Regiolab - Socrative

• Mentorles
• HBO
• Studiejaar 3

Workshop                    

Formative testing

Workshop by Roel Beckers and Luc Vullings

Before the Regiolab even starts the teachers talk to the attendees and get to know them. This is something that could be seen as creating rapport which according to Scrivener (2011, p. 15) is important to get a healthy relationship between student and pupil, in this case the people following the workshop.

Whenever the teachers are ready to start their lesson they walk up to the board and start by introducing themselves before introducing the main subject FORMATIVE TESTING. 

"Welcome everyone, my name is Luc and I am Roel and today we will be taking you on an adventure through the world of Socrative. We used Socrative ourselves to implement more formative testing in our havo 2 class. If there's any questions during the workshop, raise your hand and await your turn."

Who here has used Socrative before?

The teacher shows the attendees the board and asks them a question.

"Who here has used Socrative before? And I want you all to answer by using your phone so please everyone, take out your phone or laptop and go to the website displayed on the screen and answer the question."

Content

• What is formative testing and retrieval practise?
• Why is it useful?
• How to apply Socrative in this context

The teachers explain what is on the program for today’s workshop:

"Today we will begin with a few questions and explanation about Formative testing and retrieval practise. Then an explanation about why formative testing is useful. And lastly we will discuss how to use it In the given context."

Learning objectives

After this workshop the participants are able to explain in their own words what formative testing and retrieval practise are and what they are used for.

After this workshop the participants are able to create their own Socrative test.

After this workshop the participants are able to explain when to use Socrative and when to use other tools, i.e. lessonup.

When planning a lesson or activity it is important to think about what the learners learn from them. This way you can motivate the to engage in the activity what is in it for them? What can they do better, what do they know after the lesson/activity? The learners also gain more insight into what is expected of them during the practice and tests (English Department, 2018). Which is exactly what these learning objectives are based on.

The teachers will name the objectives and move to the next slide.

What is formative testing?

The teachers then move on to a question to gather the participants prior knowledge. According to  Gathering prior knowledge is key because what you already know determines how quickly you pick up on something, especially because new information sticks to prior knowledge (Camp, Kirschner, Muijs, Sluijmans, Surma & Vanhoyweghen, 2019, p. 32).

"Now before we give you all the theory and show you how we used Socrative , we'd like to know what you already know."

Definition of formative testing:

Formative testing is used to get insight into what your pupils need to achieve the learning objective and to see how they're getting along. 

The teachers read out the definition of formative testing, which is: Formative testing is used to get insight into what your pupils need to achieve the learning objective and to see how they're getting along (Camp et al., 2019, p. 113).

The teachers discuss some of the answers given in the prior question by going back a page and ask people to elaborate on their answer. 

"So with this definition you can conclude that formative testing doesn't involve giving your pupils grades, this is important to keep in mind!  With the definition out of the way the main thing that's left is when to use it, so let's move onto that."

When to use formative testing?

The teachers wait until everyone has answered the question before moving on. They move on by providing theoretical information on when it should be used. 

"Formative tests are useful when you want to check how your pupils are getting along, to check whether or not you might need a different approach (Camp et al., 2019, p. 113). Keep in mind there are many different ways of formative testing, some examples can be found in wijze lessen (Camp et al., 2019, p. 121."

What is retrieval practise?

The teachers asks the question on the board and discuss some of the answers and add:

"Now we've gone over what formative testing is but something that is often seen as closely related is retrieval practise. Now I want to ask you, what is retrieval practise exactly?"

Definition of retrieval practise:

Retrieval practise is used to get your pupils to actively retrieve information from their memory.

The teachers read out the definition of retrieval practise, which is: Retrieval practise is used to get your pupils to actively retrieve information from their memory (Camp et al., 2019, p. 171).

The teachers discuss some of the answers given in the prior question by going back a page and ask people to elaborate on their answer."

"So now that we've gone over the definition the main thing that's left is when to use it, so let's move onto that."

When to use retrieval practise?

The teacher then asks the attendees yet another question. 

"Now when do you think you could use retrieval practise?"

