define extension homework

Creating Extension Activities

Before starting, decide on the aim of your extension activity. An aim could be:

giving students more practice with a grammar structure or vocabulary because they haven’t quite ‘got it’ yet.
exploring a particular topic further.
reviewing material from the lesson or unit.
assessing where students are in their learning.

Whatever the aim, be sure to link the activity to the language, skills or topic that you want to extend.

1. Personalise it

An extension activity is a good way for students to relate the topic to themselves. In this way, the topic becomes more relevant and can make communication about the topic more meaningful. Students also tend to remember more when the language or topic is personalised. A simple extension activity would be to ask students their opinion about a topic: What do you think about…? Do you agree with…? Which do/would you prefer…? What would you do about…? More extensive activities might include students creating a set of questions and interviewing their partner, writing a personal response to a topic, or taking their own photos and creating an oral narrative using an app such as Fotobabble.

2. Integrate higher-order thinking skills

Thinking skills can be categorised into lower-order (remembering, understanding, applying) and higher-order (analysing, evaluating and creating). If students have been learning vocabulary, they have most likely been learning the definition (remembering), seeing the new words in context (understanding), and completing gapped sentences with the words (applying). An analysing extension activity might ask students to categorise the new words (you can provide the categories, or students could create their own categories), or you might ask students to compare the words to other words – for example, finding synonyms and deciding what the difference in nuance is between the words. If the words are used in a reading or listening text, you could ask students why certain words or phrases were used (evaluating). Students might also use the words creatively – in writing their own sentences (creating).

3. Review regularly

Hermann Ebbinghaus famously showed how much we forget over time, and how memory can improve with regular revision. Have a set of extension activities for the purpose of review in your teacher’s toolkit. Flashcards, revision games, spelling games, and pronunciation activities are all examples of extensions you can use for quick revision. An extension activity can also serve to review what has come before in previous units.

4. Give some choice

All classes have a mix of students with different abilities and strengths, so it’s a good idea to give students options to choose from according to what they feel they can do. For example, you might want students to show their understanding of a text. One option could be to write a summary (more language needed), another might be to create an infographic or timeline (less language needed). Another way to increase choice and provide differentiated instruction is to vary how much students have to produce. For example, you could ask students to write 1-3 true sentences about themselves and 1 false one. They then read their sentences to each other and guess which one is false.

5. Have some time extenders up your sleeve

for when you finish your lesson plan and still have 5-10 minutes left, or when you have fast finishers. Some standard activities include: (1) Students write 1-3 questions or sentences using the grammar structure they’ve been studying; (2) Pairs write 3-5 gapped sentences with the vocabulary from the section. They swap with another pair and complete each other’s sentences; (3) Students work in pairs – each student changes 5 words in a reading text. Student A begins reading the text. When student B hears a word that is different from what is in the text, s/he says, ‘stop’, quotes the word from the text, and then takes over reading where student A left off.

6. Integrate an informal assessment

Extension activities can simply be a way to informally assess whether students have grasped the language or skill aim of the lesson.

One way to do this is with ‘can do’… statements. Write a list of ‘ can dos’ based on your lesson aim on the board for students to copy. For example, if the aim of the lesson is “Students will be able to order a meal from a menu.”, then the ‘can do’ statement might be: “I can order a meal from a menu”. Students tick ü the things they feel they can do. You can then discuss these or collect them up. No ticks = need revision.

Another simple assessment is a “ticket out the door”. If, for example, you have been working on a certain language point, you could ask students to write 3 sentences using that language. These are collected up and used to assess whether or not you need to spend more time on the language point in subsequent lessons.

7. Make it different, interactive or just plain fun

Extension activities that focus on interaction or competition can be very engaging and can make a change from the norm. Try some team competitions that focus on language, skills or topics. One time-honoured example is a grammar auction, in which teams ‘buy’ sentences they think are correct. Teachers can also create board games based on language in the units, or play an online quiz using an app such as Quizlet.

8. Turn it into a project

Projects are a great way to integrate a number of skills, including the 21st-century skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. They also cater for mixed abilities because students can do them at their own language level. Projects should start with a question that gets students interested in finding out more. At this point, they may ask more questions or make hypotheses. Students should then do some research to find out the answers to their questions. Research can include surveys, interviews or internet searches. You could even invite a knowledgeable speaker into the classroom. Once they have done their research, students then decide how they will show it. What is important here is that they present their finished product to an audience – another class, the whole school, the headmaster, or parents, for example. When planning a project, think of the aims and work backwards.

If you would like to try some of the ideas above with your students, download my ‘ try this in class ’ tips for even more activity ideas and tips, based on New Headway Intermediate 4th edition.

Stacey Hughes works as a teacher, teacher trainer, materials writer and educational consultant in ELT. She has taught English in the US, Poland, Italy and the UK in many different contexts, and currently volunteers as a teacher for FELLOW in Oxford. She has recently run an introduction to teacher training course for the Oxford Department of Education Summer School. Stacey has written a number of blogs, online student exercises and teacher support materials.

7 Types of Homework for Students

There are seven types of homework. These are practice, preparation, extension, integration, research, application, and flipped homework.

Each type of homework has its own role for students learning. The important task for teachers is to select homework that will best provide holistic support to a student.

This doesn’t mean just supporting students for the upcoming exams but also ensuring students are not overwhelmed by homework and that they can still live a balanced life outside of school.

Types of Homework

1. practice.

Practice is the most common task students have when they are given homework. It entails attempting to reinforce information learned in school so that students will commit it to long-term memory.

An example of practice homework is math workbooks. Usually, a teacher will complete the math task in class so students know how to do it, then give them a workbook of 20 – 50 tasks to complete overnight to reinforce the task.

The benefit of practice homework is that it can certainly help students commit what they learned in class to memory. This is especially the case if teachers used spaced repetition. This is a strategy whereby the teacher re-introduces things learned in previous weeks and months during homework revision so the information is not lost over time.

The downside of practice homework is that the child is learning on their own during this period. This means that, if the child hasn’t sufficiently learned the content in class, they don’t have anyone to help them during homework time. This can lead to a great deal of frustration and despair for students staring at a piece of paper feeling lost and confused.

Related: Homework Statistics

2. Preparation

Preparation homework is given to students before a lesson so they have the important information at hand before class.

Commonly, this occurs when teachers provide reading materials for students to look over between class. They then come to class having read the materials so they are ready to discuss and debate the topics.

It’s also commonly used in language learning, where it’s called pre-teaching of vocabulary. The teacher provides vocabulary to learn before class so the students can come to class and practice it together.

