JOURNAL 1

1.0 ISU YANG DIFOKUSKAN

Throughout the second week of my practical in SK Taman Perling, I noticed that not all of my students of Year 5 Bijak submitted their completed work to me on time. For the records, not even once I received the full 39 exercise books at one time. Thus, I am strongly determined to solve, or at least, reduce the probability of pupils of not submitting their school work, and also, those who submit incomplete work to me.

2.0

PERKEMBANGAN ISU YANG DIFOKUSKAN

Each time I assigned school work to my pupils, I normally provide some time for them to do in the class and manage to discuss answers to some questions as being requested by the pupils when they find difficulties in answering those questions. My pupils are asked by me to submit their work on the very next day or the day after tomorrow. However, I still find that there are some pupils who did not manage to submit on time as we agreed to. Through my point of view, the action of not submitting or completing schoolwork does not do any good towards the pupils academic performances nor attitude upbringing.

3.0

MENGANALISIS ISU YANG DIFOKUSKAN

3.1

MENGENAL PASTI SEBAB ISU YANG DIFOKUSKAN

Homework has been around for decades. It has been a part of education for centuries. For a long time teachers have been telling students that they must devote at least a portion of their time to their own educational pursuits.

Homework helps pupils to remember the things learned in class. By spending some time in the evening doing homework, pupils are reminded of the material the teacher covered in class during the day. It is often called as the concept learning by rote and it is a tactic that has been proven effective for centuries (Mrboffo, 2009).

Homework is important because it teaches you critical thinking skills. When pupils are completing homework they are often forced to take the material beyond what was covered in class. They are asked to think more critically about the subject matter. Whether it is a piece of literature or whether its a certain type of math problem or whether it is a science experiment. So, homework takes the learning experience and let pupils apply the important critical thinking skills. While they may not use the actual subject matter later in life, those critical thinking skills will stick with them later in life and they will use these skills on a daily basis.

Homework is also important from the teachers perspective. Homework allows a teacher to keep tabs on a student to see how exactly they are progressing in relation to the rest of the class. It helps a teacher to identify a student who is not keeping up and allows them to give extra help to a student as needed.

Homework also teaches children discipline. It offers them an opportunity to manage their time. In a sense, they are forced to budget their activities so that they have time to do the things they want to do as well as time to do the things that must be done. In this way, homework plays a small but significant part in the process of growing up and becoming a responsible adult.

While homework is not the only important part of an education, it is one vital component of the education puzzle.

3.2

MENGENAL PASTI KEMUNGKINAN PENYEBAB KEPADA ISU

Why students do not do their assignments, both in school and when given as homework, can be due to reasons that range over a wide area. Dyana Hepburn (2010) says that it could be a form of habitual procrastination; it could be a lack of understanding of the assignment requirements, lack of knowledge of how to do the assignment, and the commonly stressed reason in educational psychology, "lack of motivation." Half the battle is won if the student likes the subject and if the parents take an interest and keep after the student to do their homework.

Those reasons mentioned above stem more from personal motivation, emotional and psychological. But that is only half of it. The other half covers the physical environment. There is the home life to consider. Youths do not have too much control over their home environment and lifestyle. The place they live, the family and friends that are part of the home environment, the economic situation of the family, neighbours and close friends who are in close contact to the student are all part of the physical living situation.

When the family economic situation is below national standards, it contributes to difficulty in doing homework in many ways. For instance, too many people occupying the same place make it difficult to concentrate with the distractions of conversation and movement. There may be inadequate lighting and lack of a workspace, table and chair, where the student can comfortably work.

Furthermore, the reason a student does not do their homework can be a combination of the physical environment and their emotional and psychological state. These are all intertwined. If a student is asked outright why they are not doing their homework, they will give various reasons. They usually are not thinking it all through, but giving an excuse which readily comes to mind. There is a list of reasons students give as to why they don't do their homework: "I did not understand it." Another one, "It's boring." Again, this is an excuse because most homework isn't exciting but has to be done anyway. Others are "it's too difficult, did not have time, no place to work, did not have the proper materials.

3.3

MENGENAL PASTI KELEMAHAN ISU YANG DIFOKUSKAN

Homework may be given to help students practice the skills learned in class. Direct application through repeated practice helps a child retain what's been learned. Class time is often inadequate to learn skills that take practice. Homework gives kids the chance to practice what they learned in class. If the pupils do not complete their given homework, they are not capable of practicing and revising the newly leant skills and master it; hence shorter retention of learning takes place.

