¿Qué piensa sobre los deberes escolares la comunidad educativa de un centro de Educación Primaria de la provincia de Alicante?

Abstract

Over the years, homework has became a polemic subject matter within the education landscape. Opinions and insights of various members of education community have mostly been opposite. All these points have inspired the conducting of this survey, which consists of two types of complementary researches. On the one hand, it was accomplished an instrumental research with the aim of studying the psychometric characteristics of three questionnaires designed ad hoc on homework for the educational community of Primary Education. Specifically, the content validity was analyzed through expert judgment of such instruments, as well as their internal consistency and construct validity. To perform this research it was used a mixed exploratory sequential method along three steps: pilot study, Delphi technique and completion of forms with and its later valuation of internal consistency and construct validity. Regarding the questionnaire leads student body (PDE-A), it can be said that, in the judgment of George and Mallery (2003), its internal consistency was questionable and in respect of construct validity were extracted 14 main components which explained 57.01 %. In terms of questionnaire of families (PDE-F), it showed a good internal consistency and 16 main components were extracted which explained 75.53 % of the total variance. Finally, in the case of questionnaire to teachers (PDE-D), its internal consistency was questionable as well, with a total of 14 main components extracted which explained 83.48 % of the total variance, being a suitable result. On the other hand, it was carried out an empirical research whose aim was discover what are students, families and teachers’ perceptions about homework of an educational institution from Alicante. Of this research derived five aims allocated to know opinions about different dimensions connected with homework (conceptualization, socio-affective aspect and spare time, family involvement, learning to learn and COVID-19) and other five aims allocated to compare such opinions. Everything was carried out by means of a sequential explanatory design with a mixed methodological approach. Finding, on the one hand, a quantitative channel accomplished with a non-experimental descriptive-comparative study of survey nature; and, on the other hand, a qualitative channel carried out through a phenomenological study based on symbolic interactionism using personal interviews and discussion groups. Regarding the most important conclusions of aims connected with conceptualizing of homework, they showed that these schoolwork had the goal of helping to consolidate knowledge, but both activities and methodology had become obsolete. Concerning mentioned dimension of socio-affective aspect and spare time, the conclusions determined that only Math homework gave rise to stress and anxiety situations. Likewise, it was established that the implementation of homework was not a waste of time. In terms of dimension of family involvement, it was extracted that those helped in school task, mainly mothers, however, this implication depended on the socioeconomic level of the families. About learning to learn dimension, it was determined that school tasks improved study habits, although they did not increase the academic performance. Lastly, in reference of dimension about homework during confined condition due to COVID-19, it was concluded that students considered that the number of tasks increased, as well as their difficulty to be accomplished without the presence of teachers.