Cpl workshop 4 feedback - corrections and misconceptions 2

Outstanding Learning @ HCC INSET: Friday 25th September 2015
Teaching and Learning:
Expect Excellence
Student

Feedback: Corrections and Misconceptions
The problem with feedback

The problem with feedback
Marking has evolved into an unhelpful burden for teachers, when
the time it takes is not repaid in positive impact on pupils’ progress.
This is frequently because it is serving a different purpose such as
demonstrating teacher performance or to satisfy the requirements of
other, mainly adult, audiences. Too often, it is the marking itself
which is being monitored and commented on by leaders rather than
pupil outcomes and progress as a result of quality feedback.
From the DfE report Eliminating unnecessary workload around marking

The problem with feedback – discuss
Revision questions?
- In the build up to exams, what are the
‘healthy behaviours?’
- Are there things you find yourself
correcting time and again in pupil’s work?
- Are there any that are common across
subjects?
- Are there ones that are subject specific?

Planning for misconceptions
There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That
is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are
also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know.
Donald Rumsfeld (2002)

The problem with misconceptions is we don’t know we have
them. Pupils can’t correct them as they think they are right.
Misconceptions often come from Folk Knowledge (Geary, 2003)
and are very hard to remove once embedded.
What folk knowledge appears in your subject, which leads to
misconceptions and drives you crazy!

We can deal with misconceptions by:
1. Identifying them in advance in SoW and
planning to address them head on.
2. Drawing them out through questioning,
unpicking them and replacing them.
3. Identifying them in our pupil’s work and
addressing them.

Planning for misconceptions – discuss
What misconceptions exist in your subject?
What do pupils arrive to your class believing to
be true?
Where do you think these misconceptions stem
from?
Looking towards the next SoL….What are the
common misconceptions?

Misconceptions in geography
 The equator is hot because it is closer to the sun
 Global warming is caused by a hole in the ozone layer
 Rivers have a faster velocity near their source
 Rivers start at the sea
 People migrate due to tourist attractions

Misconceptions and questioning
Embrace closed questions.
 Why did Boscastle Flood?
Vs
 What are the valley sides like near Boscastle?
 What do steep sides do to surface run off?
 Why is surface run off significant in terms of flooding?

Use hinge questions.
Why did Boscastle flood? Pick the best answer.
a) There was heavy rain
b) The steep valley sides meant the lag time was short and the
river couldn’t contain the water.
c) The river had been artificially straightened up stream.
d) Deforestation had led to soil erosion that made the river channel
too shallow to contain the water.

Planning for misconceptions – discuss
Think about a lesson you taught today or will be teaching
tomorrow.
What would make a useful hinge question?
Why did Boscastle flood? Pick the best answer.
a) There was heavy rain
b) The steep valley sides meant the lag time was short and the
river couldn’t contain the water.
c) The river had been artificially straightened up stream.
d) Deforestation had led to soil erosion that made the river channel
too shallow to contain the water.

Open questions are better for extending understanding than diagnosing
misconceptions.
Teacher: Did heavy rain cause the flooding in Boscastle? Student: Yes.
Firstly, we classify their thinking.
Teacher: What do you know about the role of heavy rain in the cause of this flood?
Student: There was over a months rain in just 24 hours. This went straight into the
river and caused it to burst its banks.
Next we probe assumptions.
Teacher: What would change your answer about the flood being caused by heavy
rain? Student: If there were other places that had as much rain and didn’t flood. Then I
would have to look at other factors. .
Thirdly we demand evidence.
Teacher: Did every village in the area flood? Student: No. It can’t just have been the
heavy rain.

Then we ask for alternative viewpoints.
Teacher: So who might disagree that it was just caused by the amount of rain?
Student: People living in Boscastle. They might feel that there were mistakes made in
managing the drainage basin and that this caused the flood.
Then explore implications.
Teacher: What would be the implications of accepting that there might be some
human causes of the flood? Student: It would mean that people could identify these
other factors and then see if they could modify the vulnerability of the area and make
flooding less likely in the future.
And finally question the question.
Teacher: Why do you think we need to ask questions like this? Student: If we accept
that heavy rain alone doesn’t causes flooding then we might be able to prevent a flood
like this happening somewhere else.

Other opportunities
 While pupils are working
 Plenaries – exit tickets etc.
 Checklist that encourage the correct terminology

Making corrections
What percentage of a Year 7 class would be able to identify
the following errors?
 She ran Fast.
 The largest country in the world is russia.
 The cat’s were playing outside.
 I don’t know witch cake I want to buy.

Making corrections
What percentage of a Year 7 class would be able to identify
the following errors?
 She ran Fast. 100%
 The largest country in the world is russia. 94%
 The cat’s were playing outside. 91%
 I don’t know witch cake I want to buy. 94%

Review your work
Common errors
Capital letters at the start of sentences
The volcano erupted.
Capital letters for names of people and
places.
The eruption of Etna, in Italy, was very
violent.
Check homophones such as
there/their/they’re
which/witch
weather/whether
Apostrophes for possessions not plurals.
The teacher’s annoyance was building.
The teachers gathered for a stiff drink
Key words
Environment
Volcano
Volcanoes
Pyroclastic
Sustainability
Checklist
 Written in paragraphs
 Each paragraph contains
one idea
 Checked common errors
and key word spelling
 The conclusion answers the
question
 Included economic, social
and environmental factors
 Mentioned sustainability

Misconceptions and feedback
The problems with waiting to identify misconceptions in pupil
work are:
 They have become embedded
 Pupils can’t correct them without new input (“If I knew how
to do that I would”)
 It can be hugely time consuming to write written comments
like this.

Misconceptions and feedback
Responsive Teaching is a solution.
1. Read the work
2. Identify the misconceptions
3. Teach and build
4. Repeat.

Key Points
 Feedback may be one of the most important elements
of teaching but bad feedback is worse than no feedback.
 Feedback becomes poorer when done for an outside
observer.
 Pupils should be able to correct errors (e.g. checklists)
Pupils can’t correct misconceptions
 We need to explicitly plan for misconceptions and
respond to them when they occur.

Cpl workshop 4 feedback - corrections and misconceptions 2

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