Homework gets kids thinking about what they learned when they're outside of school. This gives the brain a chance to continue learning in a different environment. That provides valuable practice for real-life situations where kids will need to apply their knowledge. Those who do not make it as a practice in daily lives, he/she will unable to achieve higher order thinking that impede the development of mature thoughts in later life.

Homework may be given to help prepare students for testing, or to use new information in a particular situation. For example, preparing for a report or an experiment by doing preliminary research can help the student be ready for the event in class. It also reinforces the student's responsibility for her education. Without this preparation, pupils will grow up to be inefficient and non-productive workers since they could not perform and apply their knowledge in context.

Homework may extend learning by adding new information to what was discussed in class. Long-term assignments, such as science fair projects or reports, help students apply their learning to a situation, or incorporate their own ideas into a project. Lacking of thinking skills definitely forbid personalized learning among pupils who refuse to do homework.

3.4

MENGENAL PASTI KEKUATAN ISU YANG DIFOKUSKAN

Homework is valuable for the following reasons:

It can allow pupils to develop the practice of working on their own without the

constant presence of the teacher or other pupils on the one hand and the external discipline of the timetable, bells etc. on the other. This way of working is vital at the later stages of secondary education and after. It can allow valuable practice of skills learned in the classroom.
It can allow pupils to use materials and other sources of information that are not

always available in the classroom. It can involve parents and others in the pupils' work for their mutual benefit. It can give opportunities for long term research and other work.

 It can form an important part of the pupil's notes.

This gives pupils valuable experience of working to dead lines and facilitates

staff with their marking schedules.

3.5

MERAMAL KESAN DAN AKIBAT ISU YANG DIFOKUSKAN

If my pupils do their homework as instructed, it helps me to gauge how much materials have been acquired and mastered by the pupils. This will indirectly show the amount of learning progress displayed by my pupils in a given time. It serves as a medium for me to detect pupils misconceptions and misunderstanding and instantly provides me the opportunity to plan the quantity of content to be revised or even re-teach and hence correct their alternative framework. Besides, homework is one of the effective ways to reinforce new learning where pupils are able to apply their knowledge through the transformation of information. Humans memory retention is limited. However, homework is able to help pupils to retain information longer and hence make recollection easy. Since they are sitting for tests and examinations, homework can act as a powerful tool for them to refer to, revise, check on and compare their current mastery of knowledge with previous learning. I believe doing homework will be meaningful when pupils are conscious with their achievement from time to time.

4.0

KAJIAN LAMPAU YANG BERKAITAN ISU

The research literature (Epstein, 1988) recognizes a number of established reasons why teachers assign homework. These can be grouped as (a) academic functions (e.g., to complete unfinished work, revise, drill, consolidate, prepare, expand on concepts introduced in the classroom); (b) more general socialization purposes (e.g., to encourage responsibility, study skills, or time management)what Epstein and Van Voorhis (2001) call "personal development;" (c) home/school/community communication; and (d) school and system requirements (e.g., to ease time constraints in a crowded curriculum). Obviously, not all reasons apply in any one situation and those designated functions are not equally applicable across stages of schooling. In general, however, parents see homework's potential benefit largely as achievement-related; it leads to increased success on classwork

and fosters attitudes and habits that lead to successful future learning. These beliefs, of course, are supported by research that has consistently shown a positive correlation between time spent on homework and achievement for high school students (Cooper & Valentine, 2001).

According to Wallis (2006), a 2004 national survey of 2,900 American children conducted by the University of Michigan, the amount of time spent on homework is up 51% since 1981.

Most of that increase reflects bigger loads for little kids. An academic study found that whereas students ages 6 to 8 did an average of 52 min. of homework a week in 1981, they were toiling 128 min. weekly by 1997. And that's before No Child Left Behind kicked in. An admittedly less scientific poll of parents conducted this year for AOL and the Associated Press found that elementary school students were averaging 78 min. a night.

The onslaught comes despite the fact that an exhaustive review by the nation's top homework scholar, Duke University's Harris Cooper, concluded that homework does not measurably improve academic achievement for kids in grade school. That's right: all the sweat and tears do not make Johnny a better reader or mathematician.