The benefit of preparation homework is that it bunches a lot of the didactic (non-interactive) parts of learning into the pre-class time so students can spend most of their time in class interacting with the teacher and peers.

The downside of preparation homework is that it rarely works as expected. Teachers often spend the first 10 to 15 minutes of class re-teaching what was supposed to be done for homework either because students found it too hard or they didn’t do the tasks.

3. Extension

Extension homework involves providing students with tasks that are based upon what was learned in class, but goes over and above those tasks.

It is the equivalent of teaching a student to swim then letting them out into the ocean. The students have to apply their knowledge in a new context without the support or ‘ scaffolding ’ of a teacher hovering over their shoulders.

The benefit of extension homework is it can give students a lot of confidence. They can go home and feel as if they’re excelling at their work when they find that they’re doing it without the support of a teacher.

The downside of extension homework is that it can be risky: by definition, students are extending themselves beyond what was learned in class, meaning they will come across new information and new contexts where they might need help that’s not available at the time.

Related: Homework Pros and Cons

4. Integration

Integration homework requires students to bring together, or ‘integrate’, knowledge from various subjects and knowledge areas into one project.

The homework may involve the integration of history lessons with writing lessons to create a book report, or the integration of math with business studies to create a business plan.

Integration is great for students to draw connections between things they have learned in various different classes at school. However, it also involves a lot of complexity that may make students feel confused or overwhelmed.

5. Research

Research homework involves using your time after school and on weekends to gather data that will be discussed in class.

Often, this can involve interviewing family members, taking photos around your community, or looking up information on the internet.

The benefit of research homework is that students often come to class with exciting things to share. They will also come with questions to help stimulate conversation in class.

However, it’s important for teachers to be aware that not all students have access to high-speed internet and other resources to conduct research. In fact, in my homework statistics article, I discussed how a staggering 24% of low-income American teens regularly fail to complete homework due to lack of access to technology.

6. Application

Application homework involves taking knowledge learned in class and applying it to real-world settings.

This is common in immersive language learning settings, for example, when teachers ask students to go out into the streets and practice new vocabulary when ordering a drink or buying food.

The benefit of application homework is that it gives real-world context to what was learned in class. By applying your knowledge, you can more effectively commit it to memory than simply rote learning it at your kitchen table.

Application in a real-world setting provides a context and a story that you can easily pull from your memory in the future, helping you to retain information long-term.

7. Flipped Homework

The flipped learning movement is a movement that involves making students learn at home on their own then come to class to practice it.

For teachers, this means thinking about school as the space for ‘traditional’ homework and home as the space for instruction.

This is increasingly popular with technology and hybrid learning environments. For example, a teacher might assign a YouTube video to watch as homework before class. Then, the class involves dissecting the video and critiquing it.

The benefit of flipped learning is that it maximizes time for constructivist and hands-on active learning in the classroom. The downside is students can get confused during preparation, they may not complete the preparation work, or technology may fail on them.

What are the Functions of Homework?

Homework serves multiple purposes. These include:

Getting Ahead: Many schools and parents give their children homework (including private tutoring help so their children can have an advantage in life over other children.
Keeping Up: On a societal level, many governments encourage homework so that students can keep up with other societies in the ‘education race’ of the 21st Century. Some societies, like South Korea, heavily emphasize homework, and others feel they need to keep up.
Catching Up: Many students are assigned homework to catch up with the rest of their class. If you find a topic very difficult, you may find you need to spend a lot more time on your own working through the information than your peers.
Retention: Homework helps you to repeat and retain information. With extra practice, you can commit information to memory.
Excitement: Some well-made homework can get students excited to come to class to discuss what they did.
Application: Situation-based learning, where you’re applying what you learned in class to real-world situations, can help progress students’ knowledge in ways that you can’t in school.
Home-School Relationships: Homework also serves the purpose of ensuring parents know what’s going on in school. Many parents like to see what children are learning so they can monitor their children’s progress and keep teachers accountable.

Homework comes in all shapes and sizes. While many teachers stick to the old fashioned repetition homework mode, I’d encourage you to try out a range of other types of homework that can keep students engaged, encourage more discussion and collaboration in class, and ensure that the difficult work where students need the teacher’s help takes place in the classroom. This will provide maximum support for your students, help propel them forward, and prevent arguments for why homework should be banned .

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Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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Extension and Enrichment in Learning

Extension and enrichment are two ways of making learning more challenging for learners with higher ability. This article discusses the difference between them and provides examples of each, as well as self-directed projects that offer both enrichment and extension, in a variety of subjects.

What Is the Difference Between Extension and Enrichment?

Although subtle, it helps to remember the difference between these two forms of challenging high potential learners if we start with the meanings of the words:

Extension means to enlarge or extend something, usually in scope or operation. For example, extending a house by building more rooms.

Enrichment means to enrich something, usually by adding something different to it. For example, enriching soil by adding something to improve its quality.

In education terms, extension usually means to extend the learning in the lesson to make it more challenging. On the other hand, enrichment means doing something beyond the classroom or in addition to the main lesson that will enrich the learning, often allowing students to explore their interests. More of the same work and harder problems are not examples of extension and enrichment.

Why Do High Potential Learners Need Extension and Enrichment?

It can be argued that all children need enrichment in their learning, whereas extension is only needed by some children who are not being challenged by regular, enriched learning. Enrichment offer high potential learners the opportunity to develop their interests in a way that empowers them to go deeper and doesn’t ‘put a lid’ on their learning. Moreover, providing enriched learning for all, means that more children will be engaged and able to show what they are capable of.

Extension and enrichment provide opportunities for high potential learners, who are able to cover the basics very quickly, to be challenged, develop critical skills and build resilience. They are important in meeting the learning needs of able children and are robustly proven in research to lead to higher achievement and better wellbeing.

What Do Extension and Enrichment Look Like?

Extension is often a differentiated class activity that takes into account the higher order thinking skills of analysing, evaluating, creating and problem solving. These questions and activities will often activate divergent thinking, development of different perspectives and seeking of alternative solutions.

Enrichment is usually learning outside of the normal curriculum and can take many forms. The examples most often used in a school setting are enrichments projects, school trips and outside speakers. It can also take the form of homework projects, or visits to sites of interest or museums and galleries to learn more about the topic or to experience it first-hand. These activities will serve to engage learners and deepen their learning by building connections to other topics, subjects or personal experiences.

In particular, self-directed projects that offer a choice of what area to learn about, can be classed as both extension and enrichment if the project question is aimed at a higher order thinking level. Projects that have both an outcome/product and an audience to share it with are of the highest quality.

