Comparing the Effects of Teacher-Directed Homework and Student-Centered Homework on Return Rate and Homework Attitudes of Minority Learning Disabled Students.

This study compared the attitudes of minority students with learning disabilities and their parents to both student-centered homework and teacher-directed homework assignments. An adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the return rates between traditional teacher-directed homework and student-centered assignments with 40 students identified with learning disabilities. The students attended a high school in Los Angeles (California) with an enrollment of 87 percent African American and 10 percent Hispanic students. The study found that student-centered homework return rates were an average of 7 percent higher than teacher-directed homework return rates. Students with low (less than 25 percent) baseline teacher-directed homework return rates increased their return rates by an average of 13 percent under the student-centered condition. Also, 86 percent of students reported they preferred the non-traditional student-centered assignments. Qualitative analysis from parent interviews indicated that parents had mixed feelings on homework type preference. (Contains 10 references.) (DB) ******************************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ********************************************************************************