Complete Mathematics - Blog

In-App Analytics on TUTOR — "Bam, and it's given me everything I need"

2024-07-15T17:30:23+00:00

In-App Analytics on TUTOR — "Bam, and it's given me everything I need"

"This is my class, this is what I want to know, this is my timeframe, bam, and it's given me everything I need"

In-App Analytics lets teachers inspect pupil activity on TUTOR with ease.

Easy access to activity data supports more effective school-wide implementation, provides evidence of educational impact, and informs further targeted intervention.

In-App Analytics is available for all teacher users, in all school accounts, showing live data for all pupils.

Why we’ve built In-App Analytics

As implementation of TUTOR in schools has expanded and matured, we recognise the importance of being able to measure and track pupil activity in a reliable and flexible way.

We have been supporting activity monitoring through bespoke PowerBI boards for schools, however this comes with certain technical limitations (being a third-party app) and usability issues, particularly when used in the school environment.

So, to continue to enhance the TUTOR experience for our partner schools, and to empower all teacher users through full access to relevant, reliable, and live data, we have brought Analytics into the TUTOR app.

A big thank you to everyone involved in the process of building this new functionality, from initial feedback, to interviews, beta testing, and beyond. We really appreciate your input and hope that this release will provide real value to you and your team!

"I'm really excited to show other teachers, they're going to be really happy."

What’s included in In-App Analytics

Activity Data

With In-App Analytics comes the ability to monitor aspects of pupil activity and behaviour on TUTOR that have previously been unavailable to teachers.

In doing so, you see where your pupils are spending their time on TUTOR, indicating where they are excelling and where they might be struggling, as well as showing how much effort pupils are putting into their TUTOR work.

Here is a breakdown of the activity data you can inspect via In-App Analytics:

Goal Completion
Get Ready step — Get Ready Quiz Score, Knowledge Gap Quizzes Taken
Learn step — Minutes watched, % video watched
Do step — Minutes watched, % video watched
Practice step — Questions answered, Top Gauge Level
Quiz step — Quizzes Taken, Average Score, Top Score
Remember step — Quizzes Taken, Average Score, Top Score

Analytics Tables

To begin with, Analytics data is provided in two key table views.

Goal Activity Table

The first is the Goal Activity table, detailing how pupils have been engaging with the various learning activities on TUTOR and, very importantly, on which specific Goals.

Immediately, this table shows the ‘level’ of maths that pupils have been accessing, in the context of the full Complete Mathematics Curriculum. Goal activity is summarised by Goal Groups — at a whole Curriculum level, at a Stage-by-Stage level, and at a Unit-by-Unit level — and is detailed at the granular Goal-by-Goal level. In this way, you can see the bigger picture, or dive deeper, as and when you need.

If you have assigned Courses to your pupils — in-built TUTOR courses or your own Bespoke courses — then you can filter the view to show only the Goals within the selected Course, listed in the order of the Course. This supports school implementations using Bespoke Courses on TUTOR, for example to secure pre-requisite knowledge prior to upcoming classroom topics or following question-level assessment analysis.

Cohort Summary Table

The second table is the Cohort Summary table, for quick comparison of pupil activity totals.

The key difference from the Goal Activity table is that, by removing the Curriculum breakdown context, we can show the full array of activity for multiple pupils at the same time.

Cohort Summary Analytics table — summarising activity of the class 7Ma2 over the past academic year

Data Filtering

Both tables can be filtered to show activity data for the individual or group, curriculum elements, or date range you are interested in.

Filter by Tag or Individual

You can show data for a group of pupils defined by a particular Tag, e.g. classes, year groups, intervention groups. This makes weekly homework completion tracking a breeze.

Alternatively, you can focus on all activity data for a particular pupil — this version of the Goal Activity table will be a very useful view for parents’ evenings!

Filter by Curriculum or Courses

Show activity data for all goals across the whole curriculum, or filter to only show activity on goals of a particular course — Bespoke, Stage, Target, or Topic.

Filter by Date

Choose the date range you want to inspect pupil activity for.

Use the default relative date ranges — today, last week, last month — or set your own date range using the calendar tool. In this way you can see activity over your own schools term dates, and adapt to your own homework setting schedules.

"This, to me, gives me exactly what I need to know..."

Other Analytics Table features

Goal Group Summaries

Where Goals are grouped by Unit, Stage, Course, or whole Curriculum, a summary of the activity is shown for all the included Goals in the group. For example, a single Goal will show as True (tick) or False (blank) for Goal Completion, whereas a Stage Goal Group will show the total number of completed Goals inside it. Goal Group summaries for the various activity data will differ, providing the most appropriate total or average for that activity.

Exporting

Any analytics table that you generate can be exported as a CSV file. We hope this provides you with the flexibility for reporting and further data exploration if you are looking for something specific.

Refreshing

We know how important it is for you to be able to trust the activity data displayed, particularly when it is informing your decision making in the classroom. That’s why we have included an indication of when your data was last generated and the ability to refresh the table, to offer peace of mind that you are viewing the most up-to-date activity.

Loading

Pulling in and calculating all of this data for Analytics is no small task for TUTOR. We have optimised loading speeds for both smaller and larger datasets, but if you’re loading up all time data for all pupils across your school (we’re looking at you, school with almost 1,000,000 completed goals!), you might see our loading state for a short time as it processes multitudes of data!

If a load fails and you find yourself on our fallback page, don't worry! You can retry with the same setup, or can change your filters to generate a different Analytics table.

Mobile Friendly

Even though data tables and small screens don't tend to go well together, we've made sure that you are able to create the Analytics tables you want on a tablet or mobile device, so that you can at least take a quick look, or perhaps export a report to email on to a colleague.

The Result?

In the words of one of our Analytics beta users:

"I could roll this out really really easily to staff, because actually when I looked at that, to me straight away it's really easy to see what you want to find. I think the staff in my school would go 'yes I can use this, I click on analytics, this is my class, this is what I want to know, this is my timeframe, bam and it's given me everything I need'"

Release Summary

Analytics within TUTOR — live data for all teachers in all schools, fully accessible in one place using the same Complete Maths login.
Pupil by-Goal activity breakdown, detailing: Goal Completion, Get Ready, Learn, Do, Practice, Quiz, & Remember step data. Showing specific in-goal activity for each pupil.
Whole Curriculum or Course-specific breakdown, with Stage, Unit, TUTOR & Bespoke Course level summaries. Showing ‘What Maths’ pupils are working on.
Cohort Summary table: easily review and compare activity summaries for a group of pupils in a timeframe of your choosing.
Filter pupils by group (tag) or individually.
Filter date range, choosing custom dates or presets to filter activity data quickly.
Export & Refresh table functionality, for greater flexibility & control in implementation.
Progress Status visibility, for a trustworthy and user friendly Analytics experience.