Too much homework brings diminishing returns. Cooper's analysis of dozens of studies found that kids who do some homework in middle and high school score somewhat better on standardized tests, but doing more than 60 to 90 min. a night in middle school and more than 2 hr. in high school is associated with, gulp, lower scores.

Teachers in many of the nations that outperform the U.S. on student achievement tests-such as Japan, Denmark and the Czech Republic--tend to assign less homework than American teachers, but instructors in low-scoring countries like Greece, Thailand and Iran tend to pile it on.

Success on standardized tests is, of course, only one measure of learning--and only one purported goal of homework. Educators, tend to defend homework by saying it builds study habits, self-discipline and time-management skills. But there's also evidence that homework sours kids' attitudes toward school. "It's one thing to say we are wasting kids' time and

straining parent-kid relationships, but what's unforgivable is if homework is damaging our kids' interest in learning, undermining their curiosity."

5.0

CADANGAN DAN IDEA DIBERIKAN UNTUK MENYELESAIKAN SETIAP PUNCA

5.1

Make homework effective. Teachers do not want students to practice something that they dont yet understand because they are afraid they will learn it incorrectly. It will be difficult teaching it the right way after that. The only class work that should go home is review work and practice that students can complete accurately. If students are studying moon phases during the school hours, homework might be to draw tonights moon and identify the phase. Use homework to teach time management and organization, to broaden experiences, and reinforce classroom skills. Homework is not designed to teach new skills.

5.2

Explain why people go to school. Kids like to feel more mature. The reasons why they do not like getting caught soiling their underpants is because its a childish thing to do. They like it when you praise them for their accomplishments. They like the idea of being independent. Every time they do well in their assignments, make sure to compliment them. What teachers need to do also is to make a child understand the good effects of doing well in school. Kids fantasize of becoming astronauts, doctors, pilots etc. Bank on the idea that becoming what they want to be requires dedicated study and diligence. This way, kids are doing homework not just for the sake of finishing a class requirement, but because they see the finish line. If kids see homework as part of the grand design in achieving their dreams, they would be more enthusiastic in doing it.

5.3

Provide enough time for completing homework. Assisting pupils to figure out the best time to complete homework assignments is another great tip for helping them to do their homework assignments efficiently. The best time to tackle homework, if feasible, is before supper, preferably once they get home from school. Pupils should learn proper time management skills. If children are taught how to prioritize their responsibilities, and balance their school work with their social life, they will be far more efficient.

5.4

Propose logical consequences for work not done or incomplete work. Logical consequences are consequences that are designed logically to target specific behaviors rather than targeting children with punishments. There are at least two strategies: (1) Designing consequences to prevent specific misbehaviors and (2) Designing consequences to have children correct the problems they have caused Logical consequences are indicated whenever we cannot rely on natural consequences to teach children. Some natural consequences may be too dangerous. Other natural consequences may be irrelevant to children or beyond their understanding, for example not doing homework. Teacher should inform pupils beforehand of what actions will be taken upon their misbehavior of not completing the task assigned, i.e. detention, caning, no play time, etc. When homework is not done regularly the teacher then takes actions and contacts parents with a view to resolving the situation. If the situation continues, then the matter is brought to the attention of the Principal who will contact the parents and arrange a meeting to discuss how the matter can be resolved.

5.5

Check pupils homework frequently Ideally, teachers check homework on a daily basis. However, with large class numbers, it is not always possible to check each child's homework journal every day. As children get older and learn to work independently, some items of homework are checked less often, e.g. every second day or once a week. Some items of homework (and class work) may be checked by children themselves, under the direction of the teacher. This can be a useful part of the learning process for children as it promotes responsibility and self esteem.

6.0

TEMPOH MASA DITETAPKAN UNTUK MENYELESAIKAN ISU YANG DIKENAL PASTI Week 1 4 (04.07.2011 29.07.2011)

7.0

TINDAKAN SUSULAN DIRANCANG UNTUK DILAKSANAKAN BAGI MENYELESAIKAN ISU YANG DIKENAL PASTI

Plan Week Make homework effective. Explain why people go to school. Provide enough time for completing homework. Propose logical consequences for work not done or incomplete work. Check pupils homework frequently. 8.0

2 / / /

3 / / / /

4 / / / /

PELAKSANAAN TERHADAP LANGKAH-LANGKAH PENAMBAHBAIKAN DIJALANKAN

8.1

Make homework effective. On week 2, I noticed that many of my pupils felt burden to complete my work. When I asked them whether I had given them too much work to do, they answered, Yes. I reflected on the quality and quantity of work assigned and restructured my plan of assigning homework. I cut down all the unnecessary part for example excessive table filling, and modify the way to attempt the task given, i.e. include only objective and subjective questions following the syllabus. Besides, I chunk the task given into smaller parts so that my pupils can finish it part by part without much pressure. After doing this, I see that more pupils are able to complete and pass up their work on time.