Below are some examples of extension and enrichment on various popular topic areas, together with a project suggestion to illustrate how high potential learners can be challenged.

Topic: Our Place in the World

Lesson: Finding out about our town. Extension Activity: What makes a town a good place to live? Enrichment Example: Visiting some of the landmarks in our town and finding out why they are important. Project Suggestion: How can we rate our town compared to other places in England? Outcome/audience: Presentation in assembly.

Topic: World War II

Lesson: The effects of World War II on children. Extension Activity: Compare the effects of the war on children today and in 1940s England. Enrichment Example: Outside speaker talking about what it was like being a child in the War. Project Suggestion: What could be done to make the lives of children living in war-torn countries better? Outcome/audience: Write a letter to your MP/a charity.

Topic: Rainforests

Lesson: Where rainforests are located. Extension Activity: What can be concluded about places where rainforests are located? Enrichment Example: Create a rainforest mural/world map as a class or in a group. Project Suggestion: What would be needed to create a rainforest environment in the UK? Outcome/audience: An annotated diagram or animation to be shown on a website.

Topic: Angles

Lesson: What an angle is. Extension Activity: What are the different types of angles used for/found in? Can you spot any patterns? Enrichment Example: Take a protractor and investigate what angles you can find in our classroom. Project Suggestion: How does knowing about angles help me in navigation? Outcome/audience: PowerPoint to share with the rest of the class.

Topic: Macbeth

Lesson: Who the characters are. Extension Activity: Sort the characters in Macbeth into a classification system that will be helpful to you in thinking about their personalities. Enrichment Example: Read a section of the play that illustrates the personalities of the main characters, taking parts in groups. Project Suggestion: Decide who you feel has the most ‘character’ giving evidence for your choice. Outcome/audience: Use the Padlet app in less than 60 words to share with the year group.

Challenging high potential learners can be done through both enrichment and extension. Whilst enrichment is suitable for most learners to help them to engage and deepen their learning experience, extension is used to challenge those who master the main material of the lesson quickly. Good quality (those that involve an outcome and an audience for it) self-directed projects offer both extension and enrichment in a format that suits many high potential learners and helps them to develop independent learning skills.

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About the author: Rebecca Howell is Potential Plus UK’s Senior Education Consultant. She leads various aspects of the organisation, including oversight of the assessment and advice services. She is passionate about leadership and developing new services to support members. With a background in educational leadership, she has 3 children with high learning potential/dual or multiple exceptionality.

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10 The Power of Extension: Research, Teaching, and Outreach for Broader Impacts

Jeremy Elliott-Engel; Courtney Crist; and Gordon Jones

Introduction

The land-grant university (LGU) system was created on a foundation of three missions: classroom-teaching, research, and a specific type of community education called Extension [1] . The majority of this book has highlighted and focused on the formal higher-education classroom-teaching experience of the mission, and your doctoral program has provided training on the research component. This chapter will focus on the third mission, Extension (at non-LGU institutions similar efforts may be called outreach, engagement, or service). The Cooperative Extension System (CES) has a mission to translate research-based findings, best practices, and information in four broad program areas: youth development (4-H), agriculture and natural resources (ANR), family and consumer sciences (FCS), and community development (Seevers et al., 2007). Land-grant universities employ Extension educators to work from campus and state regional centers, as well as in local county or city offices to deliver Extension education programs based on stakeholder needs—including state, industry, and community needs (Baughman et al., 2012). It should be noted that university and state Extension organizational structures and program priority areas differ by state.

Extension educators offer nonformal educational programs to both businesses and the citizens of their communities. Local Extension educators are supported by research and Extension faculty across departments from the LGU. To start our journey to understanding what Extension education is, and how you, as a future or current LGU faculty member and researcher, will support Extension education, we will recount the history of the LGU mission, then introduce a learning theory for nonformal education, and finally explain the unique planning processes of Extension education programs.

The objectives of this chapter are to provide a translation of effective teaching practices from the higher-education classroom and emphasize the interconnections of teaching and research disciplines to impactful community outreach, engagement, and impact.

This chapter will discuss…

The origin and mission of the land-grant university system.
Educational theory utilized in non-formal educational settings.
Educational learning contexts and environments outside of the formal classroom.
How to establish and integrate a research, teaching, and outreach educational program to support broader impacts

What Is Extension?

The use of the word “Extension” derives from an educational development in England during the second half of the nineteenth century. Around 1850, discussions began in the two ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge about how they could serve the educational needs, near to their homes, of the rapidly growing populations in the industrial, urban area. It was not until 1867 that a first practical attempt was made in what was designated “university Extension,” but the activity developed quickly to become a well-established movement before the end of the century. (Jones & Gartforth, 1997, p. 1)

The idea of Extension started in the late nineteenth century in both the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (US) with three components: adult education, technology transfer, and advisory services (Shinn et al., 2009). In the United States, the development of the Extension system started on July 2, 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant College Act (Morrill Land-Grant Act, 1862). This legislation forming the LGU system was sponsored by Vermont Senator Justin Smith Morrill. Passage of the Morrill Act was unexpected because President James Buchanan had previously vetoed a version of the act in June 1860 due to Southern state representatives’ criticisms that granting Western territorial land was an imprudent use of resources. The Western territorial lands were lands taken from Native Americans by the US government. The bill that was vetoed had granted just 2,000 acres for a university’s setup. The successful version of the Morrill Act granted 30,000 acres of Western territorial land as an endowment to establish at least one college per state and territory (Wessel & Wessel, 1982). The Morrill Act successfully passed in 1862 largely because Southern states representatives were absent from Congress at the time of the vote due to the Civil War (Lee, 1963).

The established purpose of the LGU institutions is to make liberal and practical education available to all citizens of the nation, particularly the working class (Duemer, 2007; Depauw & McNamee, 2006; Lee, 1963; Simon, 1963). To achieve this mission the Morrill Act and its successors were deliberately designed not simply to encourage, but to force the states to significantly increase their efforts on behalf of higher education. The federal government, having promoted the establishment of new colleges, made it incumbent upon the states to supply the means of future development and expansion (Lee, 1963, p. 27). The LGUs married the humanistic idea of the renaissance university (liberal education) and the German university (practical education) (Bonnen, 1998). This combination of liberal and practical education in one institution was designed to democratize education and provide educational opportunities for all citizens. The LGUs evolved into entities with a three-pronged mission of research, teaching, and outreach (Simon, 1963).

