Best practice in designing and managing after-school homework support : a sociocultural interpretation of homework and affording learning through homework practices

"While homework has been an active area of research investigation for the last 75 years (Cooper & Valentine, 2001), homework research has gained greater prominence (Cooper, 1989) in the last 20 years and has been the subject of a special issue of Educational Psychologist (2001, Vol. 36, No.3), a major educational journal. There have been several reasons for this trend. First, homework continues to be an important educational issue for teachers, parents, and policymakers. Second, the great majority of homework research has been concerned with the relationship between homework and academic achievement or topics which impinge directly on this relationship. This research has produced variable findings and significant methodological weaknesses (Trautwein & Koller, 2003) have been identified in studies conducted to date. To some extent these methodological weaknesses have been due to inadequate conceptualizations of homework as researchers have tended to focus on pragmatic considerations at the expense of homework theorization. The relationship between homework and achievement, however, has ensured that homework has continued to be a significant best-practice issue in relation to teaching and learning. Although other homework related topics, such as parental involvement (Hoover-Dempsey et ai., 2001) and family help with homework management (Como, 2000; Xu & Como, 2003), have been investigated, there has been little research into after-school programs for homework support. This chapter explicates best practice for after-school programs for homework support through the presentation of research which focuses on investigations of after-school homework assistance centers."--p. 81.