Small Teaching: Using Frequent, Low-Stakes Assessments to Promote Deeper Learning

If I asked you to “predict” what the pedagogical approach called “Small Teaching” might involve, I would actually be using a Small Teaching strategy – the very act of predicting the answer to a question, regardless of whether we get it right, primes our brain for deeper learning. This is the type of cognitive science that James Lang applies to teaching in his book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning (2021) and in collaboration with Flower Darby in Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes (2019). In his book, Lang describes how teachers can use small, frequent, and flexible interventions in teaching to have big, positive impacts on student learning. Without delving too deep into the science here (though I highly recommend reading the book!), Lang argues that people learn best with repeated practice and self-testing. Giving students the chance to test their own learning in frequent, low-stakes assessments helps them learn more deeply and more permanently. So, what does that look like in the classroom and online?

When and How to Use Frequent, Low-Stakes Assessments

Building frequent, low-stakes assignments into a course gives instructors the opportunity to assess students (or have students assess themselves) and monitor their progress with little to no effect on final grades. Using Lang’s Small Teaching strategies, we can promote engagement and deep learning, while providing an opportunity for feedback and assessment. In this post we will look at three of Lang’s brain-based learning strategies that can be used as short assessment activities: prediction, retrieval, and interleaving.

Preparing to Learn (prediction)

Preparing to learn includes the work students do before class (homework, reading, etc.) and the first few minutes of a class (or the first “topic” in an iCollege module).

One Small Teaching strategy to help students prepare to learn is to activate prior knowledge: ask the students what they already know about the topic, or what they recall from the previous class or online module that connects to this topic. In the face-to-face classroom this could be a “1-minute paper” at the beginning of class; online this could be a survey or quiz.

Another strategy is to have students predict how the new material (that they have potentially already read about in preparation for class) will connect to the previous content or skills they learned. In an in-person class, this could be an anonymous online poll (using Vevox for example); in iCollege this could be a discussion board post or a survey. Research shows that even if students make an incorrect prediction, their brain is now primed to learn the correct material more permanently.

“Hit Pause”: Understanding, Practicing and Self-Assessing (retrieval)

In a face-to-face class, we can often tell when the students are confused or are not engaging, and we know we need to “hit pause” and check their learning. We might do this with a quick, low-stakes quiz, an engagement exercise like a think-pair-share or using clickers on an online poll. In the online setting, we need to build-in moments for students to check and practice their learning. One way to do this is a self-assessment rubric in which students assess their mastery of a concept for a participation grade.

Another option is to build in a small, short, low- or no-grade quiz that is required to unlock the next module. (Here’s how to do this using the “conditional release function.”). You can set the next module to only release on until the student achieves 100% on the mastery quiz and allow the student to re-take the quiz as many times as they need. Be sure to make the quiz short and low stakes. You could decide for it not to count for or against the final grade, but that 100% unlocks the next part of the assignment or module.

Application and Connection (retrieval, prediction, and interleaving)

Ideally, we know that before students leave our class, we should give them time to reflect on what they’ve learned and make connections to other contexts. Instructors who do this often use 1-minute reflection papers, “exit ticket” quizzes, or homework assignments that prompt students to use retrieval and possibly prediction to make connections in their learning. Online we can use the same strategies, asking students to summarize key concepts, reflect on what they’ve learned and identify areas of confusion. In iCollege, instructors can use VoiceThreads or discussion board posts.

To promote deeper learning, Lang also suggests a strategy called interleaving, which involves integrating more challenging material that students may not be familiar with yet into a class period or a homework assignment; for example, asking students to try a short, low-stakes quiz on problems that you will be introducing during the next class period. Using their application and prediction skills, students can try to figure out how to approach the new, more challenging material. Similarly, interleaving can be revisiting material and skills from earlier parts of the course, mixing older concepts with new concepts (for example with an assignment that calls for skills from prior units and combines them with new skills). Again, these should all be short and low stakes, but they give the student the chance to check (and enhance!) their learning and give you the ability to monitor their progress.

You can explore small teaching in more detail in this upcoming workshop:

Take a Deep Dive into Small Teaching: Using Cognitive Theory to Boost Student Learning in the Classroom and Online.
Friday, March 7 at 1 p.m.

For more ways to include small teaching strategies in your course, check out this Small Teaching Inventory. And, if you’d like help integrating these approaches into iCollege, set up an appointment with one of our experts. Good luck!