Don't have an account yet? Click here to set up an implementation meeting with our team to learn more!

FAQs

Is the Analytics activity data live and up to date?

Yes. In building a new Complete Maths database and bringing Analytics in-app, this means that the data you generate in your Analytics table is always up to date with the latest activity, rather than being updated once per day as per the PowerBI report.
If a pupil completes a goal from their Focus 5, will it show against the same goal in a bespoke course?

Yes, pupil activity will be shown against goals in a course regardless of whether the pupil accessed the goal directly via the particular course, or through their Focus 5 or a different course instead.
Will I still be able to access the PowerBI Analytics boards?

For the time-being, PowerBI TUTOR Analytics boards will remain active and updated each weekday.

We will however be phasing out the PowerBI Analytics boards after an initial introductory period for the new In-App Analytics. We will be working closely with Complete Mathematics users to ensure this transition is not disruptive.

Consistent Structures Versus Teacher Agency: Implementing Metacognition in Schools

2024-06-06T17:30:23+00:00

Consistent Structures Versus Teacher Agency: Implementing Metacognition in Schools

Do you take a structured approach, or let teachers do it their own way? Possibly, you try to find a middle ground?

Right now, this feels like one of the biggest ‘tug-of-war' battles we’re having in education. How much do we mandate around a school, for the sake of ‘consistency’, and how much free rein do we give teachers to allow ‘individualism’ to shine?

This article ponders where we are right now in education, before considering how this impacts metacognitive theory in the classroom.

The Current Situation

I began thinking more deeply around this debate whilst at researchED South West. Discussions around structure and teacher agency seemed to dominate the day, especially in relation to teacher retention.

We know that teachers are leaving the classroom all thetime, and the situation is worsening. In this academic year, 44% more teachers say they are intending to leave the profession than in the 2022/23 academic year and teacher departure rates are close to the 2021/22 peak (McLean et al, 2024).

One thing we know keeps teachers in the classroom and improves job satisfaction, however, is agency (Worth, 2020). Where teachers have ownership over their choices in the classroom, more productive learning takes place, too (Schleicher, 2018).

It appears quite definitive, therefore, that valuing teacher agency is critical to not just keeping teachers in the classroom, but also improving teachers’ effectiveness.

On the flip side though, structure and routine brings consistency. Increasing fidelity of interventions improves final outcomes of implemented interventions (Moore et al, 2024).

Jon Hutchinson writes about current trends towards consistency across schools in Multi-Academy Trusts:

"On the face of it, this scaling up of fidelity seems to have been effective. Schools that were judged to be chaotic and low-performing were rapidly turned around, and new schools achieved remarkable results in areas where they had historically languished in the league tables…

This set the scene for things to become even more granular. Once you have had some success with fidelity, you begin to look for marginal gains…

This is where we find ourselves now. In many trusts, and in many schools, little of what a teacher does is free from some form of prescription. And that is where it gets knotty.

Increasingly, there’s a pushback against fidelity from across the ideological spectrum.” (Hutchinson, 2024)

Herein lies the dilemma:

Implementing an approach (with a strong evidence base, like Metacognition) with high levels of fidelity should lead to improved outcomes, which has got to be a win, right?

Consistency can help strengthen outcomes, but then so can teacher experience and agency. We walk a tightrope between seemingly opposite positions.

"The recent EEF implementation guidance updates based on evidence that intelligent adaptations can improve implementation outcomes. They recommend identifying and monitoring fidelity to core components - when to be “tight” - but also creating structures for teachers to discuss implementations, including contextualised adaptations." - Rebekah Fant-Male, Complete Mathematics

The Implications for Metacognition

Despite this significant conundrum for school practices in general, the solution for metacognition is somewhat more straightforward. I argue that metacognition needs to be highly structured when it is theorised, but has the potential to be implemented in many different ways in the classroom.

This article will now consider what needs to be tightly structured, and what can be left to the agency of teachers.

Core Components

When introducing Metacognition with teachers, there are a number of areas where there needs to be clarity and structure. These are:

The definition

There are multiple definitions for metacognition across literature. Though these are not necessarily contradictory, it is far better that all teachers are exposed to one definition which is repeated consistently. I’ve discussed this further elsewhere and ultimately, my suggestion is:

‘Metacognition is the little voice inside your head that constantly evaluates and informs your decisions’ (Burns, 2023).

Knowledge of regulation

It is crucial that all teachers agree on component parts of knowledge of regulation: knowledge of self, knowledge of strategies and knowledge of task. With an agreed understanding of these three areas, it should be structured that:

Teachers use these key terms explicitly in the classroom
Teachers explicitly address these three areas in their modelling
Teachers explicitly address these three areas in their feedback to students

Regulation of cognition

It is equally as important for teachers to be in agreement on the definition of regulation of cognition, as well as what plan, monitor and evaluate mean. Key definitions associated with Metacognition are discussed in this blog. In much the same way as above, it should be structured that:

Teachers use these key terms explicitly in the classroom
Teachers explicitly address these areas in their modelling
Teachers explicitly build these areas into their lesson structure and deliberate (independent) student practice

Strategies

Up to this point, I have discussed aspects of metacognition which teachers should be making explicit, but which probably feature in the modelling, feedback and lesson structures teachers are already using. However, metacognitive strategies are more visible, and perhaps the most important area for metacognitive structure.

Before we can even get to the stage of structure, strategies need to be determined. This is for discussion in another article, but some key points for leaders:

Identify the key metacognitive area students need to improve on (planning, monitoring or evaluation)
Identify around 3 strategies that suit development in this metacognitive area that are:

a. suitable for all subject areas

b. suitable for students' current levels of metacognitive ability (i.e. simpler strategies for a cohort that is metacognitively novice)

c. easily built into lessons and potentially, homework

Keeping it Structured - when to be ‘tight’

Once these strategies have been determined, it is crucial that key points of fidelity are identified for successful implementation. If students do not recognise the same strategy across teachers or departments because it looks so different in its implementation, metacognitive progress is going to be limited and the purpose of only selecting three strategies will be defeated. This in turn will make it more difficult for teachers. It will take longer to embed strategies and their impact will be reduced.

