How does differentiation in homework informed by formative assessment influence students’ academic performance?

Thesis

The purpose of the study was to establish if differentiating homework informed by formative assessment influenced student achievement in biology.

A mixed methods approach was taken involving two Year 10 and two Year 12 biology classes. The design of the intervention emerged from relating concepts from research regarding the positive influence of formative assessment, differentiation and homework on student achievement and to the specific context at School X1 as a development target. The intervention employed an online formative assessment in the form of a ten-question multiple choice quiz, followed by a differentiated homework task informed by the quiz score. The quiz questions were guided by the use of Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs to distinguish the various learning styles.

The experimental design of the research composed of a control group that received the traditional homework, and an experimental group that was offered the intervention. Quantitative analysis of pre and post topic tests before and after the intervention revealed no significant difference in scores for both groups. However, qualitative analysis of the intervention suggested positive outcomes, revealing that differentiating homework benefits all students; it enhances gifted students while it supports struggling learners to be appropriately motivated in their learning process.

Authors: Ebrahim, T

• Type of award: MSc
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: MLT; MLT2019
• Subjects: Education