I’m using the Turning Point interactive voting system with a first year class at the moment. Were just trying it out and getting used to working with it, but I plan to do some classroom-based research during the next session. The plan is to use the voting systems with two first year classes (and with another class acting as a ‘control’) and see if higher-order questioning can be used to raise attainment. Many multiple choice-type questions used with such systems are pretty basic, just testing recall of facts rather than deep learning and understanding. My intention is to use questions which, rather than asking…is the name given to such and such a process…? followed by four choices of answer, instead using a question such as…process x is called such and such…it works by….and then four explanations. You get the drift…higher order questioning testing understanding rather than memory.

I’m going to start lessons off by using the questions as a form of learning objective starters, with the aim of engineering a Vygotskyan Zone of Proximal development over which the students’ learning can progress, and utilising peer-assisted learning to provide ‘scaffolding’ (a construct of Bruner and Wood) to help them bridge the gap and facilitated by the teacher at least at the start of the lesson. Dr Steve Draper at Glasgow University wrote a paper last year in which he proposed the idea of using questions in this way as a catalyst for learning (he calls this Catalytic Questioning). Full copies of this paper are available from Steve on request

I have been using peer assessment with my current first year classes this term along these lines, trying to help them learn how to construct higher order questions which they then enter into Turning Point slides. The reaction when one group’s questions come up for voting is evidence of how engaging this type of activity can be, and again, the intention is to develop learning and recall which is deeper and long-lasting and promotes understanding rather than just shallow memorising of facts which may be quickly forgotten once a topic test has been taken.

Together with the continuing work on the ‘Will the lights stay on -  Using ICT/GLOW to raise attainment’ project ( More on phase 2 of this in September with some quite significant findings which we’re just working on at the moment) as well as the ‘BrainBoosters’ games-based learning project report and paper (here and here) the next school year is shaping up to be one very much focussed on using classroom pedagogies to raise attainment and achievement across both primary and secondary sectors and the application of cutting edge research and innovative practice to the everyday learning and teaching in our classrooms.

In the feeding-frenzy that is GLOW and A Curriculum for Excellence at the moment, it’s sometimes all too easy to forget that any classroom approach to learning or set of tools to deliver such approaches  must be founded on the rock of  well researched and thought out pedagogical theory as well as existing good practice. I hope that my work over the coming year can contribute to this process as well as impacting upon achievement in my own school.