Therefore, it is important to identify what needs to be mandated across all classrooms. There are some important high fidelity areas: how metacognition works, metacognitive language and which strategies are used (and how). Typically, this will include agreed-upon templates and key language for delivering each strategy, to ensure consistency and transferability between subjects and teachers.

What should be clear from this section is that structure is centred around theory. It is important that teachers have:

An agreed understanding of key metacognitive language
A deep understanding of how metacognition works
An agreed approach to how (the selected) strategies work, the templates that are utilised and the thinking that they stimulate.

Valuing Agency - when to be ‘loose’

Joyfully, once in the classroom, so long as the structures discussed above are adhered to, teachers should be able to have full agency over how they introduce these strategies into their classrooms. Teachers know their classes. Teachers know their curriculum. Teachers know when it will work for them to introduce new strategies. Therefore, there is no need to mandate:

How frequently strategies are used
The point in the lesson when the strategies are used
How the teacher introduces or utilises a strategy (so long as it retains fidelity)

Over time, through observation and experience, best practice can be shared. As recommended by the Education Endowment Foundation, during implementation, teachers should be given time and structures to meet and talk about what has worked for them, and share challenges (Sharples et al, 2024). Teachers can learn from each other, improve their own practice, and in turn, strengthen their students' learning yet further when given opportunities to collaborate in a school culture which values innovation.

One example would be the metacognitive strategy ‘justifying strategies’. This falls within the modelling category and proposes that teachers justify the strategies that they use during their modelling. This helps illuminate expert insight, and ensures that decisions based upon experience are made explicit, and not implicit, within modelling.

This powerful strategy is as useful in Maths, say for example when solving an equation with brackets, as it is in English, for example when teasing out key words within a poem.

Conclusions

Structure and agency can be conflicting. Structure helps maintain consistency and can reduce poor implementation, but in turn, can negatively impact teacher agency. Years of experience and know-how could be wasted and in the worst cases, reduce teachers to robotically delivering formulaic lessons.

Fortunately, metacognition provides us with a great example of how to implement ideas which offer balance between these two areas. Fidelity to definitions, making the implicit explicit, and having consistency in how strategies are used is key. Meanwhile, teachers are given agency over the contexts in which they use metacognitive strategies.

By discussing strategies and their efficacy with colleagues, teachers can also use their collective knowledge, skills and professional experience to deploy these strategies and their contextual adaptations in the most effective manner possible, supported by common language and shared meaning.

Burns. N. (2023). Inspiring Deep Learning with Metacognition. London. Sage.

Flavell, J. H. (1976). Metacognitive aspects of problem solving. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.) The nature of intelligence (pp. 231–236). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Hutchinson, J. (2024). 'The Sweet Spot for Teacher Autonomy and the War Against Fidelity’, TES, available at: https://tinyurl.com/mwedka2r (accessed 23 May 2023)

McLean, D., Worth J., and Smith A. (2024). Teacher Labour Market in England 2024. NFER. pp. 1-32.

Moore, D. et al. (2024) Review of Evidence on Implementation in Education’ London: Education Endowment Foundation.

Schleicher. A. (2018). Educating Learners for Their Future, Not Our Past, ECNU Review of Education, 1(1), pp. 58-75.

Sharples, J. Eaton, J. and Boughelat, J. (2024). A School’s Guide to Implementation. Education Endowment Foundation: London

Worth. J. (2020). ‘Teacher Labour Market in England. Annual Report 2020’, NFER, pp. 1-20

Update to EEF’s A School’s Guide to Implementation

2024-05-15T17:30:23+00:00

Update to EEF’s A School’s Guide to Implementation

Wondering how the EEF’s new implementation guidance for schools compares to the previous iteration?

Our policy specialist, Rebekah Fant-Male, summarises key changes of particular relevance to school and system leaders.

In 2019, the Education Endowment Foundation updated their original guide supporting schools in the implementation of new approaches and practices. In May 2024, they updated their guidance. We've compared the frameworks and analysed what the changes in advice mean for you.

Executive Summary of Updates

Stages to Phases:

EEF’s 2019 update to “A School’s Guide to Implementation” defined implementation as a process with stages set out in a very rigid, linear structure. The new guidance takes a different approach, representing Explore, Prepare, Deliver, Sustain as phases, subtly shifting their scope to enable greater flexibility in how leaders think about implementation.

Significance of the Changes:

This is not just updating references, but a significant shift in how schools do implementation, although in focus rather than content. In one sentence, whereas the previous guidance supported school leaders to “do implementation”, this is how school and system leaders can do implementation well.

Behaviours and Context FIRST:

The previous 6 Recommendations have been condensed into 3. New Behaviours (Recommendation 1) and Contextual Factors (Recommendation 2) underpin successful implementation and precede the familiar Implementation Phases (Recommendation 3).

The Behaviours - Engage, Unite and Reflect - are explicitly interwoven throughout the guidance, while greater emphasis on Contextual Factors encourages leaders to reflect on existing structures and systems. Rather than layering additional demands, this change encourages new interventions to connect into what is already in place where possible to embed changes more effectively.

Tammy Elward, Director of the Derby Research School and the Spencer Teaching School Hub considers the value of the guidance for Multi Academy Trust Leaders:

“Anchoring our practice in evidence as leaders is a challenge because it's not just what we do, but the way that we do it that makes the difference. The new guidance report captures the key aspects from a wide range of research sources and codifies them into a clear framework for us as leaders to think really carefully about how we lead change in our schools and make the biggest difference for our pupils.”

A Focus on Feedback

Contextual analysis:

Under this guidance, there is less scope for leaders to deterministically implement an intervention they already believe to be the best solution, without undertaking sufficient analysis. However, to mitigate this further, I would prefer to see ‘What is being implemented’ as the final contextual factor (see below), rather than the first.

The diagram above presents how the three recommendations integrate throughout implementation. I would simply caution, in line with the update’s shift in focus, against treating the new framework as a linear process. Interventions should result from an analysis of the contextual factors surrounding the perceived “problem” or need, encapsulated in the Reflect behaviour, rather than being determined before existing systems, structures and people have been duly considered.

