The impact of CENTURY’s diagnostics on targeted teaching

CENTURY is an AI-powered online learning platform that personalises learning and provides teachers with actionable insights to support their teaching. Taryn Davison, a former primary teacher now on our Customer Success team, leads training on how best to use the platform. Wanting to see how to better incorporate our data insights, she taught a CENTURY maths lesson weekly for half a term to a Year 4 class at St. John’s C of E Primary School, Abram. Part of Quest Academy Trust, St. John’s has been using CENTURY for the past six years. This blog series shares her findings.

Using diagnostics as a pre-assessment tool had a transformative effect on my teaching approach, something that would have been difficult (if not impossible) to do without computer-based tests. It enabled me to tailor my lessons more precisely, allowing for targeted instruction that addressed the specific needs of each student. This precision was a significant departure from the more traditional method of grouping students by rough ability levels. With CENTURY, I could group students based on their individual needs for particular objectives, which resulted in more effective teaching and learning outcomes.

Improved targeting of specific groups

One of the most gratifying outcomes of this approach was the ability to target specific groups of students more effectively. I’ve discussed this approach in blog six, so here I will outline how I tracked the results of students of different abilities.

After students completed the pre-assessment diagnostic, I analysed the results by downloading the scores from the Nuggets Tab. I then divided the students into three groups based on their initial scores: lower (below 30%), middle (between 30% and 50%), and higher (above 50%). By calculating the median score for each group in both the pre-assessment and post-assessment diagnostics, I was able to track their progress.

Here is the breakdown of the relative improvement:

Key Insights

• Higher group: This group showed a 10% improvement in their median score. While they started with a higher baseline, their progress was still significant, indicating that even higher-achieving students benefited from the targeted teaching.
• Middle group: This group improved their median score by 20%, reflecting a solid gain in understanding and skills. They were able to consolidate their knowledge and advance effectively.
• Lower group: The most notable improvement was in the lower group, which saw a 30% increase in their median score. This dramatic improvement suggests that targeted interventions and support were particularly effective for students who initially struggled with the material.

Takeaways

This analysis underscores the importance of using diagnostic data to inform teaching strategies. By identifying specific gaps in knowledge and tailoring instruction to address those gaps, it is possible to achieve substantial progress, particularly for students who are starting from a lower baseline. CENTURY’s tools not only facilitate this level of precision in teaching but also make it easier to track and measure the impact of instructional strategies on different groups of students.

For teachers, especially those new to a particular year group or curriculum area, this approach provides a clear roadmap for differentiating instruction and ensuring that all students are supported effectively in their learning journey.

I grouped students based on their performance in a test, however if you need to track SEN or Pupil Premium students (for example) within a class, you can easily map their progress compared to other students in the class to measure the impact of any interventions you put into place.

Tune in next week to hear what the students’ thought about their CENTURY lessons. Click here to book a demo of CENTURY.