Who Invented Homework – the Most Trustworthy Information You’ll Ever Find

January 27, 2020

Homework is an essential part of education: it helps to learn quicker and to deepen knowledge in various subjects. At the youngest age, starting with elementary school, we complete homework but we hardly muse about who invented homework and why. Who is the person behind home assignments? When and why it was invented? What was its primary goal? Today we will give answers on all the above questions and will also discuss why homework is so important for any student.

History of homework

The first mention refers to the Romans. In I century anno Domini, a popular oratory teacher Pliny the Younger asked his students in Quintilian to take part in home tasks. The goal of these activities was to improve speaking skills in informal surroundings. The results of these tasks exceeded all expectations and soon this approach was used by other teachers.

However, not Pliny the Younger but Roberto Nevilis, an Italian tutor, is considered the father of homework. In 1905 he made home tasks a punishment for students and soon this method became rather popular.

At the end of the 19th century took place great changes in the educational system. This also concerned homework: how often and what type of assignments students could get. The quality of education changed and homework became its integral part: students were forced to do tasks on their own and it was considered that without these assignments it was impossible to develop proper skills. It was crucial for a student to learn how to study independently.

Here are the commonly accepted criteria for homework:

It should be possible to complete;
It mustn’t be too difficult and large;
It shouldn’t be given at the beginning of education because students should first learn to work on their own.

Learning independently can greatly improve the educational process and is a tool to increase teaching quality. That is why homework has become a must for all academic levels: starting with schools and finishing with universities.

What makes homework so important?

As you already know, homework was first introduced by Roberto Nevilis back in 1905. But since then the education system has greatly changed.

Teachers, who support traditional methods of learning are sure that homework is one of the pillars of the educational process. And according to Roberto, it’s the only way to develop independence, creativity, and initiative in students.

Apart from these qualities, here are some other factors that make homework so important:

In class, students have to face lots of new information, a bigger part of which is forgotten with time. To prevent this homework assignment are required;
To master complex topics and subjects repetition is needed;
It is possible to understand and remember the material only with memory dispersion;
Homework is crucial for developing new skills and abilities.

The success of the educational process greatly depends on whether students prepare homework or not. Unfortunately, its organization is one of the biggest challenges any teacher has to face thus requiring much time and attention.

So when working on homework assignments, the teacher should keep in mind the main stages of material assimilation that any student has to face:

Perception;
Understanding;
Fastening;
Skill formation;
Applying this skill or knowledge of the practice.

So now you not only know who invented homework and when but can also understand the basic motives behind it.

Goals of assigning homework

The role of home assignments has been thoroughly discussed both by supporters and adversaries. More and more people today think that homework is not necessary to master the subject. However, the latest researches prove that it’s a wrong perception. According to these studies, homework is crucial in understanding the material and improving knowledge.

According to Roberto Nevilis, a person who invented homework, these are the tasks behind homework:

To study without being in a hurry;
To study without being evaluated;
To choose individual rhythm of studies;
To plan the educational process independently;
To use multiple tools and information sources.

Considering all these points, homework is priceless for:

Remembering information and material that was forgotten after class;
Repetition of all the material that was studied throughout the year;
Using all the skills needed for individual education.

To sum everything up, the goals of homework are:

Building such skills as independence, power of will and responsibility;
Learning different teaching approaches;
Learning how to extract information from different sources like books, guidelines or dictionaries;
Mastering research skills (such as comparison, hypothesis, assumption, and others).

Choosing a correct pattern of assigning homework for every class individually will surely contribute to mastering program material successfully. Thus, more and more types of homework should be applied and invented.

The tutor’s main goal is to choose the most appropriate homework type considering the material and individual peculiarities of students. A professional and experienced teacher should know how to combine various homework types in every class. A great idea can be using learning outdoors, which can contribute to imagination boost and opening up new skills and talents in students.

Existing homework types

When it was introduced back in 1905 by Roberto Nevilis, who invented homework, there were not many types of these assignments available. Considering that Roberto didn’t have much experience or time to test his system under different circumstances, it was rather hard to invent an effective and diverse system of studying at home.

Luckily, nowadays, after years of experiments, teachers possess a wide range of homework tasks that may suit all sorts of needs. Here are only some of these types:

Mastering the topic and material using textbooks;
Completing oral exercises;
Conducting written exercises;
Working on creative papers such as essays, reviews, and presentations;
Providing reports on the material that has been studied for a certain period of time like term papers or coursework;
Performing observations, laboratory works, and experiments.

When all the above homework types are used all together, it’s possible to help students master all sorts of topics and subjects not depending on their complexity. And if they still find it a bit challenging, we know a writing company that can help – contact us without hesitation and get timely assistance from top experts in your subject.

What role does homework play in the education system improvement?

There are many different ways of improving the educational process and organizing the curriculum. One of them is homework. Luckily, there are multiple types of at-home tasks, which can be adjusted to any program, subject or even student. Each of these types is created to help students improve their knowledge, simplify the education process and to systemize gained knowledge.

Researchers have found that knowledge assimilation is one of the most challenging aspects of the educational process and thus it should take lots of time and attention from parents, teachers, and psychologists.

The process of understanding and learning in the class should be supported by a thorough organization of the study process at home that leads to new thinking patterns and applying acquired skills in the future. And most effectively these processes occur when students learn independently.

It should be remembered that even though Roberto Nevilis created homework to punish students, it is no longer a way to control or harm them. It is an additional tool in mastering the subject and gaining profound knowledge on the topic.

With the help of homework, students can systemize the information they have gained during class and sharpen various skills in practice. Without conducting homework, students miss a chance to study and lose a competitive advantage over their peers. Always remember that the main goal of any homework is to accumulate knowledge and to practically apply all the skills that were gained in class.

We hope that now you know not only who invented homework and what were the main reasons behind it but also what makes at-home tasks so important and won’t have to doubt whether it is worth your attention or not.