Iona Jackson, Head of Insights at Edurio, evidences the importance of using feedback authentically, from their national survey data:

“In 2022/23, about one third of staff (34%) said that their feedback to the leadership always or often has an impact. However, about one in four (27%) of staff said that their feedback rarely or never has an impact."

Retention is one of the most pressing current issues for school systems in the UK and globally and Edurio also found that,

"...only 17% of staff with a high risk of resignation always or often see that their feedback to the leadership has an impact, while 48% of staff with a low risk of resignation always or often see that their feedback to the leadership has an impact."

EEF (2024) also emphasises that, “stress and burnout can be damaging for individuals and prove a barrier to implementation... particularly relevant during the initial delivery period if staff are inexperienced or if key people leave a project” (p40).

Of practical relevance for implementation leaders, Ms Jackson tells us that Edurio's recent report Leadership Strategies in School Trusts involved,

"interview[ing] leadership teams with leadership scores above national benchmarks in Edurio data. We found that although approaches may differ, open, clear and consistent communication, as well as proactive problem-solving through collaboration, were all mentioned by top leadership teams.”

Explore Phase:

EEF's updated tool (p.25) roots the implementation decision-making process in the needs and context. The phrase ‘fit and feasibility’ is retained and brings to the fore ‘insights and perspectives… from across the school community - staff, pupils, parents’ (p.23) to avoid preconceptions. It acknowledges informal conversations as a source of data about the school context, alongside external data on what has worked in similar contexts. This should prompt richer reflection on the implications of potential interventions on the wider school context.

A tool for making evidence-informed implementation decisions’ (EEF, 2024, p.25)

Fit and feasibility return in Prepare, to consider competing initiatives, and in Sustain. Rather than “How will the initiative be scaled?” the question is instead, “On reflection, should we sustain, scale or de-implement this approach?”.

Readiness:

Reflection on barriers and enablers of change has moved from Prepare to Explore, sensibly determining the school’s readiness for change prior to writing an implementation plan. As contextual factors, reflection on structures and elements of culture which help or hinder change are threaded through the update’s implementation phases. In this way, readiness is not confined to a single point in a process, but a state that might change, due to factors within or beyond a leader’s control. For example, government policy might necessitate new implementations, requiring thought as to whether new changes might be integrated within implementation plans, or potentially de-implemented.

‘Successful’ Implementations

I was pleased to see this update taking a more nuanced view of fidelity, based on research which suggests adaptations can lead to more effective embedding of change.

The language of deciding where to be “tight” and where to be “loose” is retained. Meanwhile, “active ingredients” have become “core components”. This terminology prompts leaders to define which elements teachers should apply consistently - those “core” to avoiding lethal mutations, whilst allowing flexibility for (some) adaptations by teachers as professionals in complex contexts. Leaders might consider core components as they plan how implementation outcomes will be monitored and shared in order to retain both flexibility and fidelity.

Edurio’s Iona Jackson adds insights they uncovered on promoting a culture of shared expertise, where leaders listen to feedback and allow it to shape their decision-making to truly impact their communities:

“A significant piece of advice from Gavin Booth, CEO at Infinity Academies Trust, is promoting a culture where seeking help and guidance is seen as a strength rather than a weakness. This approach challenges the misconception that to be effective, leaders must operate independently. He questions, “Why have you done this on your own? You didn’t need to do this on your own; we would have helped to do that.”
This sentiment underscores the importance of collaborative efforts and leveraging collective expertise within a trust."

Interwoven Behaviours and Contextual Factors:

Unite, Engage and Reflect behaviours are continually and explicitly referenced throughout the guidance. Opportunities for teachers and leaders to collaborate and reflect together are made more explicit than in previous versions, with greater emphasis on systems and structures which remove other pressures from teacher workload, such as administration tasks and ‘prun[ing] competing initiatives’ (p.39).

Conclusions

This update sends a clear message: develop structures which give teachers the time and resources to engage with the intervention, unite around the implementation process and reflect together at every phase.

The three facets of the original Process, in combination with Behaviours and Contextual Factors exemplify the purpose to support leaders not to just do implementation, but to do it well. Tammy Elward summed up how the behaviours and contextual factors reinforce the implementation process as follows:

Slide reproduced from Research Schools Network webinar, 25th April, 2024.

To learn more from Tammy Elward about how to apply the new guidance, join Derby Research School’s Summer Webinar Series, starting 22nd May. Register here.

The new resource by Edurio, "Leadership Strategies in School Trusts", explores what it takes to be a high-achieving leader in a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT). The guide includes sections on Leadership structures and styles, practice and impact, challenges and solutions, and advice to leaders.

Complete Mathematics works in partnership with leaders of schools and school groups looking to improve attainment in mathematics, embedding evidence-based strategies which apply beyond mathematics. Seeing first-hand the importance of successful implementations, we tailor our approach to each Trust’s needs and contextual factors, delivering teaching and learning platforms and expert CPD, co-constructed with implementation leaders.

Speak to the Complete Mathematics team

Redesigned Goals on TUTOR — Smoother Learning, Stronger Results

2024-01-28T17:30:23+00:00

Redesigned Goals on TUTOR — Smoother Learning, Stronger Results

Pupils will navigate Goals with ease, build mathematical knowledge with confidence, and achieve greater results at a faster pace.

We’ve revamped Goals on TUTOR to make learning more effective, engaging, and rewarding for pupils at all levels, from Counting to Calculus. Let's explore!

Redesigned Goals on TUTOR - Highlight reel

Why have we updated Goals?

We wanted to build on the successes of TUTOR Goals, whilst addressing some opportunities identified from user feedback.

Each of the 1800+ Goals in TUTOR packs targeted learning materials, from prerequisite support and instructional videos to interactive examples, practice, and quizzing. By optimising their delivery, we're boosting impact and streamlining the experience for pupils.

While we constantly seek to introduce new features to meet evolving educational needs, sometimes the most impactful changes lie in optimising existing functionality, especially those at the core of the TUTOR platform.

How do the redesigned Goals work?

We've kept the core Goal structure you and your pupils know and trust, but have enhanced it for deeper impact.

