From homework to responsive teaching to independent learning

Richard Davies, Head of Science at Coundon Court School in Coventry

In 2018, envious of our maths colleagues with their myriad online teaching and learning platforms, I was searching for a suitable science alternative. I had tried some that simply allowed random tapping of multiple-choice options and others that did not generate useful information for teachers, before coming across Educake.

Having subscribed for our science department, we all excitedly fired out homework and enjoyed the automatic marking. Educake was doing everything we thought we needed. Students were more engaged with their homework and staff workload was reduced. But we soon realised we could do a lot more with this new platform than just ‘do Educake’ to our students.

Focussing on responsive teaching

We wanted to develop a partnership between students and staff where both groups could see why they should use Educake – not just for homework, but to improve their teaching and learning. At our school, responsive teaching was a focus for our professional development. Educake provided an excellent platform to support that with immediate, clear visual feedback. We used the misconceptions and weaknesses identified from homework to help prepare a lesson for reteaching, which was shared amongst all colleagues to deliver.

This created an immediate responsive teaching mechanism for staff, which students could see was supporting their learning. If they didn’t do the homework, they were missing an opportunity to have their learning supported. This feedback could be shown anonymously in class, so did not require students to expose themselves as not knowing something in front of their peers.

Giving individual feedback, even during remote learning

Our responsive teaching partnership developed further during remote learning. Educake gave teachers immediate insight into student understanding, whether they were able to join live lessons or had to complete work when it fitted with others in the household.

We could give individual feedback through Educake, provide additional teaching at the start of the next live lesson, or direct students to relevant supporting resources.

Becoming an Educake millionaire!

Working with Educake in lockdown also allowed us to run an “Educake Millionaire” competition where we encouraged students to engage with their remote learning, and there was a prize for the student who answered the 1 millionth question within that academic year (we do have just under 2000 students on roll!). Appropriately enough, this 1 millionth question was answered on a Saturday afternoon, highlighting how students had to adapt their learning schedule during this period and how Educake was able to support that.

For independent learning and revision

We are now trying to empower students to use Educake more independently for their own learning and revision, rather than something set for them as homework or in collaboration with their teacher. Educake continues to listen to and implement what we need to support staff and students with this as they have through our whole journey since 2018.