Teachers’ Perceptions of the Impact of the Double Reduction Policy on the Design and Amount of English Homework in Primary Schools – An Empirical Study

In compulsory education, homework is considered a key means to help students consolidate the knowledge acquired in class. The introduction of the Double Reduction Policy in 2021 sets new requirements for assigning homework to students in the compulsory education phase. This study investigates the impacts of the Double Reduction Policy on the design and amount of English homework in primary schools as well as students’ perceived willingness to do the homework before and after the implementation of the new policy in a third-tiered city in Guangdong Province, China. Through the method of questionnaire and the statistics generated from paired samples t-tests, the study found that there was significant difference in terms of English teachers’ weekly class hours, students’ average time on doing English homework, English teachers’ practice of assigning unified and stratified homework before and after the Double Reduction Policy was implemented. In other words, students do less homework after the Policy was introduced. However, there was no significant difference in students’ perceived willingness to do English homework before and after the Policy. These findings may have practical implications for the Double Reduction Policy to be truly effective in its implementation.