Here is a video exploring redesigned Goals on TUTOR:

Let’s talk through some of the key improvements to Goals in this update:

Clearer Progress Tracking

See at-a-glance progress for each step within each goal, helping pupils focus and stay motivated.

Goal Completion Celebration:

TUTOR celebrates completed goals with pupils, reinforcing their achievements and spurring them onto the next activity.

Simplified Completion Criteria

No more confusion – Goals are completed when a pupil masters the Goal Quiz, with the learning sequence guiding them to that level of security.

Revamped Goal Steps

More intuitive layout with prioritised actions, clear buttons, and familiar video thumbnails to level up engagement with in-goal learning materials.

Sticky Next-Step Button

A handy addition, seamlessly guiding pupils through the learning sequence as each step is completed.

Usability Tweaks

Prioritised prerequisite ordering, optimised video sizing, and clear step completion notices, amongst other improvements to enhance usability.

My Goal Step Removal

Expediting the learning sequence, enabling pupils to focus on the key learning materials. The My Goal elements can still be found in each objective of the Curriculum on CLASSROOM.

Practice Promotion

Free Practice gets its own dedicated step, further solidifying the "Teach, Do, Practise, Behave" framework within the TUTOR learning sequence.

The Result?

A smoother, more enjoyable learning journey for your pupils. They'll navigate Goals with ease, build mathematical knowledge with confidence, and achieve greater results at a faster pace.

Particularly when coupled with the recently introduced Focus 5 functionality — tailoring learning pathways to individual learner needs — we’re excited to see the impact that these updates have for your pupils learning mathematics with TUTOR.

Redesigned Goals on TUTOR - Mobile flow

What’s next?

The Complete Mathematics product pipeline is full of exciting releases coming up for users, with our current focus on the analytics we provide to teachers on TUTOR.

Our pipeline relies heavily on the feedback of users. If you would like to send us any feedback, positive or constructive, general or specific, we would like to hear it!

Practice makes perfect — Introducing all new Free Practice on TUTOR

2023-11-17T17:30:23+00:00

Practice makes perfect — Introducing all new Free Practice on TUTOR

Free Practice on TUTOR helps learners gain mathematical fluency in the ideas they encounter by the way of unlimited, dynamically generated questions.

We’re excited to announce the addition of a brand new in-Goal activity on TUTOR, Free Practice! Unlimited practice questions available for all learners, rolling out across the curriculum right now.

Find out all about this new feature below…

Free Practice on TUTOR Release Video

Why is practice important?

When learning a new language you move through different stages of understanding. You might get to a point where you have a good grasp on the grammar and a large vocabulary, but if it takes time to connect, process, and implement this knowledge then you might struggle to have flowing conversations.

This is the idea of fluency — and what is the best way to develop this? Practice. Practice. Practice.

The same is true in mathematics. Mathematical fluency is essential for learners to connect, process and implement their mathematical knowledge, in and out of the classroom, when learning new mathematics or applying existing learning in a testing environment.

And how does TUTOR specifically help learners develop fluency? The all new, Free Practice.

What is Free Practice on TUTOR?

Free Practice on TUTOR helps learners gain mathematical fluency in the ideas they encounter by the way of unlimited, dynamically generated questions.

This new activity enables the repeated application of new learning in an easily accessible and low-stakes environment.

Learners have the opportunity to check or reveal solutions along the way, verifying or correcting their understanding in real time, and then follow that up by generating another question. And another. And another.

With the in-built Practice Gauge learners can monitor their progress. The Practice Gauge will respond to a learner’s activity, prompting them to either move onto the relevant Goal Quiz if they have displayed evidence of fluency, or move back to top up their knowledge with the other in-Goal materials if they have displayed evidence of insecure knowledge.

Free Practice on Complete Mathematics TUTOR in action.

How does Free Practice on TUTOR work?

Learners can access Free Practice in the Quiz step of a Goal.

Following completion of the Readiness, Learn, and Do steps of a Goal, it is the perfect opportunity to apply the new knowledge and gain fluency before moving onto a Quiz attempt for Goal completion.

Within Free Practice, learners receive a series of dynamically generated questions. These dynamic questions have been designed and built especially for this new activity, and cover goals across stages 1 to 11 of the Complete Mathematics Curriculum.

There are various question types, with answers given by multiple choice, text input, and other methods, to engage the learner in different ways, and new ways for TUTOR.

Answers can be provided by the learner and then checked, or the answer can be revealed without selection. If learners provide an incorrect answer, then they can either choose to reset the question to have another go, or to reveal the answer and move onto another, new question.

The number of questions a learner has encountered in the current Practice session is tracked on the page by the Question Counter.

The Practice Gauge tracks a learner’s progress within a Practice session. Answering a question correctly will move the gauge up by 1 notch. Answering a question incorrectly will move the gauge down by 2 notches. Revealing an answer will not change the gauge level.

Based on the number of questions encountered within a session, and the level of the Progress Gauge, smart recommendations will be given to the learner. They might be prompted to move onto a Goal quiz, or indeed to return to earlier goal steps to top up their knowledge.

Learners can continue to generate questions for as long as they like, and will receive new variations within the limits of the dynamic questions. Learners can also end a session whenever they like, and can return to start a new session at any point.

Though each Practice session starts afresh in terms of the Question Counter and Practice Gauge, the total number of questions encountered by a learner will be tracked on each Goal Quiz page.

Teachers are able to review the amount of Practice Questions encountered by each pupil, and their overall answer percentages, in a new tab of the Pupils table on the Teacher TUTOR platform.

Free Practice Highlights

Unlimited Questioning

Pupils can practice as much or as little as they need to, and move towards fluency in each mathematical idea.

Dynamic Variation

For unpredictable and distinct questions for each learner, to restrict answering through regurgitation or duplication for greater impact.

Mixed Question Answer Formats

Questions are presented in a variety of formats to keep pupils engaged and actively thinking.

Answer Reveal & Resetting Questions

Enabling learning through practice, flexible to each learner's preferred method.

Progress Tracking & Smart Recommendations

To giving encouragement for learners. To enable the setting of targets (e.g. do 20 practice questions and then a goal quiz). To respond proactively to evidence of knowledge security/insecurity.

Curriculum Coverage Spread

Can be implemented right away for Primary & Secondary learners, available in goals across curriculumn Stages 1-11.

