Confidence Measures
With the technique, Confidence Measures, you ask students to accompany the answer they have given on a show-me board with a number, 1 - 3:
1 - ‘It’s a guess.’
2 - ‘I think this is correct but I’m not certain.’
3 - ‘I’m certain.’
Why use this technqiue?
Confidence Measures is a technique that can address two common challenges in interactive teaching:
Encouraging positive participation from everyone (for example, some students will draw a question mark on show-me boards because they weren’t confident enough to write the answer they thought was correct).
Knowing if the answer a student has given was a guess. If you see lots of boards with ‘1’, this tells you something quite different than if you see lots of boards with ‘3’.
Notes and tips
To encourage students to use ‘3’ (many will often default to the safer option of ‘2’), make a point of recognising and congratulating students who get answers correct with an accompanying ‘3’. For example, you might say: ‘To those of you who got that right and put 3 - well done. I’m particularly impressed that you had the confidence to write 3.’
Beyond the benefits we have highlighted, 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)?