What cryptocurrency taught me about testing, motivation and success

^{A bi-weekly T&L post for staff at Community Schools Trust}

Last week I watched Bitconned on Netflix and came across the term FUD – fear, uncertainty and doubt. It’s a strategy commonly used in public relations where misinformation is designed to create a negative emotional response. FUD.

At Community Schools Trust (CST), I know we love our acronyms… so here are a few more (from the world of cryptocurrency) that you didn’t know you needed: 

FUD: Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt

More recently known to be used in the world of cryptocurrency, FUD can be caused by  rumours, fake news or any other information that a person or group can use to their advantage.  

We see FUD all the time in the media don’t we? Someone makes a case for X, and when we don’t quite understand something, or don’t have all the facts about something, we can be left with fear, uncertainty and doubt – FUD. 

FUD can be strengthened through the echo chambers of our own circles too. Such is the design of our social circles and of course, amplified online. 

We know schools are a microcosm of society. We see social structures influence behaviours and norms everyday at school. In some schools, lack of rules means it is normal for corridors to be controlled by the students; they can be chaotic and even dangerous. At the CST, we have rules for our corridors because we want those spaces to be calm and orderly.

In the classroom, we see similar social structures affecting behaviours and norms. Where students decide the norm, the classroom can be an unpredictable place. Perhaps not completing homework is the norm in some classrooms, so when a student does complete it, they are ridiculed. Perhaps tests are perceived as punishments in some classrooms and not a means to improve. Perhaps classroom discussions are dominated by the loudest students in some classrooms. These are the classrooms where the adult has not taken the lead. Instead, some students have and this can lead to FUD for the rest of the students in that class.

Rhetoric around exams can be a real cause of FUD. In fact, with mock exams coming up, we know students will be feeling slightly nervous. Their perception of success will be subjective –

He scored higher than me – I could never beat his score

I heard topic X is coming up – I’m rubbish at that topic I might as well give up now

– and unless we intervene with this perception of success, it will lead to FUD among our students. 

To combat fear, uncertainty and doubt, Peps Mccrea says we need to frame success explicitly. I’ve summarised this in the table below with suggested teaching strategies on how we could do this in the classroom:

	Framing success	Teaching strategy
1	Establish internal clarity: establish with yourself and with colleagues exactly what success looks like	Front load instructions with Means of Participation and success criteria Consistently use an agreed upon shared language, eg. When I say go and not before…
2	Get there first: define it clearly for your students, show them model examples and point them out when you see it	Use the visualiser to live model and verbalise thought process
3	Use the right metrics: focus on beating personal best rather than comparing scores to other students	Explicitly reference assessment threshold standards in your feedback: last time you hit the bottom of level 4 of the mark scheme; let’s see if you can hit the next level by including points x and y
4	Mitigate failure: make it clear that failing is part of a journey of success and normalise a culture of error	Establish a culture of error in your feedback, eg. I’m so glad you made that mistake, it means we can all learn from it. Stop the class and re-teach.

Of course, once we’ve framed success appropriately, we need to actually get them to study – particularly ahead of their upcoming tests. Like them or loathe them, tests are important to improving student learning. Perhaps surprisingly, tests are an excellent way to motivate students into actually studying…

We need to create the conditions for students to facilitate better study and for that, we need to have a fair understanding of the levers at our disposal. Tests are perhaps the best lever we have…

So here’s the next acronym you didn’t know you needed:

DYOR: Do Your Own Research (Revision)

In order to combat FUD, you really should ‘Do Your Own Research (DYOR). Move away from the echo chambers of your social circle/media. Diversify your reach. Read more.

For our students, to combat their FUD, we need to facilitate their volition to study – when they opt in to spend time studying for a test. For the sake of this post, I’ve replaced Research with Revision – Do Your Own Revision.

In this excellent post on ‘motivating productive effort through testing’, Matthew Evans breaks down a student’s effective volition to study into 4 parts:

1. Initiate study: for example, we provide students with access to resources and tests on the DPR resources portal
2. Pay attention to the right things: for example, we explicitly link resources and homework with the key learning objectives we know will help secure the student’s progress for any given topic
3. Adopt an effective approach to study: for example, we shared effective revision strategies at the start of this term
4. Persist to study: for example, we frame success with clarity, using the right metrics and mitigate failure (see above).

As we enter mock exam season, a frenzied shorter half term and see through Storm Isha, we might need to…

HODL: Hold On for Dear Life

Originally a typo, HODL in the world of cryptocurrency, refers to buying and holding shares indefinitely even when the market appears volatile. 

With the 3 week holiday well and truly behind us and our bank balances probably feeling the strain at this point in the month, my advice is not to turn to cryptocurrency – no. It is to focus on 2 high leverage things our students will really benefit from, particularly those who are preparing for exams this term: 

1. frame success explicitly
2. facilitate students’ volition to study 

Summary

When the going gets tough, we may well experience FUD. To combat this, we must DYOR. And if all else appears to be failing, we just need to HODL. The days are getting brighter, the weather is getting better (after this storm) and the Easter break is around the corner.

Have a fantastic week.

Thahmina