Checking for understanding
Teachers check for understanding before moving between modelled, guided and independent practice.
Checking for understanding is an explicit teaching strategy. Teachers regularly check student understanding in a variety of ways, one way is with effective questioning. Teachers analyse the information they collect to make evidence-based instructional decisions. This includes when to move between modelled, guided and independent practice.
Checking understanding requires teachers to collect the responses of all students (Wiliam 2014).
Video – Checking for understanding (3:27)
Checking for understanding is used throughout a lesson, to check the learning of every student, as the learning is happening.
This animation explains how checking for understanding can be used throughout a lesson, to check the learning of every student, as the learning is happening.
It outlines how checking for understanding:
- enables teachers to provide students with immediate feedback on learning
- allows teachers to respond to student understanding and address misconceptions and errors in the moment
- supports accurate schema development.
The animation highlights how checking for understanding works with other explicit teaching strategies, such as chunking and sequencing.
The animation can be used:
- to strengthen a shared understanding of checking for understanding
- as a stimulus for discussions about how checking for understanding supports accurate schema development
- to support professional learning about checking for understanding and how it aligns with how students learn.
[Text on screen reads, Checking for understanding.]
Speaker
Picture this, you ask a question and only a few familiar hands go up. But what about everyone else? Are they still with you? How can you be sure the whole class is learning?
Checking for understanding is an explicit teaching strategy that is used throughout a lesson, to check the learning of every student, as the learning is happening. It allows us to identify who the teaching has worked for, so we can respond to learning in the moment.
Checking for understanding is a type of formative assessment, it's a real-time tool. In explicit teaching, it happens during the lesson to ensure all students build accurate schema every step of the way.
Schemas are organised networks of related knowledge – a bit like an internal mind map.
[Screen shows mind map with the words weather, synoptic chart, isobars, fronts, cold and warm.]
Checks for understanding help students build these maps accurately and efficiently. Each check gives students feedback about their learning and allows teachers to respond in the moment, reinforcing what’s correct and helping prevent errors or misconceptions from becoming consolidated in their schema.
Checking for understanding prompts all students to actively think about the learning just taught.
To check the understanding of all students – not just volunteers – we can use a variety of response systems. These help keep lessons flowing by giving students a quick way to respond and us an at-a-glance view of what has (and hasn't) been understood.
[Screen shows students sitting at desks holding up mini whiteboards. The text on screen reads ‘mini whiteboard’.]
To help build a positive and inclusive learning environment, we can include routines which allow students time to think, and rehearse their response with a peer, before they share it with the class.
[Screen shows students sitting at desks in pairs, talking to each other – text on screen reads ‘think, pair, share’ followed by the words ‘non volunteer']
Using checking for understanding well requires us to plan ahead. Checking for understanding is closely connected to the explicit teaching strategy Chunking and sequencing. When planning a lesson, we identify the key knowledge or skill students need to learn.
Then, we break this learning into small, manageable chunks, that will suit our students.
We plan checks for understanding between these chunks. These are short, precise questions or prompts that directly connect to the chunk just taught.
[Screen shows teacher sitting at a computer, 'key knowledge’ and ‘key skills’ appear on the computer screen first, followed by ‘cold front, checks for understanding, warm front, checks for understanding’. ]
Checks for understanding aren’t broad questions like 'Are you with me?' or 'How confident do you feel with this learning?'
How students respond to checks for understanding allow us to confirm or correct their thinking with feedback or adjust our teaching in the moment.
If we see that our students are with us, we can move onto the next chunk of learning.
If we notice errors or misconceptions, we need to re-teach. This doesn’t mean re-presenting the information in the same way. Re-teaching may involve providing further modelling, thinking aloud using an extra example or adding in some scaffolding to help students build accurate understanding.
[Screen shows a flow diagram that splits into 2 arrows representing a decision point for teachers. One arrow curves upward, labelled ‘Plan A: Move onto the next chunk of learning’. The second arrow curves downward, labelled ‘Plan B: Reteach with further modelling, extra examples or added scaffolding’.]
So, why should we plan checks for understanding throughout our lessons? Because they keep students actively thinking about the learning and give us real-time insight into their understanding so that we can respond in the moment and help develop strong, accurate schema.
For more information on checking for understanding you can visit the explicit teaching strategies webpage.
[Screen shows a URL: https://edu.nsw.link/explicit-teaching-checking-for-understanding ]
[End of transcript]
Strategy learning module
The Strategy learning module – checking for understanding (PPTX 10.2 MB):
- breaks down the strategy
- shows how the strategy can be applied using different techniques
- offers professional learning support for a whole-school approach to explicit teaching.
More information about how to implement this professional learning can be found on Leading explicit teaching.
Technique guides
Explicit teaching strategies are implemented in the classroom through a range of techniques that are intentionally selected by the teacher. These techniques are not an exhaustive list of every approach a teacher may use to implement this strategy. These technique guides provide support to teachers to understand and apply the technique as part of their explicit teaching practice:
What it isn’t
- Asking for volunteer responses from a limited number of students
- Expecting students will ask a question if they don’t understand
- Used only at the end of a lesson or unit of learning
- Questions like, ‘Does everyone understand?’ and ‘Does anyone need any help?’
Further resources
- DataWORKS Curriculum (15 July 2014) 'TAPPLE – How to Check for Understanding'
- Sherrington T (2022) ‘Kitchen Pedagogy: Five Ways to Check for Understanding' (8:26) [video]
- Tips for Teachers (14 December 2022) 'Check for understanding – Tips for Teachers' (10:38) [video].
- Wiliam D (2015) ‘Designing great hinge questions’, Educational Leadership, 73(1):40–44.
- Wiliam D (2015) ‘Hinge Questions' (3:16) [video]
Wiliam D (2014) ‘The right questions, the right way’, Education Leadership, 71(6).
Wiliam D (2015) ‘Hinge Questions’ [video], North West Evaluation Association, Vimeo, accessed 18 April 2024.
Sherrington T (2022) 'Kitchen Pedagogy: Five Ways to Check for Understanding’ [video], Tom Sherrington, YouTube, accessed 16 April 2024.