Confidence Measures
Two common challenges in interactive teaching are:
Encouraging students to participate positively (for example, not saying ‘I don’t know’ when actually, they do know, but weren’t confident enough to give an answer).
Knowing if the answer a student has given is guess.
Confidence Measures is a technique that can help with both scenarios.
With this technique, when students write an answer on a show-me board, you ask them to also write 1, 2 or 3 in the top-right section.
1 means ‘It’s a guess.’
2 means ‘I think this is right but I’m not certain.’
3 means ‘I’m certain.’
As well as being formatively valuable to you - a 1 tells you something very different to a 3 - this can help to encourage participation, reducing the fear that is often associated with being wrong.
Beyond this, Confidence Measures can tap into a powerful cognitive principle known as the hypercorrection effect: when we are sure something is correct but then find out it is wrong, the shock value has a positive effect on the memory of the correct answer. By encouraging students to reflect on how sure an answer is correct, this technique can help utilise this effect.
Focused reflection
How well do you currently use this technique?
Is it a technique you will focus on developing?
If so, what are the key features you will focus on (things to do, and not do)?