Ian Blake, Head of Science at The Wilnecote School, offers practical advice to encourage students to retake quizzes and increase their recall of knowledge by setting an expectation of a score of at least 70%.
Repeating assessments is one of the best ways to improve knowledge recall. That’s the approach we take in our department, by setting clear expectations of what students should aim to achieve each step of the way. Educake helps make this possible.
How we use Educake for homework
- We set one homework task a week at KS3 and two tasks a week at KS4, each 30-40 minutes long.
- After each school holiday, we set a quiz on Educake covering previously studied topics as homework. After that initial quiz, the ones after that are set based on the new content taught in that week.
- Students are set a consistent target score of 70% and are encouraged to repeat the quiz to achieve this.
- We mark mid-topic and end-of-topic assessments. If we spot that students haven’t quite understood a concept, we re-teach it and then set an Educake quiz for homework.
How we encourage students to retake quizzes
- Avoiding random clicking:
The danger of any online platform is that students will click randomly to get through their homework. Setting a 70% correct target, and the expectation that they will re-take the quiz until they achieve it, avoids this temptation. It forces them to slow down and pay attention to the feedback they receive the first time through. - Shorter is better:
The average student should be able to complete the quiz and still have time to re-take it within 30-40 minutes. We’ve learnt to set no more than 15-20 questions in a weekly homework task.
How we encourage student engagement
If you don’t collect books and don’t mark and give feedback, how do you show a child you value what they are doing?
- We check the quiz results in class so we can acknowledge those who’ve completed their homework and give final warning to those still to complete.
- We respond to any student queries raised within Educake and give feedback. It takes seconds to do and creates a virtuous circle of logging in and receiving feedback.
- We give students value points if they score 90%+. This is part of our school’s reward system, and this success is shared with parents. Students find it hugely motivating!
- We give cake prizes for most questions answered and most self-set questions. This data takes seconds to find on the Students League table, so it’s really easy to integrate with our practices.
The result of using Educake
We measured residuals (the difference between students’ performance in a particular subject compared to all subjects overall) for the 21/22 and 22/23 academic years. These showed a marked improvement in the sciences, especially when compared to other subjects that did not use Educake.
Biology went from +0.02 to +0.44, chemistry from -0.60 to -0.30, and physics from -0.93 to +1.25.
For the current Y11, who were Y10 when we introduced Educake, student engagement has tripled: from 26819 questions answered in Y10 to 98773 questions answered in Y11.
We look forward to more student success and greater knowledge recall as we continue to use Educake at our school.
Wondering if Educake is right for your department?
