How educators can use a 'Fitbit approach' to improve student outcomes

Key points:

For years, many people have used wearable technology like Fitbit or Apple Watch to understand data about their health: their heart rate, for example, or their total steps per day. This is a recognition that these numbers tell you something fundamental about your overall well-being. Something so important that it deserves real-time monitoring.

What if we could do the same in education? One of the best ways to improve student outcomes is to adopt a “Fitbit approach” to track and reinforce performance on key learning metrics.

Harness teaching intuition

Teachers are an intuitive bunch. They know their students well and have a good idea of ​​where they are succeeding and where they need support.

In the classroom every day, teachers constantly use a variety of information about student learning, including their own knowledge, knowledge of the student's past performance, and their predictions about future performance, to provide the best possible instruction for each student. individual student.

However, this process has limits, even for the most talented educator. Educators typically don't have access to real-time data or snapshots of moments between assessments that could help them confirm, challenge, or adjust their instincts.

And by the time they do receiving updated information, for example after the next assessment, may be too late to help the student master that concept. (Something all of us who have been in the classroom have unfortunately experienced!)

Previously, there was no way to access this data without constant evaluation which would get in the way of actual teaching work. We now have technology that can support this, so teachers no longer have to simply do the best they can with a mix of old data and hunches.

Ways teachers can use real-time data

Data only matters when we turn it into action. For a Fitbit user, this can mean things like watching a low step count and deciding to take a walk after lunch. Over time, small decisions like this can lead to significant improvements in health.

In the classroom, this can work in much the same way: real-time data drives a series of daily decisions about where students should focus their revision and practice. Some ways teachers can turn real-time data into action include:

1. Validate your intuition and remove some of the cognitive load from your daily work. Teachers already have enough work without needing to spend a lot of mental energy developing their best guesses about each student's performance in different areas. Real-time data can help release this cognitive load so they can focus less on hunches and more on the real work of teaching.
2. Understand which students are struggling and in what areas. Identifying students who are falling behind is one of the most important tasks of a teacher. Real-time data can help teachers do this sooner and more efficiently (without waiting for a quiz or exam) and then take action accordingly.
3. Offering each student differentiated instruction. Depending on where students are exceeding expectations or falling behind, teachers can use this real-time data to provide differentiated instruction that ensures each student gets the extra practice (or extra challenge) they need.

Remember, this wealth of data only becomes meaningful when you allow students do something in response to the information obtained from the data. So make sure any tool or program you are using to collect data supports this process; for example, automatically creating differentiated practice plans for students based on their current performance.

Real-time data in action

So what does it look like in action when using this type of real-time data to support individualized practice? In October 2022, Summer Moring, a sixth-grade math teacher at the Allen Independent School District in Texas, began using a prototype version of a tool that gave him access to real-time data on student performance. The tool also provided personalized gamified practice for each student based on this data.

Throughout the 2022-2023 school year, Moring students used practice sessions as part of their unit reviews, preparation for state assessments, and assignments. This included optional solo practice activities, whole-class live practice sessions, and assigned low-risk practice, depending on student needs.

Moring appreciated how the tool allowed him to easily see each student's performance and adjust assignments accordingly.

“I liked being able to click on specific practice sets assigned to each classroom and say, 'Okay, this student is at this percentage, this student is at this percentage,'” Moring said. “In using them, I would sometimes even remap those practices and say, 'Hey, let's try to develop this a little bit.'”

Research has found that this type of practice can lead to significant gains in learning. In Moring's case, her students went from an average of 70 percent accuracy on their first attempt to 86 percent on their most recent attempt on standards-aligned practice items.

Towards a more inclusive classroom

If heart rate and number of steps per day are important enough to track in real time, crucial metrics for driving student success are too.

We should all be excited about a future where technology can foster a more inclusive classroom, ensuring that each teacher has access to data that allows them to help each of their students where they need it most and where each student has personalized support . They need to thrive.