The Pedagogy of Practice

Our in-house Maths team, who were a big part of this release, discuss the pedagogy behind practice, and how Free Practice on TUTOR will impact the learning of TUTOR users, in <this blog article>.

What next?

This is an especially exciting release for us as it is our inaugural implementation of dynamically generated question content on TUTOR.

There is huge potential for dynamic content across the platform, and we are already working on the next phase of this project.

So, have your say on what sort of dynamic content you would like to see in the Complete Mathematics suite! We'd love to have your insight.

FAQs & Implementation Notes for Diagnostics & Focus 5

2023-10-01T00:01:00+00:00

FAQs and Implementation Notes for Diagnostics & Focus 5

Improved Diagnostics and Focus 5 have landed but what can teachers do to get the most from these new features?

In this article, our expert Maths Team answers some common questions and offers suggestions on implementation.

But first, answers to some frequently asked questions regarding the functionality of Diagnostics & Focus 5.

Functional FAQs

Q. If new pupils get taken straight to the new Diagnostics on first login, what about existing pupils?

A. Existing pupils will find a new section on their TUTOR Dashboard, which will allow them to open up the new TUTOR Diagnostics process.

Q. Can pupils stop part way through the new diagnostics and resume where they left off?

A. Yes, they can use the ‘I’ll do this later’ button to skip through to the Dashboard. From there, they will be able to resume the Diagnostics from the Diagnostics section.

Q. What has happened to the old diagnostics, and diagnostic recommendations?

A. All of this is still live and available, only it’s under the new name ‘Course Finder’. Courses that were assigned to pupils will still be assigned, with all progress retained. Pupils can even still use the ‘Course Finder’ (old diagnostic) tool to get Course recommendations if desired.

Q. Now there is Focus 5, what about all assigned Courses?

A. All assigned courses are still active, and available just beneath Focus 5 on the pupil’s dashboard. New courses can still be assigned by pupils, teachers, or the Course Finder tool.

Q. What are Focus 5 Goals like for pupils?

A. Goals accessed via Focus 5 are the exact same as Goals in Courses. They contain the same steps including Readiness, Learn, Do, Quiz, and are completed in the same way. Any goals completed in F5 Courses, will also become completed in corresponding Courses. Activity in a Focus 5 Goal counts towards a pupil's Mathematical Universe, their Weekly Goal Targets, their XP, and their Awards.

Q. What sort of Goals will be recommended in the Focus 5?

A. Focus 5 recommendations begin with the earliest insecure mathematical content identified for a pupil, and build from there — plugging knowledge gaps first, before moving onto new, often dependent mathematical ideas. Pupils should expect to see the 'earliest' maths at the beginning of their Focus 5 journey, and will move onto later maths once their mathematical security across various topics has been topped up.

Q. What can teachers see about a pupil’s Focus 5 activity?

A. At the moment, Teachers can review pupil activity on Focus 5 goals in the same place as activity on Course goals — on the Pupils table. Goals completed, and quizzes taken from both Focus 5 and Courses are combined here.

Implementation Suggestions from our Maths Team

And now some suggestions from our in-house Maths team on implementation of New Diagnostics and Focus 5.

Q. I am new to TUTOR. Should we do the diagnostics straight away?

A. Yes. The sooner your pupils complete the diagnostic, the sooner TUTOR can start helping to fill their individual knowledge gaps. In the “light touch” implementation, just run the diagnostics and let Focus 5 serve up the most appropriate goals for your pupils to work on. Gap filling begins straight away!

Q. I’ve been using TUTOR for a while. My pupils are working on assigned stage courses. Should they stop and do the new diagnostics immediately?

A. Yes. The first version of TUTOR diagnostics recommended a single starting point in the curriculum but this new version goes a big step beyond that and recommends multiple starting points within topics. The topics where gaps are identified are then worked on starting with the earliest identified gaps. Moving away from the assigned stage courses and following the Focus 5 recommendations will mean a much more personalised learning sequence for your pupils.

Q. I’ve been using TUTOR for a while. My pupils are working on specific target courses. Should they stop and do the new diagnostics immediately?

A. It is not essential to stop and complete the new diagnostics. If you have identified a target course and your pupils are making good progress, then you may choose to keep them on this pathway. Doing the new diagnostics will fill their new Focus 5 page with goals from topics where gaps have been identified but they may not be goals from the target course. If pupils have the time to work on both the target course and the goals in their Focus 5 then they will benefit from Focus 5 “gap filling” whilst also making progress in their target courses.

Q. I’ve been using TUTOR for a while. My pupils are working on bespoke courses that I (or one of my colleagues) have created. Should they stop and do the new diagnostics immediately?

A. Similar to Target courses, it is not essential to stop and complete the new diagnostics. If you have built a bespoke course and your pupils are making good progress then you may decide just to keep them on that pathway. Doing the new diagnostics will fill their new Focus 5 page with goals from topics where gaps have been identified but they may not be goals from the bespoke course. If pupils have time to work on both the bespoke course and the goals in their Focus 5 then they will benefit from Focus 5 “gap filling” whilst also making progress in their bespoke courses.

Q. Should pupils complete the new diagnostic in class, or can they do it at home?

A. Pupils can do the diagnostic anywhere but given the increased personalisation the new diagnostics will bring, you might want to consider having pupils take the diagnostic in class under supervision. That means you (or a colleague) will be on hand to clarify any doubts and to encourage pupils to take their time when responding and think carefully about each question. The more accurate the information TUTOR receives during the diagnostic, the more the suggested learning sequence will match the pupil.

Q. How long will the new diagnostics take? Can I get them through it in one lesson?

A. After extensive testing and running literally thousands of simulations, we have determined that a pupil with significant gaps dotted all over the curriculum will be offered around 20 questions before they will complete the diagnostic and TUTOR can provide a personalised learning sequence. Pupils with fewer (or more tightly concentrated) gaps will be offered fewer questions. It will vary from pupil to pupil but we estimate that responding to a question should take between 30 and 60 seconds. So, we predict that almost every pupil will complete the new diagnostic in under 15 minutes.

Q. How much involvement should teachers have in the diagnostic?

A. It can be tempting to help pupils with the diagnostic but we must remember that TUTOR needs to determine an accurate picture of what the pupil knows and doesn’t know. To get a true and honest representation of their current knowledge level, pupils should be completing the diagnostic unaided.