In 1890, a second Morrill Act was passed, which prohibited the distribution of money to states that made race a consideration when making decisions about admission to their state’s 1862 LGU institution (Lee & Keys, 2013). Each state had to demonstrate that race was not a criterion when considering a student’s admission to the LGU. If Blacks or other persons of color were unable to be admitted because of race, then a separate LGU was established for them (Comer et al., 2006). This resulted in 19 previously slave-holding states establishing public colleges serving Blacks (Allen & Jewell, 2002; Provasnik et al., 2004; Redd, 1998; Roebuck & Murty, 1993). These “1890” institutions were awarded cash in lieu of land; however, they retain the designation of “land grant” due to the legislation. The 1890 institutions brought public and practical education to previously excluded and marginalized populations.

All 50 US states have one land-grant institution which was established in 1862, and many states have additional minority-serving land grants that were founded by the 1890 or 1994 bills. Most southeastern states also have one 1890 land-grant university each (i.e., Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, and all states directly south of them). Many northern states have one or more 1994 land-grant tribal colleges, as well as California, Arizona, New Mexico, Hawaii, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Hawai'i, most northeastern states, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Illinois, and Indiana only have 1862 land grants. Montana has the most land grants at a total of 8.

In 1994, the Equity in Educational Land-Grant Status Act established 29 tribal colleges and universities as “1994” tribal land-grant institutions. These institutions have a mission to provide federal government resources to improve the lives of Native American students through higher education (USDA-NIFA, 2015).

The three current missions of research, teaching, and outreach were achieved through additional legislation. The 1887 Hatch Experiment Station Act (Hatch Act) established the State Agricultural Experiment Station (SAES) to improve agricultural production through applied agriculture research and to provide educational outreach opportunities through the LGUs (Knoblauch et al., 1962). Joining the locally responsive research from the SAES with the LGUs expanded the capacity for classroom education and provided the opportunity to share knowledge onsite at research stations across each state. However, to extend the positive benefits of knowledge farther afield, more efforts were needed. Cooperative Extension began when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Smith-Lever Act into law on May 8, 1914. The purpose of Extension was declared to be an effort “to aid in diffusing among the people of the U.S. useful and practical information on subjects related to agriculture and home economics, and to encourage the application of the same” (Rasmussen, 1989, p. 7). The Smith-Lever Act did not specifically state that Extension services should only work with farmers (Ilvento, 1997; Rogers, 1988). Extension was designed to take the research-based knowledge generated at the LGUs and the SAES to US citizens through a partnership between LGUs and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The implementation of this organizational system had significant and profound effects on adult education in the United States. Liberty Hyde Bailey, a renowned botanist and Cornell faculty member, was instrumental in the formation of the Extension service and 4-H; he argued that Extension could not address agricultural production issues without also addressing the social and human issues facing rural communities (Ilvento, 1997; Rosenberg, 2015). At the time, he lost the argument to Seaman Knapp, then president of Iowa Agricultural College, who laid the foundation of the Agricultural Experiment stations as an employee of the USDA. Knapp argued the role of Extension was solely to educate reluctant farmers on new technology (Ilvento, 1997; Peters, 1996). Because of Knapp’s influence, the purpose of Extension began as instruction and practical demonstration concerning agriculture and home economics for individuals in communities across the state who would otherwise not have access to information and new innovations.

The name Cooperative Extension emerged from the cost sharing, which required using state and local funding sources to match the funds contributed by the USDA. Currently, federal partners supply approximately 30 percent of the system’s financial resources, while state and local (e.g., county) funds make up the remaining portion of the budget (Rasmussen, 1989). Further, following funding trends within higher education, a growing share of Extension budgets consists of extramural grants and contracts (Jackson & Johnson, 1999).

The focus of US Extension work has evolved from primarily relaying technical innovation to also providing leadership for social, cultural, and community change and development (Stephenson, 2011) by partnering with communities to identify solutions to challenges in partnership (Vines, 2017). As previously mentioned, this adaption reflects a move toward Bailey’s perspective that community programming cannot provide technical knowledge without first supporting the individual and social needs of the participants. Extension, because of the nature of the organization, has always engaged with communities, and more importantly, has acted as an accessible and knowledgeable resource for the communities they serve. Extension professionals have sought to respond to society and community needs, whether in response to supporting a reduction of poverty in rural communities (Rogers, 1988; Selznick, 2011) or helping the nation survive World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II (Rasmussen, 1994) by ensuring the sustainability of food resources, and by supporting rural electrification (Rosenberg, 2015), rural telephone, and today, broadband access (Whitacre, 2018). The mission of Extension has expanded from a focus on agriculture and family and consumer sciences to incorporate areas of health, community, and business development, and from solely rural audiences to rural, suburban, and urban communities (Morse, 2009; DePauw & McNamee, 2006). While work remains to be done, 1862 LGUs in every state and territory work to serve a demographically representative population and address community challenges (Elliott-Engel, 2018), and 1890 and 1994 LGUs target historically underserved populations with specific interventions.

What Is Extension Education?

Early practitioners of … Extension education drew from foundational theories of learning and teaching (Dewey, 1938; James, 1907; Lancelot, 1944). During the early evolution, knowledge was grounded in observation and experience and passed to others through direct engagement methods. Over time, …Extension education integrated the principles of learning and teaching, applied research, and Extension outreach. Today’s field of study draws from educational psychology and the works of Bandura (1977), Bruner (1966), Gagné (1985), Knowles (1975), Piaget (1970), Thorndike (1932), Vygotsky (1978), and others. Perspectives of learning rise from the educational theories of behaviorism and constructivism, while the perspectives of teaching are drawn from the works of Freire (1972), Habermas (1988), Kolb (1984), Lewin (1951), and others who advanced problem solving, critical thinking, and communicative reason. (Shinn et al., 2009, p.77)

Extension is an organization that continuously plans, executes, and evaluates programs with learners (Meena et al., 2019, p. 17) and updates or modifies as needed. Extension education is a knowledge exchange system that engages change agents in a participatory persuasive process of educating stakeholders in a changing world (Shinn et al., 2009). Extension educators are professionals in the social, behavioral, and natural and life sciences who use sound principles of teaching and learning, and they integrate the sciences relevant for the development of human capital and for the sustainability of agriculture, food, renewable natural resources, and the environment (Shinn et al., 2009).

Extension education can be conducted and executed in many forms including in-person education (e.g., workshops, seminars, demonstrations, short courses), publication (e.g., website, print media), and using social media (e.g., infographics). In many non-LGU institutions, Extension is commonly referred to as community outreach or engagement. These terms originated in the Extension education movement. The work, when adopted, contributes to the democratic process of encouraging institutions of higher education to help extend research efforts beyond the students in the classroom and fellow researchers in academe to communities or businesses where it can be directly applied.

