Top twenty

Creating a Top twenty list (a.k.a. The hit list) of common pitfalls in a topic is an effective way to deliver feedback, target misconceptions and allow students the opportunity for self-assessment and self-reflection.

Educators may create lists from past experiences with the topic and share them prior to an assessment task, learning activity or topic in order to guide student learning. Alternatively, educators may create lists as a direct result of student submissions, identifying common pitfalls to give students feedback at the end of a learning task, assessment task or topic.

Note: The “Top twenty” may need to be a “Top ten”, “Top fifteen” etc. depending on context.

Top twenty is

effective for:

best to pair with:

  • Categorising and ordering knowledge
  • Critical thinking
  • Identifying misconceptions
  • Immediate feedback
  • Reflective thinking or practice
  • Categorising grid
  • Clarification pause
  • ConcepTests
  • In-class polling
  • Misconception check
  • Think-pair-share

Example 1

At the end of an assessment, students are provided with information about the most common areas needing feedback. Sample responses may be included, though it is recommended that examples are reworked to make sure students’ work is not recognisable. Students may be given examples of incorrect sentences or concepts and be asked to identify why it is an issue to add an element of problem solving.

Example 2

Students are asked to generate their own ‘top twenty’. This could be about top twenty learnings from a topic, changes in thinking, ‘take away’ points or simply identification of the ‘top 10 X in Y’ (e.g., top 10 diseases in Australia). These allow for brainstorming, categorisation, ranking, discussion and targeting of misconceptions.