Ikari

Probably, if the professor assigns something, there is usually a reason behind it. Professors oft not make busy work for themselves or their TAs.

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Panache

Yes they do. They do not tailor individual assignments to each student. Instead they pick a one-size-fits-all assignment that is inevitably useless to some students.

Ikari

you got a better idea for 50+ student classes?

Panache

Actually, I do.

It involves making the homework available to students, but not requiring those who have already demonstrated the appropriate level of knowledge on a subject to complete it.

Ikari

How does that get away from the situation you described? First off, it doesn't individualize problems for those 50+ people in the class for each section. Secondly, it requires at least for all people to have to do the homework up till the first test, which for many University level classes can come midway through the semester. Third, even if you did this and someone does well on the first test and gets exempt, there are going to be a significant portion of the student population that did well because of the required homework. Once you remove the need for them to do the homework, they will probably stop doing the work and fail on the next test, tanking their grade.

You see, you're trying to pander to a very small percentage of the student body. The people who can get by without reading the book, or doing the homework, and still do well on the tests; they only compromise a very small percentage. The vast majority of the students actually get something from homework. Not only does it make them read the book, and work through problems and study, but it's also used as a gauge by the professor to determine the difficulty of the tests and how his students are doing. Your method has been tried, it leads to massive failure rates out of classes. Since a University's goal is student retention, they are going to move towards means which teaches the most students most effectively. So some smart people are going to have to do some homework; it ain't the end of the world. But what is very damaging from the University's perspective is a 50%+ failout rate. So sorry your lazy *** is actually going to have to do some work, but deal with it. Do the work or leave University, but to think that you as an outsider even have a clue as to what a professor has to do and how they should do it is not just condescending, but downright ignorant.

UtahBill

I took a college class that worked in a similar way. Homework was assigned, and the next class period a quiz was given, without the homework even being turned in yet. Those who got an 80% or better on the quiz could go home and trash their homework, assuming they understood whatever mistakes were made. More homework was assigned, tho, before they left.
Those who got 70% or less stayed and did the quiz and the homework over on the board with professor watching, so she could figure out just where the student was needing more instruction.
Wouldn't workas well for high school, tho, as you can't be releasing a class to wander the hallways.

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Billo_Really

No waivers for homework.

I had to do it, so does everyone else!

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UtahBill

Perhaps you NEEDED to do homework. I rarely did, until I got to Navy Nuclear Power School, as it was the first time I had ever been seriously challenged. After the Navy, I did 8 years of college, half time, at night, and had to do homework in the non math/technical classes, otherwise, seldom had to do it, as I caught on to most everything in class. One math class gave me fits, calculus, but I blame that on the professor. He had very poor presentation of the material.
I was bored thru most of high school, got only average grades in some classes despite a high IQ. I would zone out, and miss what the teacher was saying.
We rarely had honors or advanced level classes available to us back in the early 60's.

Billo_Really

Trying to find dx/dy after working 40 hours is quite a task.

UtahBill

Prof was a mathemetician who was deep into derivations and proofs and history of math with very little time spent on aplication of the math. If it wasn't for an engineer friend helping me with the homework, I would have failed the class.