There are several principles that are important to keep in mind to ensure success in extending research and knowledge outside the higher education environment. The education of community members has different principles than the formal education setting. In formal education settings, motivation is incentivized by earning grades needed to receive certification through the earning of a degree. In nonformal education settings, education centers around learners’ motivations to obtain the knowledge being offered and its impact on their livelihood or success.

Nonformal Education Theory

Nonformal education is the learning instruction provided beyond the traditional secondary education system designed to prepare individuals (adolescents and adults) to achieve their personal, social, and economic life goals (Okojie, 2020). When extending their research beyond the formal classroom, the educator becomes an adult and nonformal educator, also known as an Extension educator. Extension educators remain intentional and systematic while also recognizing content can and should be adapted for different clientele (Etling, 1993).

Researchers have defined adult learners in overlapping but somewhat different ways. Merriam (2008) describes adult learners as those whose age, social roles, and self-perception define them as adults. Adult learning theory is informed by foundational scholars in related fields such as psychology and sociology. The theories of behaviorism, cognitivism, humanism, constructivism, and connectivism illuminate different learner types and their disposition toward the process of education (Balakrishnan, 2020). The main ideas, approaches, and contributions of these theories have been summarized for your reference in table 10.1. The denotation of the theory, approach, and application is indicated by the theorists’ major works and forthcoming implications.

Each theorist presents a systematic explanation for the observed facts and laws that relate to a specific aspect of life (Williamson, 2002), in this case the nonformal learner. Each of the theorists allows the Extension educator to conceptualize the learner in different ways. The nonformal learners bring their lived experiences, and thus, their varied motivations to the educational process. The educator in the nonformal context must think about barriers to participation and adoption (Rogers, 2003) of the practice or materials presented.

Nonformal Education Is Present Everywhere

The nonformal educator views all contexts and environments as a possible classroom and everyone as a possible student. The educator working with or through Extension (Extension Educator) has the flexibility to extend research and technical knowledge across many meaningful educational strategies (Fordham, 1979). The variety of strategies provides the Extension educator much greater flexibility, versatility, and adaptability than their formal classroom educator counterpart to meet the diverse learning needs of each clientele, and to adapt as those needs evolve (Coombs, 1976). Education can happen within numerous contexts. Common educational strategies for Extension education can be broken into three broad categories: An Extension educator can support a learner’s knowledge change through (1) face-to-face programming, (2) print, and (3) social media. Each approach has unique considerations for teaching and learning across areas of content, which are discussed below.

Face-to-Face

Many methods exist for engaging learners in person, and each uses a different approach to disseminating research. Clientele and subject matter will largely drive the type of face-to-face instruction. While many of the same teaching strategies for formal education can be applied in the nonformal educational setting, it is important to note the differences. For example, in most Extension programming, you will not assign homework and will not be giving graded assignments. Also, your learners need to be engaged with real-world relevance—this should also happen in a formal education setting, but sometimes this connection is forgotten. Learners also bring their own lived experiences and expertise into the learning environment. Many different strategies can be implemented and each has a different educational approach.

The in-person strategies vary from one-on-one training or consulting to large format training, to groups of learners co-developing knowledge, or applied hands-on demonstrations. You will notice that each of these teaching and learning modes connect to the theoretical constructs of learning in table 10.1.

Direct client support, such as technical assistance, is a large component of Extension specialists’ responsibilities. Stakeholder needs can vary with program area or content. Often, in specific circumstances, specialists may visit clients at their operations to assist directly with troubleshooting, system improvement, pilot testing, or optimizing methods. Extension has a rich history of disseminating information and teaching best practices to the stakeholders they serve. Each discipline may have a different approach or structure for assisting clients. Client assistance is largely dependent on the client’s current state and needs. As an example, food science (family and consumer sciences) provides a wide array of services to clientele including food safety consultation on process deviations, interpretation of laws, labeling review, educational information, shelf-life information, product analysis, food safety training, and meeting the requirements for processing and selling food.

The work of Extension provides an opportunity for educating and connecting with all of society in a state and/or local region rather than solely those connected to higher education. It is important to develop Extension programs and supporting materials that are inclusive of the broad range of human experiences, cultures, resources, and identities, and to be sensitive to the systemic disadvantage that many groups have experienced (Farella, Moore, et al., 2021). We should strive to remember that programs which have historically been offered by the Extension Service were designed to cater to the needs of the majority, and that we have a responsibility to design—or redesign—our Extension programs to be equitable and meet the needs of everyone (Farella, Hauser et al., 2021; Fields, 2020). Careful assessment of the needs of the communities we serve and, in many cases, further understanding for ourselves as educators, are required to develop inclusive, accessible, and culturally sensitive programming.

Extension provides services such as seminars, training, continuing education, and certifications for clients ranging from producers to general public interest. Extension has and provides the subject matter experts to deliver these training and educational opportunities in diverse content areas. Further, Extension often has a public reputation for disseminating reliable information without bias. Training may be presented in collaboration with state and/or federal regulatory agencies or may be provided to meet regulatory standards and requirements outlined by governing agencies. For example, American National Standards Institute (ANSI) certification (e.g. ServSafe, Safe Plates), Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs), related certifications of Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) trainings and certifications are required by regulatory agencies depending on the sector of the industry. In agriculture, Extension educators deliver programs which provide continuing education credits for pesticide applicators and programs like Beef Quality Assurance for livestock producers. Extension specialists and personnel/agents often offer these training and certifications as part of their programmatic planning in a way to serve stakeholders. Extension trainers may need additional training and experience to certify participants and lead state training sessions.

Similar to research collaborations, Extension educators also collaborate with colleagues in other states, counties, departments, and universities to diversify and expand programmatic efforts to a wider audience. Expertise among state Extension systems can vary and collaboration allows for better programming that serves both stakeholders and Extension educators. and Additionally, within the university, course collaborations are useful as clients may need topic diversity. Generally, entrepreneur series include speakers from across departments (i.e., varied subject areas) as well as topics to provide a general introduction to the subjects.

Using the Food industry as an example, subject matter experts represent agricultural economics, government/regulatory agencies, marketing, food safety, and business (Crist & Canales, 2020). These programs provide stakeholders a foundation of information as well as contacts in the event they need further assistance in that specific subject area. Recently, Extension program delivery has shifted toward using more online educational platforms, certification programs, expert happy hours, and “lunch and learn” series in order for stakeholders to access the information they need as well as provide a forum for questions.