Q. Should pupils try to work out answers to the questions, even though TUTOR doesn’t require them to give one?

A. Yes. This is not mandatory but by attempting a question, pupils will be better placed to assess whether they are competent or not. However, the vast majority of questions in the improved diagnostic involve identification, explanation, exemplification or justification. TUTOR is not trying to test calculation skill, rather it is trying to determine depth of understanding of concepts and methods.

Q. Should pupils be allowed a calculator for the new diagnostics?

A. No. Our Maths Team wrote a brand new set of questions for the improved diagnostics. Very few of these questions require calculations to be completed. Instead, the questions are designed to give TUTOR an indication of the level of conceptual understanding the user has within the various topics. The majority of the questions involve identification, explanation, exemplification or justification. For the small number of questions that require calculations, there are various written methods that could be applied. TUTOR is not trying to test calculation skill, rather it is trying to determine depth of understanding of concepts and methods.

We’re really excited about the positive impact the upgraded Diagnostics and Focus 5 will have for all pupils using TUTOR. If you have any questions, or would like to discuss these updates with one of our team, then please get in touch at support@completemaths.com.

If you haven't already, check out our Diagnostics & Focus 5 release blog here for more information.

TUTOR is becoming more intelligent – Introducing New Diagnostics and Focus 5

2023-10-01T17:30:23+00:00

TUTOR is becoming more intelligent – Introducing New Diagnostics and Focus 5

Diagnostics & Focus 5 - combining to precisely identify attainment levels and knowledge gaps, delivering bespoke learning priorities intelligently for every pupil.

Many pupils struggle with learning new mathematics because their knowledge of the underlying maths is insecure.

Knowledge gaps can develop in a number of ways, from school absence to simply forgetting over the holidays. Leaving these gaps unplugged, and moving onto more new mathematics, can be devastating to a pupil’s long-term progression and mathematical confidence.

TUTOR is already being used by schools to identify and plug these knowledge gaps for each individual pupil. But now we are going further…

We are excited to announce two big updates for Complete Mathematics TUTOR — our major Diagnostics upgrade and our landmark new feature, Focus 5!

Read on to find out what is in this release, what is behind the changes, and for answers to some frequently asked questions.

A Pupil's Complete Mathematics TUTOR Dashboard, with the new Focus 5 panel.

What is in this release?

A more intelligent Diagnostics phase

The brain behind Diagnostics on TUTOR has been upgraded. It now identifies knowledge gaps and starting points with greater precision, and provides more bespoke learning pathway recommendations for each pupil.

A TUTOR that guides pupils to their learning

The onboarding and diagnostic processes have been redesigned, enhancing the experience for pupils and helping them get to the learning phase of their TUTOR journey more easily and quickly.

Helping pupils focus on the most impactful maths

Introducing Focus 5, delivering the most appropriate goals for each pupil directly on the TUTOR dashboard, five at a time. Focus 5 works together with the new diagnostics to make sure that pupils are plugging gaps, building strong foundations, and then driving forward with their learning.

Designed for all

Ensuring that TUTOR is accessible for all learners is an essential mission. Amongst other inclusions, Diagnostics has ‘Read Aloud’ functionality built in, to support younger learners and those with accessibility requirements.

New TUTOR Diagnostics & Focus 5 Release Video

What is behind the changes?

Diagnostics - Inner Workings

Following a period of impressive usage, data, and feedback from TUTOR schools, we set out to tune up the diagnostic process, with enhancing its educational impact and encouraging further pupil engagement in mind.

The feedback we received from the TUTOR community matched our own understanding of the limits of Diagnostics V1, and so we envisaged a V2 with greater precision in identifying gaps, and with a more bespoke and dynamic output for each pupil.

Where Diagnostics V1 focused on ‘stages’ of our Complete Mathematics curriculum, and a pupil’s relative security on each stage, V2 zeros-in further by splitting each stage up into its various constituent topics.

Our expert maths team determined a list of ‘Key Concepts’ across the stages and topics, and went about authoring a brand new question bank especially for the new diagnostic process.

Instead of posing five questions on a single stage at a time, Diagnostics V2 question rounds contain multiple threads of topic-stage questioning running concurrently. In doing so, TUTOR is able to identify which topic areas pupils are strong in, and which they are weak in, much more efficiently, and precisely.

The output is no longer a stage to build on from, but a bespoke curriculum pathway beginning with goals from topics that a pupil is least secure in (by relative position in the whole curriculum), and building up.

Pupils fill in their knowledge gaps and acquire new knowledge in the most pedagogically appropriate order, encountering topics they are most strong in only once the rest of their knowledge has been built up to a similar level.

Diagnostics - The Experience

Alongside the upgrade to the inner workings of Diagnostics, we have also redesigned the user experience of the process. Our aim is to improve usability, encourage engagement, and to ensure pupils get the benefits of this key area of TUTOR.

Now, new pupils will be taken directly into the diagnostic process immediately after they log in to TUTOR for the first time. In this way pupils begin their TUTOR learning journey with an active mathematical recommendation. TUTOR introduces itself, in the form of a chat, and takes the pupils through the steps of the diagnostics.

In the diagnostic process, pupils do not answer mathematical questions. Instead, pupils state if they are confident with the mathematics displayed. This reduces the cognitive load of the diagnostics, encouraging more pupils to complete the process and start learning as quickly as possible.

A brand new set of mathematical problems have been authored especially for this update.

As part of this, we have included ‘Read Aloud’ functionality for all of these questions, as well as for the TUTOR chat, to assist learners with a lower reading age as well as those with accessibility requirements. We know this is something that lots of TUTOR users have been requesting and are really happy to include it in this release.

Focus 5

In order to deliver truly bespoke, dynamic, goal-level mathematical recommendations following the upgraded Diagnostics, we have created ‘Focus 5’.

Learners can access the next five goals that TUTOR recommends they prioritise directly from the dashboard, no navigation or scanning required.

We’re excited about the impact of this Focus 5 release, but also the huge potential this has for the future. In delivering sets of goals at a time, rather than a whole course, TUTOR can adapt to a pupil’s activity and progression much more dynamically.

We can serve up a prerequisite goal to revisit if we’ve identified some knowledge gap through a memory boost quiz. We can add in a practice activity covering multiple goals into one of the slots. We can introduce variety into sets of goals to encourage deeper learning. We can loop in recently completed goals to revisit at impactful moments for long-term memory.

