Teaching challenge

Mr Jones is designing and using assessments frequently to check pupil understanding and misconceptions. However, he finds the amount of information they provide challenging to manage, particularly with so many pupil responses. He must decide what to do next rapidly, either during the lesson, or before the next. Doing this slowly during a lesson risks losing pupils’ attention; doing this slowly after the lesson adds to his workload dramatically. How can he use the information available to identify rapidly what pupils have understood, their misconceptions and their knowledge gaps?

Key idea

Teachers need a simple, systematic approach to decide how to respond to pupils’ knowledge gaps and misconceptions.

Evidence summary

Identifying critical knowledge gaps and misconceptions

When faced with an array of pupil responses, Mr Jones must be able to identify the crucial points rapidly. Since his goal is to develop pupils’ mental models, his focus must be on what pupils are thinking, not just on whether they have got the correct answer. Understanding pupils’ thinking allows teachers to recognise the strengths and gaps in their mental models, and to plan ways to respond (Wiliam, 2011). Mr Jones can do this best by taking a systematic approach. Teachers can use their knowledge of likely misconceptions and knowledge gaps (Ball et al., 2010) to design tasks which will reveal them. Similarly, they can analyse assessments with the most likely misconceptions and knowledge gaps in mind. Mr Jones’ previous work with colleagues, breaking learning down, specifying goals, sequencing ideas and identifying misconceptions should allow him to look for evidence of their knowledge and understanding of the most fundamental and important ideas.

Deciding on next steps

In reviewing pupils’ work, Mr Jones must decide whether to revisit an idea or to move on. His decision will reflect the importance of the idea: if a pupil misconception is core to understanding the subject, or to understanding the current topic, it is worth reviewing immediately. If a misconception is peripheral to the subject or the topic, it may not be a priority (Wiliam, 2011). Mr Jones may also be influenced by the prevalence of the misconception or knowledge gap: the more pupils who hold it, the more important it is to address.

Having identified the prevalence and importance of the knowledge gap or misconception, he can choose how to adapt his teaching and/or how to provide feedback to pupils. For example, if an assessment activity shows him that a handful of pupils have retained a misconception from a previous unit, he may defer addressing it since it is not foundational to the subject or the current unit. Conversely, if pupils have a fundamental misconception, or many pupils have the same knowledge gap, he may offer a fresh explanation, a new learning task and then reassess pupils’ understanding. His mental model of the subject and his sense of pupils’ developing mental models should allow him to prioritise the most crucial barriers to their understanding, drawing on the support of colleagues and resources where necessary.

Learning and performance are distinct

Learning and performance are different things. Performance is a temporary change in behaviour or knowledge which can be measured immediately after acquisition; learning is a lasting change in behaviour or knowledge (Christodoulou, 2017). Pupils’ responses during or after a lesson that introduced new information are an indication of their performance, not of their learning. For example, pupils may answer correctly initially but subsequently forget new information. In analysing pupils’ responses, Mr Jones prioritises using them to identify knowledge gaps and misconceptions, rather than seeing them as a guarantee that pupils will recall key ideas: his plans to revisit key ideas will check and support pupils’ subsequent retention.

Nuances and caveats

Whatever the process Mr Jones follows, it must be quick. Within a lesson, the process could take a few seconds; after the lesson, he needs to have enough time having examined pupil responses to plan a next step. Equally, it is difficult for teachers new to an idea to identify misconceptions or gaps in pupils’ mental models immediately. Mr Jones may usefully review assessments and decide on next steps in collaboration with his mentor or a more experienced teacher. They can help him decide best what to do next and can model their approach to reviewing assessments.

Key takeaways

Mr Jones can reach conclusions about next steps from formative assessment if he:

takes a systematic approach to identify patterns of understanding
tries to understand pupils’ thinking by seeking common misconceptions and knowledge gaps, rather than just looking for the correct answer
judges the prevalence and importance of misconceptions and knowledge gaps when deciding whether and how to adapt his teaching

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