Extension specialists–faculty with a content area focus– can provide programmatic and subject matter competency in-service opportunities and training to Extension agents–county-based Extension professionals. Inservice training is considered continuing education and an opportunity to increase subject matter competency. Further, agents select the programs that they will deliver in the county. Specialists provide in-service training to agents so they may deliver these programs as intended and/or provide additional insight to the execution of the program. Inservice opportunities can include many topics and range in subject matter from youth development to agriculture and natural resources. Further, inservice training is provided throughout the year and on different education platforms including webinars, face-to-face training or lectures, and online platforms.

Syllabus Development

As Extension educators, it is important to make connections for students in traditional education to career paths and opportunities. As a group, Extension educators need to advocate and share their stories and passion with audiences that may not be familiar with the unique career opportunities of Extension, as most will associate higher education with the pillars of research and teaching. Some students may be familiar with part of Extension either through 4-H involvement or by having parents who were involved in educational offerings (e.g., master gardener). You can strengthen the connection of careers in Extension by incorporating assignments, presentations, and curriculum development into courses. Additionally, your institution may have Extension apprenticeship programs. These types of programs can be a valuable opportunity for students to learn more about the day-to-day Extension roles while at the same time impacting their communities. Integrating some of our communication pathways into syllabi or student experiences will expose them to the multifaceted world of Extension.

Community of Practice

The Communities of Practice (CoP) framework is constructed from the exchange of a group of people who have a shared interest and want to improve on that interest using regular interactions with each other to accomplish that development (Wenger, 1998). Lave and Wenger (1991) introduced CoP to provide a template for examining the learning that happens among practitioners in a social environment comprising both novices and experts. Newcomers use this exchange between these populations to create a professional identity. Wenger (1998) then advanced the focus of CoP to personal growth and the trajectory of individuals’ participation within a group (i.e., peripheral versus core participation). No matter the purpose of educational outcome, CoPs can be designed intentionally, fostered informally, or identified after they have developed organically. A CoP can also be an outcome from learning experiences (Elliott-Engel & Westfall-Rudd, 2018) that result from your strategy and lead to connecting people, providing a shared context, enabling dialogue, stimulating learning, capturing and diffusing existing knowledge, introducing collaborative processes, helping people organize, and generating new knowledge (Cambridge et al., 2005).

A great example of direct client support (and farm model training), as well as being the foundation of the Extension service, is boll weevil eradication. The boll weevil was an invasive insect pest that was devastating cotton crops throughout the South in the early 1900s. Seaman Knapp, who has been mentioned previously, was sent to Mississippi by the USDA to help find a solution to the boll weevil infestation. Knapp set up an experimental farm to demonstrate to growers’ methods for mitigating the boll weevil damage. The farm opportunity became the model for agricultural demonstration (Mississippi State University Extension Service, 2020; Palmer, 2014). Similar stories exist for other areas and educational formats. For example, the foundation of family and consumer sciences began with home-demonstration clubs that focused on improving nutrition and living conditions for rural families. These sessions continue today and address a variety of topics such as nutrition, cooking, health, mental health, financial literacy, volunteer programs, and home-based businesses (Mississippi State University Extension Service, 2020).

Print Communications

Print media is an important form of education delivery we often think of as andragogy rather than pedagogy. Most, if not all of us, have heard the phrase “publish or perish” in reference to faculty roles. This colloquialism emphasizes that print formats of education are highly valued in the academe. Yet, not all forms of print publication are equivalent or have the same credibility (e.g., burden of peer review), and thus their value is weighted differently by the institution’s Promotion and Tenure review board.

A successful Extension educator should formulate a plan of distribution that includes each level of communication. Figure 10.2 provides a framework for you to think through how you can take your research findings and translate these specific findings into all forms of print communication. An Extension educator should provide multiple communication formats to ensure that the research done on campus is communicated to the citizens of the state they serve.

Publications that are weighted more heavily for promotion and tenure tend to have smaller potential audiences. Journal articles, which target other researchers in order to advance theory and praxis, are weighted most heavily but have a very small potential audience. Extension publications, which are tools for improving praxis, can reach slightly larger audiences but are weighted less heavily for tenure. This is followed by popular press articles, which can distribute information to the public, but are not weighted highly in most tenure packages. Blog posts are even more accessible to larger audiences, but weighted less still. The most accessible publication that can reach the largest audience, social media posts, are barely evaluated in tenure at most institutions.

It is unfortunate that social media and electronic options give the greatest reach for distributing research findings to a large audience and yet are weighted the least. Social media and other digital forms of publication are hard to evaluate for impact as well as implementation and/or behavior change. It would be easy to become hyperfocused on submitting publications to journals with a high-impact factor because that is what is favored for promotion. Yet, in Extension, we must ask, what is the value of creating new knowledge if it stays within the walls of the ivory tower? Extension’s purpose and mission is disseminating research-based evidence to improve the lives of the stakeholders they serve.

Social Media

Social media may not be commonly viewed as a pedagogical tool or accorded traditional forms of value in academe. However, it is a tool for rapidly spreading knowledge and its reach is hard to ignore in current society. Social media has evolved our consumption of both information and entertainment; it has also changed our preferences on how to consume new information (Subramanian, 2018). The use of social media provides the greatest opportunity to distribute research findings to a wide audience and to affect social discourse both positively and negatively. The field of science communication is rich, filled with best practices for effective outcomes, including language, strategy, and design. We won’t address those strategies here, yet we do want to emphasize the need to use and engage with social media and to view it as a platform for teaching. (For further reading on science communication, we recommend Laura Bowater & Kay Yeoman’s Science Communication: A Practical Guide for Scientists, New York: Wiley, 2012.)

In Conclusion: Extension Is a Bridge

Extension activities should be viewed as a bridge to enhancing and expanding the reach of research-based evidence and technical information from members of academe to stakeholders in need. Faculty who hold Extension appointments should funnel energy into sharing their findings to the betterment of society. Many grants and funding opportunities require a broader impact statement, outreach, expected outcomes, and evaluation component and approach. This is where Extension professionals should shine and can use their expertise to develop methods for reaching and educating the audience where the findings will be most impactful. The “traditional” researcher may overlook this area of importance, but many funding agencies are placing higher priority on proposals that address how the grant will impact or improve the affected stakeholders. The next chapter, “Program Planning for Community Engagement and Broader Impacts,” will further discuss how to develop and translate knowledge to benefit stakeholders.

Powerful and impactful teaching is rarely confined to the classroom. The Extension system and nonformal education are valuable for early career faculty members and graduate students. We hope that you will integrate the educational approaches from nonformal educational settings into your classroom and engage your learners with issues relevant to our communities.

