Tassomai’s new maths content uses images to improve knowledge retention and boost student engagement…

At the start of this academic year we launched our new and improved maths content for schools. Part of the excitement surrounding this launch was due to the introduction of images. After over a year of planning and work from the content and design teams we are now providing images alongside questions on both our app and browser quizzes. 

The new images reinforce the impact of questions, giving the student two mediums through which to understand the question. This approach improves the teaching power of each question and is proven to increase long-term knowledge retention.

This method draws inspiration from classroom learning techniques like Dual Coding and multimedia cognition, which combine audio and visual learning to boost students’ memory and recognition of certain topics. We think that combining textual and pictorial information in the maths content will prove highly effective for students regularly using Tassomai.

Simplicity and consistency

The images and diagrams have been kept as simple as possible to avoid confusion and aid knowledge retention. We have also ensured that they are in keeping with the style used by all three exam boards and other readily available revision resources.

In the same way that ‘putting a face to a name’ helps us to remember new people, learning new information can be assisted with the use of images. Quizzing students with both written questions and diagrams helps them to embed their understanding and long-term memory of that topic. It is thought that 65% of people are ‘visual learners’, so these questions will be of particular help to students who naturally prefer the use of visual stimulus in their learning

When asking students to work out, for example, the angle of a triangle, it is much more straightforward for them to be able to physically see the triangle in question rather than asking them to imagine a hypothetical one. With the added help of images on these questions, students can give more attention to what the question is asking and learn in a more organic way.

Creating our new and improved maths content

Some schools and users already had access to our GCSE maths course, but the content has since been expanded, offering a more rounded course, fully mapped to the specification for AQA, Edexcel and OCR (higher and foundation). 

The maths content has been written by a team of current and ex-teachers to ensure the quality of the questions remains consistent and the content stays relevant. As a result, the content is not only board specific, but in keeping with our high standards across all three subjects.

Picture this

Images are something that have been requested by our schools and users for our science questions, and now that the maths content is up and running we are looking forward to rolling out images across the different subjects. We have already received glowing feedback about the maths content and the new images appear to be even more effective than we had hoped.

In the same way that students are benefitting from the use of diagrams in maths, we believe that adding images to our triple science curriculum will help to boost engagement with, and understanding of, more difficult topics. The expansion into science content is currently in development but we hope to bring you updates on this soon.

You can read more about our new maths content here.