8.2

Explain why people go to school. At the beginning of week 2, I praised pupils who handed in their books on time in the class. I talked about how independent they should be the rational behind it and the promising effects of doing well in school. Each time they do well in their assignments, I make sure to compliment them. I always provide remarks that doing homework is for the sake of achieving their dreams and encourage them to be more enthusiastic in doing it. However, for the following weeks till week 6, not all

pupils are adhered to my advice. Only those who are very obedient and are mostly bright follows my guidance. Others are still quite immovable and only at times finish their given work.

8.3

Provide enough time for completing homework. Lately, on week 3 and 4, I provided them extra time in class for my pupils to redo, complete and correct their previous work. They seemed to be willingly to do their work in school during my class. Work submitted on week 3 and 4 is quite pleasing to me since almost the whole class is was able to hand in, although there were some pupils submitted late. I make sure that all of the exercises given are discussed so that they know which part they have made mistakes and let them do their corrections in ease.

8.4

Propose logical consequences for work not done or incomplete work. I have strictly stated the consequences of not doing and submitting my work on third week. A small number of pupils were trying to test my patience for the past few weeks. I had been fair enough by providing several chances for them to redo and resubmit my work in a given time which I believed was sufficiently for them to complete the unfinished work. I had decided to send them for their Science teacher who also is a discipline teacher on week 4. Pupils now are aware that I take stern action in monitoring their homework completion and do not play a fool that much during my class these days.

8.5

Check pupils homework frequently. I marked my pupils homework weekly without fail. Still, not all passed up each time. There would always be some pupils handed in late. At least, they did not delay that long. Normally, they sent in the very next or the day after. I kept on returning incomplete work for them to redo or those with too much mistakes to do corrections immediately. Doing corrections are compulsory for my class and they are informed to do it automatically after receiving their books after marking. By checking often, I am able to detect pupils who are facing difficulties in their learning or those with irresponsible and lazy attitudes. I always spare some time to meet these pupils in order to monitor their learning and try to modify their improper behaviours.

9.0

KESIMPULAN / REFLEKSI Children need to understand that the successful completion of homework can lead to future academic success, which will behoove them greatly in the coming years. A sense of accomplishment and task mastery can yield tremendous results, and may help the child to develop a greater appreciation of school. Homework should naturally complement those skills that teachers want to teach. Often more times than not, this involve a lot more practice before giving the actual homework assignment. When pupils do not do their homework however, it can show a number of things. Perhaps, the teacher has not spent enough time on the practice stage of the skill, not enough time for homework completion, teacher does not monitor pupils work continuously and foremost reason - pupils are not motivated to take responsibility of one selfs learning. I am glad that I have found ways that are considered to be effective to be practiced as my teaching rutin in school in future. I will carry on implementing my plans to achieve my ultimate goal aim of 0 incomplete homework.

10.0

RUJUKAN

Coles B. (2010) 5 tips to help children do their homework assignments efficiently. Retrieved on 13 March 2011 from http://www.helium.com/items/2022469-5-tips-for-helpingchildren-do-their-homework-assignments-efficiently?page=2 Hepburn D. (2010) Why K-12 students do not do their homework. Retrieved on 3 March 2011 from http://www.helium.com/items/1893304-why-k-12-students-do-not-do-theirhomework Mrboffo (2009) Why Homework is Important. Retrieved on 12 march 2011 from http://www.bukisa.com/articles/28493_why-homework-is-importantRadcliffe S.(2001) Raise Your Kids without Raising Your Voice. Motivating Kids to Do Homework. Retrieved on 2 march 2011 from http://www.parentingadvice.net/kids/motivating-kids-to-do-homework.html Sasson D. (2007) Giving Homework to Students. Retrieved on 20 March 2011 form http://www.suite101.com/content/giving-homework-to-students-a18460 Scoil Asicus Naofa , Strandhill. School Policy. Retrieved on 05 March 2011 from http://www.scoilasicus.scoilnet.ie/homework.html