DQ a Week #4: Mean from a list of data
Thinking does not need to stop with a correct answer
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For Week 4 in my series on supporting teachers to get as much thinking as possible from a humble multiple-choice question, I have chosen a question on caluclating the mean from a list of data that has been answered over 34,000 times.
Step 1: Ask the question with the choices of answers removed
This taps into research that suggests that delaying presenting the choices of answers boosts the retrieval benefits of multiple-choice questions.
Once students have had sufficient thinking time, you could:
Ask them to show you their answer on a mini-whiteboard
Ask them to show you their answer, and what they think a popular wrong answer might be - asking for a plausible incorrect answer taps into research into the Derring Effect.
Let students keep their answers to themselves, and show them the version of the question with the answer choices revealed
Don’t respond at this stage.
Step 2: Challenge students to get the question correct
Now show the original version of the question:
Students can choose to keep their original answer or change their minds. They can respond on mini-whiteboards, with ABCD cards, or with “heads down, palms on heads.” I discuss each of these approaches here.
If fewer than 80% of students are showing the correct answer, you could:
Instigate a Turn and Talk: Tell your partner what you think the answer is and why, and listen to their response. If you disagree, can you convince them that you are right? If you agree, choose one of the wrong answers and try to think why someone might think it is correct.
Instigate a Warm Call: Tom, I see you think the answer is A, tell us why… Heena, I see you think the answer is B, tell us why…
Then ask the students to revote.
I discuss this approach to responsive teaching here.
If more than 80% of students get the question correct, move on to Step 3…
Step 3: Extending our thinking
Once you have established what the correct answer is and why, challenge your students with these questions:
Thousands of students have answered this question. What do you think is the most popular choice of wrong answer?
Why might somebody think answer B is correct? How would you convince them they are wrong?
Can you change the question as little as possible to make answer D the correct answer?
Can you think of another plausible wrong answer for this question and explain why someone might pick it?
Step 4: Explanation match-up
Finally, challenge your students to match up these real-life student explanations given on diagnosticquestions.com to their answer choice:
The details:
This spreadsheet contains our best questions and quizzes. The final tab covers Years 7 to 11, with tabs for Years 2 to 9. I really hope you and your students find them useful.
I will aim to produce a weekly post to use with your students. I will vary the topic and difficulty to ensure something for everyone. Even if you are not currently studying this topic with a class, you could use the question for an interesting form of retrieval practice or a diagnostic to see what students know before teaching a topic.
Thanks so much for reading and have a great week!
Craig
PS If you found this useful, you might enjoy my free 90-minute online CPD workshop: 25 Tips for Teachers