There is still a place for Courses, which is how Diagnostic recommended Goals have been delivered to pupils on TUTOR up until now. All courses remain active, with any existing completion progress unchanged. Teachers can still create bespoke courses and assign them to pupils. All previously diagnostic-assigned courses will also remain assigned, only the tagging has slightly changed.

FAQs & Implementation Notes from our Maths team

We have collated responses to some frequently asked questions, regarding both functionality and actual implementation of the new Diagnostics and Focus 5.

Click here to read our FAQ and Implementation Notes article.

Why Practice?

2023-11-14T17:30:23+00:00

Why Practice?

To accompany the release of Free Practice on TUTOR, our Maths team have put together this piece exploring the impact of practice.

Allow me to introduce you to two brothers, Peter and Paul. Both want to exercise to lose weight and improve their aerobic fitness but both have very different ideas about how to meet their respective goals. They begin their fitness journey from the same starting point, eat the same meals and get the same amount of sleep but this is where the similarities end.

Peter decides that he is going to run a lot in one session. So he decides to run 24 km on day one and rest for the remainder of the month. This is somewhat wise because it sounds like he’ll need the rest. Paul, understanding a little more about his body works, chooses to run 2 km, three times a week, across the month. Both will have covered the same distance at the end of the month but who is likely to be fitter as a result of their exercise routine?

You may be asking what this has to do with mathematics but we can take the central message in this story and use it as a lens through which to view the act of learning. The work of Professors Robert and Elizabeth Bjork, as well as countless collaborators, demonstrates very clearly that knowledge stored in our long-term memory has both a retrieval and a storage strength. Meaning that disuse has a degrading effect on that which we (or our pupils) believe we (they) know.

This sounds quite bleak but we should not be disheartened because the mere act of retrieving information makes memories stronger, increasing both the retrieval and storage strength at the same time. In fact, every time we retrieve information stored in long-term memory, a new, stronger memory is formed. So if Peter decided to cram 12 hours of study into one day and Paul, being the creature of habit that he is, decided to spread it out into 3, 1-hour sessions a week, across the month, it would once again be Paul who saw the greatest improvement at the end.

In his book, Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about the impact a 1% improvement made every day, over the course of a year, can potentially have. He uses the example of the meteoric rise of British Cycling (who put this hypothesis to the test at the turn of the 21st Century) to exemplify his point but we, as teachers of mathematics, should also take heed of this advice.

Mathematics isn’t learned in large chunks of study. We don’t give our pupils one behemoth 6-hour lesson at the start of the week and expect them to retain what has been taught 7 days later. Yet, so many of them develop study habits which can only be described as cramming, despite a plethora of research that demonstrates its inefficacy as an approach to study. Our messaging to our pupils should be clear. Practise regularly, be consistent, aim for 1% improvements, form slightly stronger memories each day and you will meet your goals.

As misguided as he was, Peter’s exercise regime was not born of a unique condition to which only he was susceptible. Humans are, by their very nature, always looking for the path of least resistance and the existence of countless fad diets and exercise plans stands as a testament to the prevalence of this trait across our species. In much the same way that Peter is in desperate need of sound advice on how to meet his fitness goals, our pupils look to us for advice on how to meet their individual learning goals. We need to expose our pupils to the habits and routines which are most conducive to the formation of meaningful connections between the areas of mathematics they study and which can provide them with access to the relevant knowledge for any given task at the drop of a hat. By and large, we all have the same cognitive architecture. It is how we put it to work that counts and which distinguishes those who can from those who have not yet.

To find out more about Free Practice on TUTOR, head here: https://completemaths.com/blog/free-practice-now-on-tutor

Complete Mathematics - Blog

In-App Analytics on TUTOR — "Bam, and it's given me everything I need"

In-App Analytics on TUTOR — "Bam, and it's given me everything I need"

Why we’ve built In-App Analytics

What’s included in In-App Analytics

Activity Data

Analytics Tables

Goal Activity Table

Cohort Summary Table

Data Filtering

Filter by Tag or Individual

Filter by Curriculum or Courses

Filter by Date

Other Analytics Table features

Goal Group Summaries

Exporting

Refreshing

Loading

Mobile Friendly

The Result?

Release Summary

FAQs

Is the Analytics activity data live and up to date?

If a pupil completes a goal from their Focus 5, will it show against the same goal in a bespoke course?

Will I still be able to access the PowerBI Analytics boards?

Consistent Structures Versus Teacher Agency: Implementing Metacognition in Schools

Consistent Structures Versus Teacher Agency: Implementing Metacognition in Schools

The Current Situation

Herein lies the dilemma:

The Implications for Metacognition

Core Components

The definition

Knowledge of regulation

Regulation of cognition

Strategies

Keeping it Structured - when to be ‘tight’

Valuing Agency - when to be ‘loose’

Conclusions

Update to EEF’s A School’s Guide to Implementation

Update to EEF’s A School’s Guide to Implementation

Executive Summary of Updates

Stages to Phases:

Significance of the Changes:

Behaviours and Context FIRST:

A Focus on Feedback

Contextual analysis:

Explore Phase:

Readiness:

‘Successful’ Implementations

Interwoven Behaviours and Contextual Factors:

Conclusions

Redesigned Goals on TUTOR — Smoother Learning, Stronger Results

Redesigned Goals on TUTOR — Smoother Learning, Stronger Results

Redesigned Goals on TUTOR - Highlight reel

Why have we updated Goals?

How do the redesigned Goals work?

Clearer Progress Tracking

Goal Completion Celebration:

Simplified Completion Criteria

Revamped Goal Steps

Sticky Next-Step Button

Usability Tweaks

My Goal Step Removal

Practice Promotion

The Result?

Redesigned Goals on TUTOR - Mobile flow

What’s next?

Practice makes perfect — Introducing all new Free Practice on TUTOR

Practice makes perfect — Introducing all new Free Practice on TUTOR

Free Practice on TUTOR Release Video

Why is practice important?

What is Free Practice on TUTOR?

Free Practice on Complete Mathematics TUTOR in action.

How does Free Practice on TUTOR work?

Free Practice Highlights

Unlimited Questioning

Dynamic Variation

Mixed Question Answer Formats

Answer Reveal & Resetting Questions

Progress Tracking & Smart Recommendations