Not every reader will be an Extension specialist or a county-based Extension professional (a.k.a., Agent), nor will every reader even work at an LGU. However, all faculty have the motivation, if not the obligation, to share findings from your research agenda to the public. Many times this outreach is labeled as “broader impacts” (Donovan, 2019). We hope this chapter helps you see how your teaching and research can become integral to your community. If you are a graduate student seeking a position in higher-education, we hope this chapter has raised your interest in Extension education at LGUs or in developing better ways to communicate your ideas about how to bring community-relevant research and teaching to your research agenda.

If you are reading this while working or studying at a LGU institution we hope this chapter has raised your awareness of the mission of your institution, and that you will seek out Extension professionals to help you in your teaching, research, and outreach efforts. If you do become an Extension specialist, or a county-based 4-H professional, congratulations! You are in for a challenging and rewarding career. We hope this chapter serves as a framework for conducting excellent Extension education programming and provides a greater awareness of the organization’s beginnings, the theory that frames the work, and some basic practices of non-formal education that you can use to maximize community outreach efforts.

Reflection Questions

When you think about your research and teaching, what public issues do you see yourself ready to contribute solutions and education?
After reviewing Figure 2, how are you using an array of mediums to share content? Where can you improve your efforts?

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Figure and Table Attributions

Figure 10.1 Adapted under fair use from USDA NIFA 2019. Graphic by Kindred Grey.
Figure 10.2 Kindred Grey. CC BY 4.0.
Table 10.1 adapted from Balakrishnan, S. (2020). The adult learner in higher education: A critical review of theories and applications. In Accessibility and Diversity in the 21st Century University (pp. 250-263). IGI Global. doi: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2783-2.ch013
How to cite this book chapter: Elliott-Engel, J., Crist, C., and James, G. 2022. The Power of Extension: Research, Teaching, and Outreach for Broader Impacts. In: Westfall-Rudd, D., Vengrin, C., and Elliott-Engel, J. (eds.) Teaching in the University: Learning from Graduate Students and Early-Career Faculty . Blacksburg: Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences . https://doi.org/10.21061/universityteaching License: CC BY-NC 4.0. ↵

Teaching in the University Copyright © 2022 by Jeremy Elliott-Engel; Courtney Crist; and Gordon Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Purpose, Public Attitudes toward Homework, The Positive and Negative Effects of Homework, Extensiveness of Homework

Homework is defined as tasks assigned to students by school teachers that are intended to be carried out during nonschool hours. This definition excludes in-school guided study (although homework is often worked on during school), home-study courses, and extracurricular activities such as sports teams and clubs.

The most common purpose of homework is to have students practice material already presented in class so as to reinforce learning and facilitate mastery of specific skills. Preparation assignments introduce the material that will be presented in future lessons. These assignments aim to help students obtain the maximum benefit when the new material is covered in class. Extension homework involves the transfer of previously learned skills to new situations. For example, students might learn in class about factors that led to the French Revolution and then be asked as homework to apply them to the American Revolution. Finally, integration homework requires the student to apply separately learned skills to produce a single product, such as book reports, science projects, or creative writing.

Homework also can serve purposes that do not relate directly to instruction. Homework can be used to (1) establish communication between parents and children; (2) fulfill directives from school administrators; (3) punish students; and (4) inform parents about what is going on in school. Most homework assignments have elements of several different purposes.

Public Attitudes toward Homework

Homework has been a part of student's lives since the beginning of formal schooling in the United States. However, the practice has been alternately accepted and rejected by educators and parents.

When the twentieth century began, the mind was viewed as a muscle that could be strengthened through mental exercise. Since this exercise could be done at home, homework was viewed favorably. During the 1940s, the emphasis in education shifted from drill to problem solving. Homework fell out of favor because it was closely associated with the repetition of material. The launch of the satellite Sputnik by the Soviet Union in the mid-1950s reversed this thinking. The American public worried that education lacked rigor and left children unprepared for complex technologies. Homework, it was believed, could accelerate knowledge acquisition.

The late 1960s witnessed yet another reversal. Educators and parents became concerned that homework was crowding out social experience, outdoor recreation, and creative activities. In the 1980s, homework once again leapt back into favor when A Nation at Risk (1983), the report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, cited homework as a defense against the rising tide of mediocrity in American education. The push for more homework continued into the 1990s, fueled by increasingly rigorous state-mandated academic standards. As the century ended, a backlash against homework set in, led by parents concerned about too much stress on their children.

The Positive and Negative Effects of Homework

The most direct positive effect of homework is that it can improve retention and understanding. More indirectly, homework can improve students' study skills and attitudes toward school, and teach students that learning can take place anywhere, not just in school buildings. The nonacademic benefits of homework include fostering independence and responsibility. Finally, homework can involve parents in the school process, enhancing their appreciation of education, and allowing them to express positive attitudes toward the value of school success.

Conversely, educators and parents worry that students will grow bored if they are required to spend too much time on academic material. Homework can deny access to leisure time and community activities that also teach important life skills. Parent involvement in homework can turn into parent interference. For example, parents can confuse children if the instructional techniques they use differ from those used by teachers. Homework can actually lead to the acquisition of undesirable character traits if it promotes cheating, either through the copying of assignments or help with homework that goes beyond tutoring. Finally, homework could accentuate existing social inequities. Children from disadvantaged homes may have more difficulty completing assignments than their middle-class counterparts.

Extensiveness of Homework

In contrast to the shifts in public attitudes, surveys suggest that the amount of time students spend on homework has been relatively stable. Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress suggests that in both 1984 and 1994, about one-third of nine-year-olds and one-quarter of thirteen-and seventeen-year-olds reported being assigned no homework at all, with an additional 5 percent to 10 percent admitting they did not do homework that was assigned. About one-half of nine-year-olds, one-third of thirteen-year-olds, and one-quarter of seventeen-year-olds said they did less than an hour of homework each night. In 1994 about 12 percent of nine-year-olds, 28 percent of thirteen-year-olds, and 26 percent of seventeen-year-olds said they did one to two hours of homework each night. These percentages were all within one point of the 1984 survey results.

A national survey of parents conducted by the polling agency Public Agenda, in October, 2000, revealed that 64 percent of parents felt their child was getting "about the right amount" of homework, 25 percent felt their child was getting "too little" homework, and only 10 percent felt "too much homework" was being assigned.

International comparisons often suggest that U.S. students spend less time on homework than students in other industrialized nations. However, direct comparisons across countries are difficult to interpret because of different definitions of homework and differences in the length of the school day and year.

