Teachers’ beliefs and assumptions about learning and teaching influence their decisions and the actions they take in their teaching practices. Brookfield (2015) believes that to critically reflect on teaching and gain further awareness of their practices, teachers should identify and research these assumptions to help determine their accuracy and validity. Brookfield (2017) proposes the “students’ eyes” as one of the four lenses a teacher can use to become a critically reflective teacher. Understanding student perceptions allows teachers to see to what degree their beliefs and assumptions resemble those of the students. It assists in making teachers’ choices and judgments more informed and can help teachers to make necessary changes to their classroom practices that improve student learning.

In my own teaching context at a juku in Japan, also known as a cram school, I teach English as a foreign language to junior high school and senior high school students from 12 to 18 years old. I provide listening and reading homework to my students before class and writing homework after class. My purposes in assigning homework are based on my own beliefs of the benefits students will gain from doing the homework. However, with the knowledge that students’ perceptions can often be different than those of the teacher, I carried out a small action research project through the use of a questionnaire to learn my students’ feelings on the homework, the benefits they believe doing the homework has for their English learning, and the resources they use to do it. Importantly, the responses I collected would allow me to be more informed on the assumptions I make about homework.

Before the study, students were informed that the questionnaire would be given to help me be better informed on the suitability of the homework I give them. To gain deeper insights from my students, I used open-ended questions that were translated into Japanese. Students also answered the questions in Japanese and were asked to provide responses to the different kinds of homework that they do. Importantly, students answered the questionnaire anonymously, which is essential if teachers want to see themselves “through the students’ eyes” (Brookfield, 2015, p. 23).

Discussion

Based on the analysis of the responses students gave on how they feel about the homework and the benefits that they believe doing the homework has for their English language learning, I found that my students clearly perceive homework in a positive way, which reflects my beliefs in the value of assigning homework to them.

The majority of students mentioned that the postclass homework helps to reinforce the content of the lesson and helps them better remember what they learn in class. Most students also said that the preclass homework allows the content of the lesson to “enter their mind,” making the class easier for them to understand. In addition, some students felt that the listening homework, given in the form of a voice recording, helps them to become more accustomed to listening to English and improves their pronunciation. This supports my belief that providing students with an audio recording will help them feel more confident about their listening abilities. My intention to encourage autonomous learning was also reaffirmed, with most students indicating that they check the meaning of unknown words using electronic dictionaries.

Based on what I observe in the classroom, it seems that most students check the meaning of the words but do not check the pronunciation. Therefore, to improve student learning, I intend to find out more about how students use their dictionaries to learn new vocabulary.

This research also enabled me to learn about additional long-term benefits students see in doing the homework, which do not immediately relate to my primary goals of assigning homework. These include success in future school examinations through acquiring grammar more firmly and assisting them in being able to better communicate in English in various situations in the future.

It should also be noted that while the research showed students can see the benefits in doing homework, it does not necessarily mean that they are all motivated about their homework and learning. It is possible that students may hold perceptions on what kind of homework they would find more suitable and which would motivate them. This is an area I can investigate further by asking students.

Conclusion

Through the process of asking students for their perceptions on homework, I was able to gain insights into their feelings and beliefs, which made my assumptions on the benefits that homework brings to the students more informed. It also allowed me, after reflecting on their responses, to identify additional areas that I could further research through learning students’ perspectives.

Undertaking this small research project was a valuable experience, and it was reassuring for me to find out that students perceive the benefits of homework in similar ways to myself. As Brookfield (2017) stated, “it’s just as important to know when your assumptions are broadly confirmed as it is to know when they’re in error” (p. 62).

References

Brookfield, S. D. (2015). The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Brookfield, S. D. (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Ewen MacDonald is a student in the MA TESOL Program at Kanda University of International Studies in Tokyo, Japan. He currently teaches students in an English program at a cram school in Japan, having previously taught at a junior high school in Japan and at universities in China. His research interests include teacher cognition, second language acquisition, corrective feedback, and vocabulary.