Homework had become a tradition in teaching and learning mathematics in school. Even so, in Indonesia, there is not enough research on homework. Our research is conducted to investigate high school students’ views on homework and to provide the basis for further research on homework in Indonesia. In this research, we use exploratory-descriptive qualitative to explore and describe the students’ view of homework. We collected the data from 124 high school students by using the structured interview conducted via online form. The data were analyzed by using the thematic analysis. Based on our results, we found that (1) students know that mathematics homework can help them with their academic achievement and their attitudes toward their studies, (2) mathematics homework is not high on their priority, (3) it makes them tired physically and mentally, and (4) students argue that mathematics problems are better to be solved in the class where they can ask the teacher. We also found their difficulties in doing their homework, such as (1) lack of knowledge (2) their teachers do not give them the necessary ‘tools’ to solve the problems, (3) they can’t ask for helping hands if they can’t solve the problems (4) some emotional  problems such as motivation, and (5) other priorities are higher on their list.

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Worked-example and problem-solving are often paired and named as the example-problem learning method. This learning method is often recommended by cognitive load theorists, but not much thought has been given to what kind of problems should be used as the example-problem pairs. If there is no clear specification in using the method, as a result, there might be little to no improvement in students’ problem-solving ability. Particularly, the improvement of analogical thinking can be set as the goal of learning. Analogy comes when students can relate to their previous knowledge to solve new problems. In the example-problem learning method, the example can be acquired first and then regarded as the prior knowledge for students to solve the subsequent problem. As analogy is one of the problem-solving strategies, ultimately mastering analogy strategy can improve problem-solving ability. The problem is, analogy does not come naturally, hence a careful consideration about what kind of problems used during instruction is needed. In this paper, we propose the use of isomorphic problems— problems with the same solution procedures—in choosing the example-problem pair. We choose isomorphic problems because it suits example-problems learning and it is focused on improving student’s analogical thinking. We also propose the procedure in using the isomorphic problems.