THE

CHALLENGE

OF

KNOWLEDGE

TLC 2

STARTER

Please complete

the multiple choice

activity on your desk

The idea of knowledge has

become

unfashionable in

recent years, and

so knowledge

itself has become

devalued.

Knowledge =

knowing whatknowing how

“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

Being able to look something up

does not mean that it has been

learned.

You cannot master any

subject without the

building blocks of knowledge.

Knowing things

changes your thought processes.

“Information

is not knowledge.”

Albert Einstein

“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’

ACTIVITYPlease complete the

maths questions(or the online tests!)

What is the significance

of this for our schemes

of work for both KS4 and

KS3?

KNOWLEDGE

ORGANISERS

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.

Organisers then

become easily

adaptable for quick

tests of knowledge

MULTIPLE

CHOICE

QUESTIONS

Multiple choice

questions are rarely

used in lessons - why?

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

MCQ are the basis of the US Education

system, from

elementary to

University level

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...

... and writing an effective

one as an “art form”.

MCQ can test whether the

foundation knowledge is

there before we move on to

the higher order skills

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?

However, they can also be

used to assess the higher order thinking skills

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.

How do we write an

effective multiple

choice question?

The distractors provide the

rigour - they can be used to

weed out misconceptions and

common errors

They can demand precision

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

Effective MCQ should

demand that students

think hard...

...this fits with Professor Robert

Coe’s simple theory of learning: learning happens when you

think hard about subject

content

Students should be

required to apply their knowledge in order to

answer the question

MCQ allow us to

intervene quickly and

effectively

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

Examples of MCQ

Design a MCQ based

on the learning journey

or learning objective

that you have brought

TEACHMEET