Understand what your pupils understand

By Andy Chandler-Grevatt2019-07-03T11:35:00

A graphic image showing a male teacher holding a clipboard and assessing the knowledge of a female pupil, using a jigsaw analogy

Source: © Claudia Flandoli

Diagnose your students’ strengths and weaknesses

Pupils can have strengths in one area and weaknesses in another so it is important you build up an accurate picture of the current understanding of all your pupils. To find out what pupils know, we use a form of diagnosis: what exactly is it that they know and more importantly, what don’t they know (yet). In this article I consider the various forms of diagnosis of pupils’ prior knowledge. This diagnosis can be used to remedy any gaps before new content is introduced.

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