Homework-based learning resources: two distinct approaches to design and development

Homework can be described as an enculturated expectation of our schooling discourse both nationally and internationally (Horsley & Walker, 2013). There are universal understandings about homework. From country to country, classroom teachers respond to government homework policy to set homework for their students, mostly using textbooks as the source of homework activity. However, in Australian primary school classrooms, the provision of homework tasks is not generally supported by the use of textbooks or by textbook activities. Rather, the classroom teacher is responsible for the design and the development of homework-based learning resources. This paper presents qualitative research that examined the ways in which, and the influences on, the processes used by primary classroom teachers in Queensland (Australia), to design and develop homework tasks. This paper foregrounds two distinct approaches to homework design and development that emerged through the findings; an early years’ teacher orientation and a middle years’ teacher orientation. These findings are significant because teacher homework practices have not been examined in this way before.