Parents' views regarding homeworks given in science courses

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore parents' opinions about homework assignments given in science and technology courses. The sample of the study was composed of 764 parents who reside in the city of Osmaniye in Turkey. The data were collected by a "Parent Homework Scale" developed by the researcher. The instrument includes three subscales; function, attitude and behavior. U-Test and H-Test were employed to identify any difference among variables. The findings showed that there was no significant difference in parents' scores on attitude and behavior subscales of the instrument regarding gender, educational background, occupation, and average monthly income. When function subscales scores were investigated according to gender educational background, occupation, average monthly income, it was observed that civil servants in occupational category had lower function scores than self-employed, farmer, worker, artisan, and retired. It was found that university graduates in level of education category had lower function scores than primary school graduates, secondary school graduates, and high school graduates. It was also found that high income in the monthly income group had lower function scores than other members in each related group.