After having gotten the answers the teachers discuss a few of them and move on to add.

"According to Geerts & Van Kralingen (2016, p. 49) it is important to remember that to integrate new information into the long term memory repetition is an important tool. This is where retrieval practise comes in!"

Is there a difference between retrieval practise and formative testing? Do they serve the same purpose?

The teachers explain they have already used retrieval practise.

"We already implemented a form of retrieval practise, since the most basic one is testing to see what your pupils already know, this can easily be translated to your own classroom (Camps et al., 2019, p. 169)." 

                      & formative testing

The teachers then move on to talk about what the next part is about and the link between formative testing and Socrative.

"Now that we've seen what it is that we're trying to implement we're going to show you how to use the tool Socrative as well as provide a best practise example of it!"

"Socrative can be used to create a game-like environment which reduces can reduce the burden on the instructor as well as keep the pupils more motivated and involved (English Department, 2019, p. 18). This provides us with a clear link on the theory and the practise."

In the SAMR model Socrative can be seen as both a substitution and an Augmentation. The normal Socrative test option is a clear substitution, because it is a digital version of a test and automates checking the tests. The space race part is an Augmentation, because it adds a competitive element with visuals that isn’t there when you just answer questions (English Department, 2019, p17)

The teachers introduce the Socrative environment and uses a pointer tool to show what button he's clicking on to move on from here.

"On the board you can see exactly what you see after you log into Socrative. The red X displays what we won't be covering today since these options are used when asking a question in person and getting answers through the computer. Instead we will be going over the Quiz and Space Race features of Socrative but to do this we have to first take care of a couple of things. Let's start by clicking on the quizzes button."

The teachers show what button he means by moving his laser pointer over there, circling the button.

The teachers talks to the attendees about what they can do on this screen.

"On this page you see what it looks like when you go to actually create your quiz. To move on we have to click on the '+ add quiz' button."

After having done so the teacher points the laser pointer at the add quiz button and circles it before moving on.

On this page the teachers gives insight on how to add questions to your quiz.

"This is what you see when you're actually trying to create a quiz. Below you see three buttons" The teacher hovers their laser pointer over these buttons. "When you want to add one of these types of questions, simply click on the button and a format for such a question will appear, it's all very intuitive"

Once the teacher is done they hover over save and exit with the laser pointer before hovering over the rooms button on the bar on the top of the screen. 

The teachers explain why it's important to set up a room properly with a simple name.

"When setting up your room name, make sure it's simple enough to use. To get into your quiz your pupils will have to type this name onto their device. If you forget to set up this room name properly it is impossible to actually use Socrative in the way you'd want to"

https://tinyurl.com/WorkshopSoc

The teachers now show the example of a best practice case made for HAVO 2 class and discuss how the tool works. They give some information about the teaching context of this HAVO 2 class and explain their choices. They start by showing the attendees the normal test and after that they show the game version (space race). While the attendees type in the website the teachers make sure the room is set up for the holiday quiz they created. 

"Please join the classroom by typing VULLINGS in the bracket at the student login. You only have to join do not make the test yet. – This example formative test is based on the theory that a HAVO 2 class may discuss, the notion discussed here is 'Going on a holiday'. As seen before you can use multiple choice questions, open questions and true or false questions. A HAVO 2 class is still in the early stages of learning English, so having too many open questions could make it too hard and less interesting. The pupils in this case have already discussed part of a chapter on Holidays, the teacher decides to use Socrative to test how they're getting along. Quick disclaimer: Don't use a competitive element when gathering prior knowledge, this will inhibit learning as it creates an unsafe learning environment (Slooter, 2019)."

Using differentiation in exercises is very beneficial because different students have different sensory preferences and might use one intelligence more than the other (Scrivener, 2011, p. 85).

The socrative test that was used in the workshop, can be found here, by clicking this link you will get to copy the test and save one for yourself: https://tinyurl.com/WorkshopSocX

The teachers will discuss the options you can change in a test to suite the learning context.

