Good Practice - Case Study

Cunningham Hill Infants School

School No: 437

Voting System

For this trial, we used CPS voting systems on loan from Hertsfordshire Development Centre, loading the software onto our own hardware and with sufficient handsets for a class of 30 children to each use their own.

26 Year two children were involved in using the voting systems as a tool for learning with the aim of finding out about the possibilities within a Key Stage 1 curriculum.

Under the guidance of Chris Carter, I used Microsoft Powerpoint to set up a “Forces quiz” based around the main learning objectives for year 2 – forces, friction, gravity, etc. This area of work was our main science focus for this short period of time.

All the questions in the quiz were based on a multiple choice with three choices for each question, using clip art pictures to support the text.

Before beginning the unit of work on forces, the quiz was completed by all children, with the handsets operated individually and independently throughout the task.

This gave a valuable insight into the areas of learning which the children were secure with and those areas which needed input for learning. The results, which remained as a part of the program, served as evidence and provided immediate feedback to inform my planning. I this first instance, the majority of the questions showed an even spread of choices for a, b, c – while a certain number of questions showed a clear understanding of basic concepts, demonstrating that they had clearly been well taught previously. For example, there were 2 questions which showed a 100% correct result.

This assessment then formed the basis of planning for learning about forces. I could immediately see which areas of teaching would need to be the focus of this unit of work.

At the end of this focus in science teaching and learning, we then used the “Forces quiz” in the same format to make an updated assessment of individual learning. This time it showed a significant improvement in the areas we had focused on (with the lowest result being 79% correct) and, more importantly, showed which children needed further input in their learning.

The data in each case was very useful and whilst the children all saw the percentages of correct answers, they were not aware of individual answers and that information was not shared with them. The children who gave incorrect answers were therefore given the correct answers without no need for others to know.

• Assessment for teaching and learning was immediate and effective

• Every child was engaged in the task and could participate in a non-threatening way

• Once the powerpoint quiz was set up it was quick and easy to use

Helen Knight
Cunningham Hill Infants School