'If everyone's got to vote then, obviously ... everyone's got to think'

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.

Diana Laffin shares her findings on an action research project into the use of remote voting systems in the AS and A2 classroom. She was particularly interested in examining the impact of such devices on inclusion. For Laffin's students, participation in lessons was nothing new. Starting from a baseline of high participation, active learning was the norm in her classroom. Yet it was her doubts about how far participation was actually securing full inclusion that led her to research the use of hand-held devices. Laffin then  developed a model of sophisticated, iterative use of the keypads with students adopting the role of an historical character  responding to a changing historical situation. She concludes that when built into historically valid, well-constructed and motivating journeys, use of remote voting can, indeed, improve the quality of post-16 students' learning experience...