Polling learning: technology supported formative assessment

1. Polling learning: technology supported formative assessment Dr Kerie Green & David Longman School of EducationUniversity of Wales Newport 3rd Annual TEAN Conference, Birmingham, May 2012 Contact: Dr Kerie Green: kerie.green@newport.ac.uk

2. Assessment Development GroupNewport School of Education Dr Kerie Green kerie.green@newport.ac.uk Barbara Kurzik barbara.kurzik@newport.ac.uk Lynne Jones lynne.jones@newport.ac.uk David Longman david.longman@newport.ac.uk The Assessment Development Group is a pragmatic working group of educationalists at the Newport School of Education. It develops pedagogically embedded computer-based tools that support student learning through structured feedback guided by data.

3. Project outline • To evaluate the value of clickers for real-time formative feedback. • Research conducted with student teachers on a two-year BSc Secondary Mathematics with QTS degree. • Emphasis on the value of formative feedback for lecturers, in addition to its value for student learning. Careers Wales 20 February 2008

4. Widening participation • Our students are from the South Wales Heads of the Valleys region. • This frames HE priorities in South Wales e.g. to increase the proportion of Welsh students who live in Communities First areas. • Teaching and assessment methods must provide accurate and useful feedback on learning and be flexible and adaptive to meet the needs of ‘non-traditional’ students.

5. Assessment for Learning • Polling technology can be used to support effective and satisfying assessment for learning (AfL). • AfL can inform Personal and Professional Development Planning (PDP). • Self-regulated learning is the ultimate goal of University learning. It is achieved through clear and timely feedback. Clickers can contribute to this. Careers Wales 20 February 2008

6. Creating effective teachers • Using data to guide and support teaching decisions in relation to student learning. • Modelling the use of technology as a formative assessment tool to promote effective practice for student teachers’ own classroom teaching. • Providing tabulated response data to enhance student teachers’ approaches to professional development. Careers Wales 20 February 2008

7. Display question Wait for all student clickers Display graph of responses Group discussion Reveal correct choice Handheld response ‘clickers’ What are they? (i) Wikipedia; (ii) Aarhus University … Try It!

8. Student data: mail merge Dear Kerie Here are your responses from the Maths session on 17th October. The lower case 'i' indicates an incorrect choice, 'c' a correct choice. The detailed description of the questions and choices is in the large table below. Careers Wales 20 February 2008

9. Designing plausible questions Careers Wales 20 February 2008

10. Response data example The data can assist the tutor in exposing problems either with student learning or with the question design. The correct solution to Q6 was selected by only one student but this result is an outlier. However, the interpretation of the question was the issue which led the majority to select the incorrect option. Careers Wales 20 February 2008

11. Student feedback (i) “My confidence to begin with was low, and I was nervous to answer questions in case it was incorrect. As time went on I was happy to use the clickers and was quite shocked to find out that I understood more than I thought I understood.” “... you [did not stand out] during the lesson if you got the answer wrong, but ... the discussion as to why you chose that question ... explained [why you got it wrong].” Careers Wales 20 February 2008

12. Student feedback (ii) “...it soon became apparent that 'English' was the most difficult thing about maths.” “The real time feedback ensured that I understood the topics as we went along rather than having a misconception and continuing through the lesson getting further confused.” “Sometimes it is too easy to wait for our peers to answer a question, having a clicker meant that we had to consider our answer and not wait for a peer to respond.” Careers Wales 20 February 2008

13. Conclusions • Changed social conditions of classroom learning – increased confidence and engagement. • Purposive teacher questioning. • Promoted focused whole-class discussions. • For mathematics, highlighted the role of language in understanding. •   Patterns of responses used to highlight areas of difficulty and to critique question design. • Response data guides tutor's formative judgments in directing teaching appropriately. Careers Wales 20 February 2008

14. Thank you for listening. Questions? Careers Wales 20 February 2008