What are Knowledge Templates ?

Practice and evaluation form a very important part of a child's learning. A simple multiple choice test just indicates whether the answer was correct or not. This kind of technique fails to provide an insight into the approach followed by the student to solve the question and areas of difficulty.

The knowledge template is a software that helps to counter the above problems. It is an array of such templates that address different types of questions. For instance, one of these templates handles problems which require a step-wise approach.
You might wonder how this kind of a template works?

How does it work?
  • The teacher chooses a question, which is solved through a step-by-step procedure. The teacher first enters the problem into the software. Then she splits up the problem into key steps. For each step the teacher provides correct and confusing options.
  • Now, when the student attempts the problem, the software tracks the options chosen by him at each step. Once, the student reaches the final solution, the software generates insightful reports for both the student and teacher, based on the paths taken by the students to solve the problem.
  • As you can see, the template not only tells the number of correct and incorrect answers, but also goes a step beyond by specifying the exact thought process of the child as he solves the problem.
A real life example:

Suppose, a teacher wants to test how well the students understand the process involved in calculation of profit and loss. The process followed would be:

· First the teacher enters the question in the template through a user-friendly front end. As an example :

On Monday 2 traders bought 264 kg of sugar each. On Tuesday 3 traders bought 340 kg of sugar each. The purchasing price on Monday was 16. Rs on Tuesday it was 16.5 Rs. The entire quantity was sold to retailer on Wednesday, at a total profit of 3,000 Rs. Find the average selling price.

· Then, the teacher breaks the solution into steps. These steps judge the approach followed by the student to calculate the selling price.

a) Calculation of the total quantity sold on Monday
b) Then, multiplication of the quantity sold on Monday with 16 and Tuesday 16.5.
c) Finding the sum of both the figures
d) Adding 3,000 to the amount calculated in the previous step and division by total quantity.

With each of these steps the teacher gives a number of confusing options.

· Now as the student attempts the question the software tracks the options chosen by him. He has the flexibility to backtrack when he is stuck, and find out his own path to the right answer.

· When, the student finally reaches the correct answer, a performance chart according to the path followed by him is displayed.

· The software at the same time generates a report for the teacher. This report specifies at which all steps the student has gone wrong. Thus indicating the areas where the student has some difficulty.

· The teacher also receives a cumulative report based on the options selected by the entire class. This report specifies the common areas of difficulty and incorrect approach of the students.

· In this sample template you would notice that the teacher gets the valuable input through the cumulative report that:

"Most of the students while calculating the selling price forget to multiply the quantity of different objects to their respective prices."

· So, next time the teacher goes to the class, she could emphasize on this weak point.

See the sample template