Why can't GCSE homework be in hand written form rather than using computer programmes

[Puddypuds]

As above. I am tearing my hair out at my child's GCSE homework. Science that you can just open up another tab and Google the answer, maths where you can open a tab and Google the answer, geography where you can ...you get the jist! Maths homework where you can just click on a random answer, where you get numerous chances if you get it wrong and no facility for showing workings out to see where they may have gone wrong. Drives me around the bend. If I had a wonderfully conscientious child it would probably work. I don't and it doesn't!

But if it was handwritten they could still Google the answer?

You can still Google handwritten homework (because I've just done it for Alevel organic chemistry), but typed would mean the teacher doesn't need to decipher my child's hieroglyphs poor handwriting.

By Y11, the majority of children actually see the benefit in practicing what they've learnt in school and revision. They understand the implications for their exams.

This isn't a universal problem.

Isn't it scientifically proven that writing things down helps you to remember them better than typing or answering questions on screens?

English HOD here. We’ve gone back to paper sheets with short answers to fill in, revision style. Kids actually prefer it I think. If they really want to cheat they will of course, but I think we get less of that. Gave up setting exam questions to be done at home a loooooong time ago!

This is my point. At least handwriting answers prepared you for exams and hopefully you absorb some of what you are learning. Pasting a question into Google and copying and pasting the answer is surely nut the most thorough way to learn.

I can see benefits of different types. DDs school science dept have taken to setting a weekly (digital) revision quiz for Y11. Instant feedback and being digital means that they can utilise otherwise dead time, e.g. DD sometimes does this while waiting for the bus.

As the ONLY way of working - it's not ideal.
As an additional aspect - great. Plus by GCSE, children should be doing more self study than the set homework. That can be in whatever format they work best with.

We (my yr10 son and I) were discussing the fact how he doesn’t like the homework being online. He says he feels like it is ‘big brother’ style, as the teachers can see exactly how much time you spent on the work, and what time it was started/completed.

The stress of leaving your homework until the last minute, rushing to complete it over breakfast, is character building (I gained my highest A-Level coursework grade for an essay done a few hours before I had to hand it in. Ironically, it was re: sleep deprivation 😄!).

Cos they take fucking hours to mark.

and that’s just the maths.

sure you can google the answer. But if I set eg sn online paper for gcse homework I can tell very quickly if someone is cheating (I know roughly what each kid can do and not do) and it’s pointless.

it can also be useful. Eg do the paper, then go through and do actually google the ones you couldn’t do.

we often set personalised homeworks with qr codes of doing exactly the questions they got wrong on the most recent paso paper.

They all just run it through ChatGPT now anyway.

If children are going to google the answer they will hand written or not.

My child did their entire gcse exams even on a laptop. If they had handwritten their practise tests or notes let alone their GCSEs it would have been unreadable and not markable.

I do however hate sparx. I dislike the fact you cannot complete the work with a wrong answer which does encourage cheating rather than a wrong answer actually flagging a gap in their learning.

My kids hate online school work too. All three of the ones who are old enough to have it in that format. And they hate online maths more than the others.

I do think it's much more tempting for kids to cheat, especially the copy/past aspect facilitates that.

And frankly meth on a keyboard stinks, there is a reason many higher maths students will use some kind of a program that allows them to write with a stylus. And multiple choice is, generally speaking, not the same. Lots of kids guestimate and they end up being sloppy workers.

I also would say - if kids can't produce readable work, for all but a few that is a problem that needs to be addressed.

Also, in the adult world, where you use the skills gained, you can also google the answers 🙂

The online platforms for my DC are really good. They set questions based on ability. They are marked as the questions are answered so DC have immediate feedback and it's less work for already stretched teachers. There's no chance of lost homework sheets. Goggling an answer can still happen with paper homework.

My son did all his gcse maths study online (home ed). He was a slow writer so when in school he spent all the time writing out the questions and not doing much actual maths! Maths was his strongest subect. Writing wasn't. When home ed we did lots of past papers to practice writing for the actual exam and he was fine. Goodness knows why the school thought it was a good idea to make all the kids write out the flipping questions as well! If you got through the first lot of questions you could move on to the higher ability ones but he never got there while in school because the writing took him so long.