Homework used to be a part of tutoring that I didn't really enjoy. Seeing the disappointed face of the student when I mention it at the end of the session, following up the next session and hearing excuses, then sometimes even spending time meant to be for the session catching up on what was meant to be done at home. Once I identified this cycle, I started trying to fix it. The first shift in my homework method was to focus not nessacerily on work load, but more to keep their memory fresh on the content that we had revised/learned in the session. Making this shift kept the efficiency of the homework while reducing the workload for the student. I now assign more stuff relating to covering all parts of the sessions content rather than a block of questions. I also stopped treating incomplete homework as due to lack of disipline and more as an opportunity as to why they didn't complete it.
Now, of course, if a student doesnt have a reason, or they just "couldn't be bothered', that is a disipline problem and a second instance of this would result in contacting their parents for assistance. But more often then you would think, its "I froze", "I didn't understand", "It was too complicated", thats an opportunity rather than lack of effort. That's when I enjoy using lesson time to revise the work, we found something that the student didn't understand, and we learned, in the end that is what tutoring is all about. One isisue that I have with homework is when the student doesn't include working out, first of all, how am I meant to know that the student didn't copy or look up the work, how do I know that they didn't make a mistake in the steps within the working out (and still got the right answer). That's why I insist that all students must try their hardest to include working out on the same page in the same question.
