Homework has been associated with a range of academic and cognitive benefits for secondary students. Research has also revealed that students’ homework behaviours can vary with demographic traits. An important factor that may account for some of this variation is the role played by teachers and schools in homework allocation. It is hypothesised that some of the demographic variables that have been found to predict individual students’ homework practices are also related to teachers’ practices in terms of the frequency and volume of homework allocated at the classroom level. To test this hypothesis, Australian data from the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study are analysed in the current study. Results show that the frequency of mathematics homework allocated by teachers is related to some variables that have commonly predicted the differences in student achievement such as socioeconomic status, valuing of and confidence in mathematics, teaching experience and school location. The implications of these findings for schools and education systems are explored as suggestions for ensuring that homework policies and practices do not exacerbate demographic differences in school outcomes.

家庭作业与中学生的一系列学术和认知益处有关。研究还表明，学生的家庭作业行为可能因人口特征而异。可能导致这种差异的一个重要因素是教师和学校在家庭作业分配中所扮演的角色。假设已发现的一些预测个别学生家庭作业实践的人口统计变量也与教师在课堂水平分配家庭作业的频率和数量方面的实践有关。为了验证这一假设，本研究分析了 2015 年国际数学和科学研究趋势中的澳大利亚数据。结果表明，教师分配数学作业的频率与社会经济地位、数学评价和数学信心、教学经验和学校位置等通常预测学生成绩差异的变量有关。探索这些发现对学校和教育系统的影响，作为确保家庭作业政策和实践不会加剧学校成果的人口差异的建议。