Assessing learner confidence.

“Doubt is the origin of wisdom.” Descartes.

It is sometimes useful to question a student’s confidence about a certain piece of knowledge so that we can find out the difference between what they actually know and what they have been able to deduce It is pretty easy to spot a student who ‘doesn’t know what they don’t know’. It is also fairly easy to spot their antithesis: the student who ‘knows what they know’. It is with the students in between these two poles who can form a grey area that can be tricky for teachers to interpret. The following crude table may help untangle students’ knowledge and their confidence in it. From this we can start to figure out what the next teaching steps could be, as students who are confident in their knowledge of a concept have different requirements those who are less confident.

Student’s knowledge is …	Confidence in this knowledge …	Also know as …	Potential initial teacher response
Wrong.	High.	A misconception (or in correct belief)	Make it clear why the answer is wrong. Provide lots of evidence/ ideas of the correct answer. Move them to wrong knowledge/ low confidence.
Wrong.	Middling.	Uncertainty.	Ask them why they think this? Make clear what their doubts are. Move them to wrong answer/low confidence.
Wrong.	Low.	A wild guess.	Give a clear correct explanation.
Right.	High.	Students know they know as well as how they know it. Expert.	Move on. Connect this knowledge to new knowledge.
Right.	Middling.	Students think they know this, but are uncertain.	Reinforce, review, reflect, and rehearse.
Right.	Low.	A lucky guess or hypothesis.	Praise correct answer. Ask why they think this? Move them to right answer/middling confidence.

How to get information on student confidence

To get information on student confidence in a concept, we must look beyond what is said and begin to look at how they are saying it. Here we are in similar territory to Radio Four’s ‘Just a Minute’ in which the panel must speak for a minute without “hesitation, deviation or repetition”. When we listen to (or read) student responses, we are constantly and subconsciously judging the confidence they have, instinctively clarifying things for those who appear confused, nodding in encouragement of those lack that are struggling with confidence. But this remains a process that operates at a liminal level of our consciousness; rarely do we ever bring these actions into being consciously, nor do we exploit the students’ responses as a form of data to inform our planning for them.

It is relatively straightforward to obtain information from these sorts of interactions that you and your students will find helpful. Again, like the light bulb example, the content needs to be significant for this to be worth doing.  Two helpful ways of structuring our assessment of student confidence are:

1. Making it explicit by using self-assessment.

2. Making it implicit within the task or question.

The first method, making it explicit, can be as simple as a multiple-choice question with an attached check box in which the student can indicate their level of confidence about their answer. Look at this number sequence, as an example:

-8.8, -9.0, -9.2, -9.4 …

What is the next number in the sequence?

A -8.6	I am ●     Sure about this ●     Fairly sure ●     Guessing
B -9.5
C -9.6
D -10

.The student complete the problem, and ticks the statement that best represents their confidence, which provides the teacher with two pieces of information to make decisions about what to do next. We can see how we would move student on who were correct and confident, where we may ask students to explain how they derived their answer for those who were correct but not confident in their response. For in correct responses we may decide to re-teach the concept. 

An alternative way of structuring pre-quiz questions to assess confidence is to simply make it as a potential student response in a multiple-choice question. By adding an “I don’t know” option allows students, to express doubt, rather than guess. Remember a correct guess will hide the information that you are seeking about student prior knowledge. 

An example question.

Which of the following are true?

A) In order to reduce manufacturing costs, companies make their products smaller.

B) In order to reduce manufacturing costs, companies computerize their production.

C) In order to reduce manufacturing costs, companies run nightshifts.

D) Both A and B.

E) Both A and C.

F) Both B and C.

G) No Idea.

The “I think this “ grid.

A more sophisticated structure may reveal useful information and engage student reflection about what they know and how well they know It can be drawn from this  well-designed tick grid. Consider this task taken from a History classroom.

Why was the Enabling Act so important?

Statement		I am sure this is right	I think this is right	I think this is wrong	I am sure this is wrong
A	It allowed Hitler to become President
B	It meant that Hitler had won the election
C	It allowed Hitler to make laws without the Reichstag
D	It gave the Nazis a majority in the Reichstag

This simple structure can be illuminating for teachers to base their classroom decisions on evidence that is there. Students that are sure about the correct statements may not reveal as much as students who are sure about incorrect ones, but perhaps the most useful aspect will come from the number of “ I think..” responses given. This begs the question for the teacher “How do I help the students become surer about the things they know?” and “Have the students been exposed to the information sufficiently to allow them to be confident? The seemingly simple structure, engages students in thinking about the content and how well they understand it. 

Tackling Misconceptions.

Encouragingly this simple technique, with questions focussed upon misconceptions and known student difficulties, can help provide one of the conditions needed for students to correct their misconceptions. Once more, a teachers Pedagogical Content Knowledge provides the insight necessary to design these questions.

This following Science example utilises some common misconceptions, and confusions to do this. There are also two correct answers, which adds a richness to the activity. If, as in most multiple choice questions, there was only one correct response, once figured out the students would stop thinking. To avoid student means end thinking these tasks should be introduced by stating “ All of these statements may be true, they may all be false or any combination of true and false” Ultimately we wish for students to be confident about the correct answer and the wrong ones. Why do solid ionic compounds do not conduct electricity?

Statement	I am sure this is right	I think this is right	I think this is wrong	I am sure this is wrong
The ions do not have enough space in between them
The ions can not move
There are no delocalised electrons
There are strong electrostatic forces of attraction

As Posner and Strike (1992) highlight that for students to overcome misconceptions there must be some dissatisfaction with their current understanding. Students are unlikely to be aware of these, and it therefore falls to us to make them purposefully aware of the ones they hold. This can be difficult, as theories” work for them perfectly well in their everyday lives, and we have to tutor students to become critical of their own thinking. By enabling students to doubt what they think, or doubt what the answer is, we can begin this process. From doubt the journey to wisdom begins.