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The idea of knowledge has
become
unfashionable in
recent years, and
so knowledge
itself has become
devalued.
“Knowledge comes by eyes
always open and working
hands; and there is no
knowledge that is not power.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Knowledge is going to become far more
import for our students:
● move to terminal exams● need to retain more knowledge than
ever before
● more rigorous exams focus on
application of knowledge
You cannot master any
subject without the
building blocks of knowledge.
Knowing things
changes your thought processes.
“Facts. Teach these boys and
girls nothing but Facts. Facts
alone are wanted in life. Plant
nothing else, and root out
everything else. You can only
form the minds of reasoning
animals upon Facts: nothing
else will ever be of any service
to them.”
Thomas GradgrindCharles Dickens, Hard Times
‘Knowledge is like oxygen: it is vitally important, but we only notice it when it is not there.’ E. D. Hirsch, Jr
‘Memory is the residue of thought: we remember what we think hard about.’
Daniel Willingham ‘Why don’t students like school’
Knowledge Organisers specify
subject knowledge in meticulous
detail
● Provide clarity for teachers● Link to Learning Journeys● Excellent for revision
3 principles for organising Knowledge
Organisers:1. Be selective. The key knowledge should fit
onto one page.2. Key terms are defined. This is not a list of
keywords without context which would be
meaningless for revision3. Information is organised into manageable
sub-sections to enhance revision.
Often, we associate multiple
choice questions with:● low levels of challenge
● lack of rigour● ‘lower order’ thinking skills
● only being useful in ‘fact based’ subjects
The system is based on the
ideas of Ed Hirsch and his
knowledge curriculum.
This is now being pushed into
the UK reformed system by the
Government.
Many UK exam boards are now
starting to include MCQ in their reformed exams
E.g. RE, Drama, Maths, Creative
Media
An effective MCQ is
essentially a hinge
question - it allows us to
measure whether the
students are ready for the next step in their
learning
Dylan Wiliam defines the
hinge question as that which decides whether
students are ready to
move on...
... he describes this as the
most important decision
that a teacher has to
make on a regular basis...
We cannot start to evaluate, analyse etc
without the key knowledge.
For example, if students are studying
Animal Farm, without a knowledge of who
Stalin, Hitler and Churchill are, how can
they start to analyse the author’s choices?
MCQ make assessment more
reliable:● extended essays are easy to
set but hard to assess
reliably● multiple choice questions
are hard to set but easy to
assess
They can be extremely
rigorous● in an open ended question
the rubric defines the rigour● in a multiple choice
question, the options define
the rigourReally effective
assessment combines them both.
In which year did Charles Dickens write ‘Oliver Twist’?
a. 1537b. 1637c. 1737d. 1837e. 1937
In which year did Charles Dickens write ‘Oliver Twist’?
a. 1835b. 1836c. 1837d. 1838e. 1839
Which is more rigorous?Why?
Questions with more than one
correct answer force the
students to consider every
option, and prevent the
likelihood of guessing
What do the author Charles Dickens and his
character Oliver Twist have in common?
a). Both were born in a workhouse
b). Both were separated from their parents and
family
c). Both were put in prison for debt
d). Both had families who were put in prison for debt
e). Both were orphans
...this fits with Professor Robert
Coe’s simple theory of learning: learning happens when you
think hard about subject
content
Guidelines for effective MCQ:● all answers should be plausible● distractors should be common
misconceptions● there should be more than one correct
answer● students should not be able to arrive at
the correct answer through an incorrect
thought process● they should be hinge-style questions
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