La esperanza y el gozo del Padre

Classroom observation in CS3 showed that there was homework for students to do every day. However, the students found it difficult to complete and learn from the homework because they could not understand it and this was a barrier to their learning. The homework was all in English which comprised of short and long answer questions and students were to answer in words or statements. As well, there were some questions that required students to do mathematical calculations. In this section, we look at the purposes and significances of giving homework on a regular basis as Fono indicated in the interview:

Practice makes perfect and the more you practise the better it gets. This is simply the purpose of giving homework. I want them to practise ... go through the stuff we discuss in class and then ... answer the questions or solve some problems ... that is why I get really upset if they come back and

114

say that they have not done all of it or forgot to hand in their assignment book … but they are short tasks that they can do at night and bring it in the next morning (Fono-CS3TInt).

Do you think that practice enables the students to understand the materials included in the homework, how do you find out if they do? (Researcher)

I believe [that] they eventually come to a point where they understand the stuff, but very much depends on how much times they spend on the questions and the notes. You know the nature of Samoan students, they are lazy to read [and] therefore they cannot construct new ideas from a piece of information. They take shortcut which often leads them to more problems, but I know all of these shortcuts. In order to avoid taking shortcuts I give directions, guidelines about what to do consistently. And all these directions are embraced in the homework activities. If no homework, they will never go back and re-read what we went through today. I believe that homework stimulates studying at home (Fono-CS3TInt).

How many times do you think your current chemistry students need to practise in order to understand? (Researcher)

It should only take them a couple of times to go through and be able to understand. I keep things simple because I know that these students [in ruralschools] are weak in subject content as well as poor English language proficiency. Giving them homework every day will also help them to develop their skills of answering questions, and how to respond by giving the exact answer. These skills could be used in other homework, and so on. I want them to continue developing their knowledge and skills in chemistry (Fono-CS3TInt).

Fono’s emphasis on the role of homework is mainly on practice. In this sense, according to Epstein and Van Voorhis (2001), homework is designed to give students opportunities to practise skills taught in class, increase speed, demonstrate mastery, retain skills, and study for tests. There is obviously some truth to the idea that practice is connected to

proficiency. Nuthall (2012) summarised that:

as children become familiar with an activity, they do it and build up a mental image of the process and the structure of the activity. The mental image includes all essential aspects of imitating the activity which can then be used to play and replay

115

the activity in the mind in order to try out and predict their outcomes internally (pp. 2-3).

However, people who practise by doing something a lot, often get better at doing it, but this does not mean that they understand it, “because practicing does not create

understanding” (Kohn, 2006a, p. 1). To elaborate on the idea of practice without understanding, Dianne described during the interview that:

... my answer here [refer to homework sample] is wrong ... so if asked again, I know that ethene gas is unsaturated (Dianne-CS3S4Int).

Although Dianne was able to identify the correct answer to the given question, she could not provide explanations when asked why an ethene molecule is considered an unsaturated hydrocarbon. This example illustrates that doing homework provides an opportunity for Dianne to remember the right answer particularly for two choice questions types without any understanding of the chemistry concepts. Thus, practice through the use of homework, as in the case of Dianne, appears to produce a specific behaviour rather than understanding (Kohn, 2006b). Behaviourism regards this kind of learning as a stimulus-response process: where memory, previous organisation of content, repeating and exercising; are the key elements for achieving knowledge (A Bandura, 1989; Duit & Treagust, 1998). It considers learners as a tabularasa in which one can write information that can be changed by experience. So in order to justify sending students home with a worksheet full of practice problems on the grounds that it reinforces skills is to say that what matters is not

understanding but behaviours that will help them pass tests and SSC.

While the teacher talked about homework as a way for students to practise, the students raised during the interviews very different perspectives on both the value of doing and the difficulties that they experience while doing the homework:

I like homework especially if I know what is going on. Our homework is based on what we do in class, or on the notes that we copy from the board, unfortunately not every day I understand the whole lesson. So if I don’t understand a lesson, it is very hard to do the homework and it is frustrating ... In cases like this, I will go to the next village, there is a university lecturer there and ask her for help. She will explain and tell me the answer to the questions (Malia-CS3S1Int).

116

I don’t know why only our chemistry teacher gives homework every day. Most of us don’t get to complete because I could not make a connection between the material we talked about and the question ... like tricky questions (Tiana-CS3S2Int).

Really, I think it is too much work for us. First we try to understand so much notes that we copy from the board, second, we have other subjects’ notes to read; third, there are homework for those other subjects and internal assessment tasks; fourth, we do chemistry homework every night ... we also have duties to do after school at home ... if we miss one we get scolded ... too many errors he scolds us ... too many times … and I am not happy when he does that (Mary CS3S3Int).

Homework is good to help us practise our chemistry but I wish the teacher can spend some time in class to explain each question. So I try to get my mother to translate for me, but she cannot understand. I ask my friend from our class, but she also doesn’t understand, so I leave them with no answer, although the teacher always smacks me on the head for incomplete work ... makes me really want to become a teacher in the future so that I can help students like me (Dianne- CS3S4Int).

I don’t really enjoy doing homework at all but I try to do it, because we have to ... [but] sometimes I could not finish, because I could not understand the questions. Sometimes I don’t get to do it until very late at night, because ... boys do more chores at home ... usually I fall asleep while looking at the homework late at night ... makes me feel that I don’t know why I am in school ... like no place for me ... I don’t know (Tamatoa-CS3S5Int).

Giving homework to do every day is considered important by the teacher. This is because he thinks that doing homework provides a practice for students to become better, although the data suggested it was more a case of rote learning of answers without understanding. For students, doing homework every day does not necessarily help them understand, because sometimes they could not understand the lesson and the homework. One of the student participants could not find time at home to do the homework, because he spent his after-school hours doing house chores. Despite the lack of enthusiasm, the students still had to try to complete the homework for the teacher to assess.

117