact questin in 5 secs, or the system measures how long you took. You work to improve accuracy and response time...
Where is the evidence that AI can effectively mark homework - as it is much claimed to be a "routine" task? Marking: "tedious" - yes, "routine" - no.
This year, with the support of my Head of Department (who actually suggested this change), I still set homework for A-Level maths, but didn’t mark it. I provided fully worked solutions alongside all questions. The questions ranged from basic practising of technique to exam style and standard questions. Every week or every second week I set a test selecting questions from those set for homework. The thinking of this approach being that even if the student didn’t fully understand the answer, they had to understand some of it to be able to reproduce a correct answer in a written test. Others may disagree. The incentive of the approach being that some engagement with the questions and solutions would yield a good test result. The test marks would range from 3% to 97% and a fairly even distribution of marks between.
One problem with this no-marking of homework approach, which has nothing at all to do with effective teaching or learning, is that the inspection regime wants to see lots of evidence of busy work which means marked homework, marked tests with individual feedback and improvement plans, inspected folders etc. etc. Luckily I have relatively small classes so giving detailed individual feedback isn’t too onerous – it wouldn’t be feasible if I had 20 or more students in the group.
As has always been true, the biggest variable is the aptitude and attitude of the student. The gap between aspiration and effort is mind-boggling. The questions asked most by students are about “grade boundaries” and “predicted grades” closely followed by “mitigating circumstances”, rarely about problems encountered in tests.
Atomise their homework. Masses of very simple questions, many multi choice means they won't bother with AI, loads of scope for retrieval. Set the same questions (different numbers) each week and tracking them has more meaning.
Hi, thank you for this. What are your thoughts on using homework as a flipped classroom opportunity? I make a video or set a reading that I then do a quick mini- whiteboard check for understanding in a later lesson. They then use the lesson for the consolidation with me there to help. To be honest though I do this mainly with older classes and success has definitely been variable! I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this.