Switch course ▾
Session 1. Start with a Question: What Data Do I Have?
Objective. Choose a teaching question first, pick the simple data that can answer it, and record the data neatly on a tally sheet or spreadsheet.
You already own more data than you use: the journal, the register, last week's homework, the faces you read while pupils work. The skill in this session is not statistics. It is deciding what you want to know, picking the one or two sources that can tell you, and writing them down so they can be counted. A teacher who does this for a week usually finds that one small question changes what happens in the next lesson more than a whole term of marks.
Key ideas
Teachers already hold a lot of data
- Marks in the class journal, attendance, homework checks, exit tickets and notes from walking around are all data. None of it needs software.
- The problem is rarely too little data. It is data that was collected without a question and so answers nothing.
- Learning analytics, in this course, means using such small, everyday data to make better teaching decisions in your own class.
Ask a data question before you collect
- A good data question is about teaching and can be answered within a week. 'Did my lesson on equal fractions work?' is better than 'How is my class?'
- Then ask: which data would change what I do? If no answer could change your next lesson, do not collect it.
- Match the data to the question: a 10-question test for 'who is absent often?' is the wrong tool; the attendance register is the right one.
Record neatly: the tally sheet and the table
- A tally sheet is a page with one row per answer category and a stroke for each pupil. Count the strokes in groups of five.
- For a table or spreadsheet use one row per pupil and one column per item. Use the same code every time: 1 for correct, 0 for wrong, and a dash for absent. Never leave absent as 0.
- Check your counts: the tally total must equal the number of pupils who took part. A wrong total means a slip was missed or counted twice.
Small data: be modest about what it shows
- With 24 or 30 pupils one lesson is a hint, not proof. One bad day, one badly worded question or one absent group can change the picture.
- Look for the same pattern in two sources, for example the exit ticket and the homework. Two sources that agree are worth much more than one.
- Data tells you what happened, not why. The why comes from asking pupils and looking at their work.
From question to checked tally
Three kinds of evidence, three speeds
Teacher data comes at three speeds. Fast data arrives in minutes: a hand signal, a mini-whiteboard, an exit ticket. Medium data arrives in days: homework, a short quiz, a page of written work. Slow data arrives in weeks: unit tests and the term register. Each speed answers a different question. Fast data tells you whether to change the next five minutes; medium data tells you whether to change tomorrow; slow data tells you whether the plan for the whole unit worked.
Most teachers lean on slow data because it is already in the journal, and then act on it too late. A good habit is to pair each slow measure with one fast one. If the unit test is in three weeks, put one exit question into each of the next six lessons so that you meet the problem while there is still time to fix it.
Recording so that it can be counted
Data that cannot be counted cannot be compared. The simplest rule is to decide the categories before you collect. For an exit question on fractions the categories might be: correct with reason, correct without reason, the common wrong answer, blank. Four boxes are enough. Pupils' answers are then sorted into the boxes, not summarised from memory, and the total can be checked against the number of pupils present.
The same logic holds for a spreadsheet or a paper table: one row per pupil, one column per item, one code used the same way every time. When a table is tidy you can answer new questions later, such as 'did the pupils who missed Item 2 also miss Item 4?'. When it is untidy, every question starts with an hour of cleaning. Fifteen minutes of care at the start saves it.
Examples from the classroom
The Monday register
Scene. Gulnora teaches Grade 4 in Bukhara and suspects that Mondays are weak days. She counts absences by weekday over six weeks from the register. Monday has 14 absences, the other four days together have 11. She now has a question she can act on: a short, easy Monday opening and a quick call to two families.
Insight. A register answers questions about days and patterns of absence; a test would not have shown this.
Hands, slips and a decision
Scene. Jasur, Grade 6 science in Samarkand, asks 'Raise your hand if evaporation needs heat.' Most hands go up. He then gives a slip: 'Why does a puddle dry faster in the sun?' Of 26 slips, 11 mention heat, 9 say only 'the sun takes it', 6 are blank. The hands looked good; the slips did not.
Insight. A quick signal is fast but shallow; a written answer costs two minutes and shows far more.
A table that could not be used
Scene. Nodira keeps marks in a spreadsheet: sometimes '5', sometimes 'five', sometimes a blank for an absent pupil and sometimes 0 for the same reason. When she wants to find the class average, the total is wrong and she cannot tell which cells caused it. She spends an evening cleaning, then agrees one rule: a number or a dash, nothing else.
Insight. One consistent code per meaning keeps the data countable.
Common pitfalls
- Collecting data first and hoping a question will appear later.
- Treating a show of hands as proof that everyone understood.
- Entering 0 for an absent pupil so the table looks full.
- Drawing a firm conclusion from one question on one day.
Question, Source, Tally
- In pairs (10 min): match the four teacher questions in the Activity Kit to the best data source from the list. Explain in one line why the other sources are weaker.
- Alone (15 min): you have 24 exit-ticket slips from a Grade 6 class. Sort them into the four answer categories and make a tally sheet. Use strokes in groups of five.
- In pairs (10 min): compare totals. Do they add to 24? Fix any difference. Then write one sentence: what does the tally suggest, and what would you ask pupils to find out why?
- Classroom action (5 min, to plan now): choose one exit-ticket question for your next lesson and decide how you will tally it.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which of the four teacher questions was easiest to match, and which needed two sources?
- Did all totals reach 24? What caused the differences, and how would a spreadsheet code (1, 0, dash) prevent them?
- What is one piece of data you collect now that never changes what you do?
Reflect
- Which data do I already collect that I never look at again?
- What one question about my teaching could I answer this week?
- Would I be comfortable if pupils saw how I record absence?
Try it tomorrow
- Write one data question for next week and name the single source that can answer it.
- Give a one-question exit ticket with four planned categories and tally it, checking the total.
- Look at your own journal or spreadsheet and fix one place where absent and zero are mixed up.
Further reading and links
Ask the question first, choose the simplest data that can answer it, record it neatly and check the total.