Low-stakes quizzes in class: a short guide for teachers
Ask most students what a quiz is for and they'll say: to check what you know. But research on learning shows quizzes do something more important – they help students learn. Used often and with little pressure, they're one of the simplest, most effective tools a teacher has.
Why quizzes help learning
Every time a student pulls an answer out of memory, that memory gets stronger. This is the testing effect, or retrieval practice, and it's been shown in many experiments – from Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke's classic study to large reviews of study techniques. More on the research.
Quizzes also give you information: which ideas the class has understood and which need another lesson.
What makes a quiz "low-stakes"
- It counts for little or nothing toward the final grade.
- It's short – five to ten questions, a few minutes.
- It's frequent – every lesson or every week.
- Feedback comes right away, so students know what was right and why.
Low stakes keep anxiety down, so students treat the quiz as practice rather than judgement. That's when it works best.
Tips for running them
- Start or end the lesson with one. A quick quiz at the start brings back last week's material; one at the end checks today's.
- Mix old and new topics. Coming back to earlier material spaces practice out – and mixing topics helps students learn to choose the right method.
- Explain the answers. The feedback is where much of the learning happens. Research on feedback, reviewed by John Hattie and Helen Timperley, found that feedback about the task and how to improve helps much more than general praise.
- Let students see their own progress, not only how they compare with others.
- Keep it fun. A little friendly competition can help – as long as everyone has a chance to succeed.
Using TONEC STUDY classrooms
Verified teachers can run live classrooms in TONEC STUDY for free:
- Invite your class with one link or a six-character class code.
- Questions appear one after another for the whole class, with a timer, at your class's level.
- A leaderboard shows who's answering correctly.
- Voice and video let you talk to your class, and students can raise a hand. You can mute one student or everyone, or remove a student.
- Safe by design: classrooms are never recorded, open classrooms never mix under-18s and adults, and students under 16 join only after a parent's OK.
Every question your students get right also earns a point for your school in the school league. How to get started as a teacher.
The research
- Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3).
- Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1).
- Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1).