Appropriate Amounts of Homework

Experts agree that the amount and type of homework should depend on the developmental level of the student. The National PTA and the National Education Association suggest that homework for children in grades K–2 is most effective when it does not exceed ten to twenty minutes each day. In grades three through six, children can benefit from thirty to sixty minutes daily. Junior high and high school students can benefit from more time on homework and the amount might vary from night to night. These recommendations are consistent with the conclusions reached by studies into the effectiveness of homework.

Research on Homework's Overall Effectiveness

Three types of studies have been used to examine the relationship between homework and academic achievement. One type compares students who receive homework with students who receive none. Generally, these studies reveal homework to be a positive influence on achievement. However, they also reveal a relationship between homework and achievement for high school students that is about twice as strong as for junior high students. The relationship at the elementary school level is only one-quarter that of the high school level.

Another type of study compares homework to in-class supervised study. Overall, the positive relationship is about half as strong as in the first type of study. These studies again reveal a strong grade-level effect. When homework and in-class study were compared in elementary schools, in-class study proved superior.

The third type of study correlates the amount of homework students say they complete with their achievement test scores. Again, these surveys show the relationship is influenced by the grade level of students. For students in primary grades, the correlation between time spent on homework and achievement is near zero. For students in middle and junior high school, the correlation suggests a positive but weak relationship. For high school students, the correlation suggests a moderate relationship between achievement and time spend on homework.

Research on Effective Homework Assignments

The subject matter shows no consistent relationship to the value of homework. It appears that shorter and more frequent assignments may be more effective than longer but fewer assignments. Assignments that involve review and preparation are more effective than homework that focuses only on material covered in class on the day of the assignments. It can be beneficial to involve parents in homework when young children are experiencing problems in school. Older students and students doing well in school have more to gain from homework when it promotes independent learning.

Homework can be an effective instructional device. However, the relationship between homework and achievement is influenced greatly by the students' developmental level. Expectations for home work's effects, especially in the short term and in earlier grades, must be modest. Further, homework can have both positive and negative effects. Educators and parents should not be concerned with which list of homework effects is correct. Rather, homework policies and practices should give individual schools and teachers flexibility to take into account the unique needs and circumstances of their students so as to maximize positive effects and minimize negative ones.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

C AMPBELL , J AY R. ; R EESE , C LYDE M. ; O'S ULLIVAN, C HRISTINE; and D OSSEY , J OHN A. 1996. NAEP 1994 Trends in Academic Progress. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

C OOPER , H ARRIS. 2001. The Battle Over Homework: Common Ground for Administrators, Teachers, and Parents, 2nd edition. Newbury Park, CA: Corwin Press.

C OOPER , H ARRIS, and V ALENTINE , J. C., eds. 2001. "Homework: A Special Issue." Educational Psychologist 36 (3).

INTERNET RESOURCES

H ENDERSON , M. 1996. "Helping Your Student Get the Most Out of Homework." Chicago: National PTA and the National Education Association. < www.pta.org/Programs/edulibr/homework. htm >.

P UBLIC A GENDA. 2000. "Survey Finds Little Sign of Backlash Against Academic Standards or Standardized Tests." < www.publicagenda.org/aboutpa/aboutpa3ee.htm >

H ARRIS C OOPER

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Extension task

An extension task is further activity around the aims of a class but after it, often as homework.

Extension tasks can provide more, or different, forms of practice. They can also make classroom learning more meaningful, as they give learners a chance to personalise language and content.

Example The learners have been reading about extreme sports and as an extension task they research other examples, choose one to explore further, and present their findings to the group.

In the classroom Extension tasks can be a useful strategy to deal with mixed ability classes, as they can be given to early finishers or set as extra, more demanding work for higher level learners.

Further links:

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/managing-young-learners

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/shakespeare-extension-activities-kids

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/extension-activities-shakespeare-lesson-plans

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COMMENTS

Creating Extension Activities - Oxford University Press
Have a set of extension activities for the purpose of review in your teacher’s toolkit. Flashcards, revision games, spelling games, and pronunciation activities are all examples of extensions you can use for quick revision. An extension activity can also serve to review what has come before in previous units. 4. Give some choice.
7 Types of Homework for Students (2024) - Helpful Professor
7 Types of Homework for Students. There are seven types of homework. These are practice, preparation, extension, integration, research, application, and flipped homework. Each type of homework has its own role for students learning. The important task for teachers is to select homework that will best provide holistic support to a student.
Extension and Enrichment in Learning - Potential Plus UK
In education terms, extension usually means to extend the learning in the lesson to make it more challenging. On the other hand, enrichment means doing something beyond the classroom or in addition to the main lesson that will enrich the learning, often allowing students to explore their interests. More of the same work and harder problems are ...
The Power of Extension: Research, Teaching, and Outreach for ...
Extension educators remain intentional and systematic while also recognizing content can and should be adapted for different clientele (Etling, 1993). Researchers have defined adult learners in overlapping but somewhat different ways. Merriam (2008) describes adult learners as those whose age, social roles, and self-perception define them as ...
Homework - Purpose, Public Attitudes toward Homework, The ...
Homework is defined as tasks assigned to students by school teachers that are intended to be carried out during nonschool hours. This definition excludes in-school guided study (although homework is often worked on during school), home-study courses, and extracurricular activities such as sports teams and clubs.
Does homework design matter? The role of homework's purpose ...
This study used a randomized pretest–posttest clustered design to examine the effect of 3 homework purposes (i.e., practice, preparation, and extension) on 6th graders' mathematics achievement and how this relationship was modulated by the amount of completed homework.
Extension task | TeachingEnglish | British Council
An extension task is further activity around the aims of a class but after it, often as homework. Extension tasks can provide more, or different, forms of practice. They can also make classroom learning more meaningful, as they give learners a chance to personalise language and content. The learners have been reading about extreme sports and as ...
Homework - Wikipedia
Homework. Homework is a set of tasks assigned to students by their teachers to be completed at home. Common homework assignments may include required reading, a writing or typing project, mathematical exercises to be completed, information to be reviewed before a test, or other skills to be practiced.
The Value of Homework: Is Homework an Important Tool for ...
Good and Brophy (2003) indicate that many view homework as, “An important extension of in-school opportunities to learn” (p. 393). While some proponents of homework believe in its purpose, a question still persists about the role of homework in determining the student’s grade.
Extension Activities: Teacher’s Guide and Notes
It includes a detailed daily guide of materials, activities, lesson objectives, tips for preparation, and the Common Core English Language Arts standards included in each lesson. Also included are optional extension activities and related strategies for English language learners (ELLs). Demonstrate understanding of figurative language and ...