Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
INTERNATIONAL ONLINE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES, cilt.13, sa.3, ss.689-704, 2021 (Hakemli Dergi)
Homework that reinforces the knowledge and makes it permanent is frequently used in every grade
in education. Homework is the assignments given by the teachers to the students to do out of the
school. This study aims to reveal the opinions of university students on the effectiveness of learning
through homework. The study was conducted according to the phenomenology design, one of the
qualitative research methods. Phenomenological design is a research method that uses the
experiences of individuals to obtain information about the phenomenon. The participants of the
study consisted of 15 university students. The research data were collected by means of a semistructured interview protocol developed by the researchers. Content analysis, one of the qualitative
data analysis techniques, was used in analyzing the research data. Themes and sub-themes were set
in the research and some of the participants’ views were presented through the quotations.
According to the results of the study, it is seen that students mostly prefer doing homework in a quiet
environment. Another finding of the research, the majority of the students stated that if the
homework given attracts their attention, they would do their homework with the intent of learning.
The students stated that if the homework does not attract their attention, they would do the
homework just because they are obliged and would never go beyond preparing them mechanically.
Students who think positively about the quality of the assignments given by academicians stated that
most of the homework is educatory, and given according to their interests and needs. The students
who think negatively described the homework as sloppy, excessive, non-explanatory, noneducatory, and expected to be done in a limited time, unsuitable for the student level and the content
of the course and knowledge-intensive homework. While students see their ability to use time more
flexibly in the process of learning with homework as a positive situation, it has been determined that
they see the lack of equal opportunity as a negative situation. Considering the students' views
regarding the advantages of face-to-face learning over homework learning, it was found that the view
that there is more interaction in face-to-face education is highly emphasized. According to students,
a good quality homework should be functional, appropriate to the content of the course, pre-planned,
based on interpretation and appropriate to the student level. In addition, when the opinions of students regarding the evaluation of homework were examined, it was determined that the opinion
" It must be evaluated impartially " was emphasized the most. At this point, based on the research
results, it is suggested that homework must be used as a supportive of formal education not as a
stand-alone technique. Since this research only addresses the perspective of specific and one-sided
(doing the assignment) participants, it can offer an incomplete perspective to the homework process.
In addition, the lack of equal distribution of the participants according to their gender in this study
suggests that there may be possible effects of gender on opinions. In this context, future research is
recommended to take these situations into account.