Hinge questions have transformed my teaching – by giving me a significantly improved understanding of what my students understand, what they don’t understand, and why. They are incredibly useful for me as a way to improve my appreciation of what students are thinking in lessons – as I construct hinge questions I am forced to spend far more time thinking about student understanding. Additionally, they allow me discuss and correct student misconceptions in a safe environment for students to make mistakes – because almost all of them will make mistakes at some point.
Very little has been written about this in History – extensive searches have failed to reveal much discussion of them. I think this approach lends itself more naturally to Maths and Science than to History – in as much as some of the cognitive rules are clearer. However, I wonder if there might be a snobbishness about multiple choice questions, for example, that is holding History teachers back.
I would love to read more about how this is being used in History – as Dylan Wiliam says (of Spanish), such questions will “still be good in twenty years’ time” because learners will still experience problems in the same areas and to collaborate with others – who may identify misconceptions which I am missing.