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Charitha Samarawickrama, University of Gloucestershire, United KingdomAbstract
Students’ critical thinking skills can be enhanced through various approaches. Homework, as one of these pedagogical strategies, has been integrated into teaching to foster critical thinking across different subjects. This paper aims to review research on homework, with a specific focus on its integration in STEM education. The study reviewed fifteen (15) research articles that examined the effectiveness of homework in STEM education. The results indicate that, among the various types of homework, project/research-based and collaborative homework have significant potential to improve students' critical thinking skills. However, while there are many benefits to using homework to develop critical thinking skills, this review also highlights those limitations in resources, along with variations in students' learning styles and social skills, can negatively impact the improvement of critical thinking. Moreover, the findings suggest that well-planned, high-quality homework, when assigned in smaller quantities, can significantly enhance students' critical thinking. Nevertheless, the generalisability of these results is subject to certain limitations, as most studies claiming the effectiveness of homework in promoting critical thinking are short-term. Therefore, longitudinal research is necessary to evaluate the long-term impact of homework on enhancing students' critical thinking skills.
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Conference: ACEID2025Stream: Teaching Experiences
This paper is part of the ACEID2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Samarawickrama C. (2025) The Impact of Homework on Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills in STEM Education: A Literature Review ISSN: 2189-101X – The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2025 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 169-175) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-101X.2025.14
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-101X.2025.14
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