“Instant feedback is useful when you use Socrative to practise. This way the learners are able to see what they did wrong and think about their answers. When you don’t activate this feature  they’ll have to get the answers from the teacher. And when you use this function the students are not able to go back when given an answer. Open navigation means they ARE allowed to go back to change answers and look through the answers. This option is rather a personal preference. The teacher paced option is useful for when you are giving instruction and you want the learners to make exercises during the instruction.”

The teachers instruct the attendees to take the test and switches from the presentation to the Socrative page so attendees can see what they would see if they were the teacher.

“Now please fill in the answers of the test. If you look at the board while you're doing this you can see exactly what the teacher sees. You can, for example, show your entire group what the others answered. I would strongly advise against that, however, because the anonymity of the situation provides a more safe learning environment which influences the emotions and this in turn influences your learning ability."

Emotions have an impact on your ability to learn (Slooter, 2019, p. 41).

The teachers explain what the options are to handle the answers.

“After finishing a test Socrative gives the following three options: To put all the information in an Excel file, make A PDF file with the information for every individual participant or a PDF with the specific data based on the question."

https://tinyurl.com/WorkshopSoc

The teachers instruct the attendees they'll be doing the space race part now.

"Please log into the Socrative once more, this time pay attention to the board. 

The socrative test that was used in the workshop, can be found here, by clicking this link you will get to copy the test and save one for yourself: https://tinyurl.com/WorkshopSocX

The teachers talk about the benefit of using the space race option over the test as well as switch over to the previously opened Socrative tab.

"On the board you will see a tracker in which you can see your progress. The interesting thing about this is that it's more playful and can be used to create an element of competition, which students often like. This also creates an environment with less pressure, which lowers the effective filter."

Using this element of competition within your lessons provides a more motivating lesson and still facilitates learning (English Department, 2019, p. 18).

Using this less pressure variant of formative testing aids the student's learning by providing less pressure and therefore not creating negative emotions lowers the effective filter (Larson-Freeman & Anderson, 2018 ,p. 237).

Learning objectives

After this workshop the participants are able to explain in their own words what formative testing and retrieval practise are and what they are used for.

After this workshop the participants are able to create their own Socrative test.

After this workshop the participants are able to explain when to use Socrative and when to use other tools, i.e. lessonup.

The teachers reminds the attendees what the learning objectives were and then say:

 

"Instead of going over them one by one, we have created a small formative test. Try and answer all the questions, good luck!".

The teachers only show this briefly and say: "Make sure you're still in the lessonUp so you can answer the questions!"

What is formative testing?

The teachers ask the question, which they answered before and go over one/two of the answers.

When to use formative testing?

The teachers ask the question, which they answered before and go over one/two of the answers.

What is retrieval practise?

The teachers ask the question, which they answered before and go over one/two of the answers.

When to use retrieval practise?

The teachers ask the question, which they answered before and go over one/two of the answers.

I am able to create my own Socrative test!

I am not yet well-enough equipped to create my own Socrative test

Me!

The teacher shows another type of question, possible in lessonUp. And says: 

"Answer this for yourself, both answers are correct"

Once the attendees have answered, the teachers ask who answered what and why with two people. If possible, one who answered they were able to and one who answered they weren't able to.

In what context would Socrative be an appropriate tool to use?

This last question will be asked by the teachers to round off the learning objective check.

"Please answer the last question"

After the attendees have answered the teachers go over one or two answers.

Questions?

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

The teachers thank the attendees for attending and ask if there are any questions. If there aren't they mention their email addresses are on the board and they are always willing to answer any questions that pop up.

"Before we Thank you for attending, we have one last disclaimer: we have given you the technological skills to implement formative testing through Socrative in your lesson, some pedagogical knowledge on when to apply formative testing through Socrative.  Combine this with your content knowledge and you will be able to TPACK your way to the bank. We hope you learned something today and if there any questions ask them now. If any pop up later, our email addresses are on the board, feel free to send us a message."

TPACK is a model that defines what a teacher must do to successfully implement technology in the classroom, it consists of three competencies: 

1. Content knowledge, knowing the subject that you want to teach through technology.

2. Pedagogical knowledge, how to teach your subject effectively.

3. Technological knowledge, knowing how the technology works (English Department, 2019).