Asking the right questions, and filming my class

Something that I've been trying to come to terms with as a teacher is the idea that the best teachers aren't those with the best answers or best explanations (although that helps), but those with the best questions.

So, in all my honors physics classes I've been using the same systematic progression of questions to more fully explore an idea. Now, whenever my students learn about a new concept (vectors, conservation of energy, Newton's first law) or a new variable (acceleration, normal force, kinetic energy) we always fill out one of the following sheets.

The new concept sheet looks like this,
(click on the picture to read the details)

The new variable sheet looks like this, 

(click on the picture to read the details)

I've also started to record videos of us going over these ideas as a class so that those students who are absent, or need extra help can refer to the videos. So far, students have appreciated having access to the videos and I've seen them using them to get caught back up.

To put my money where my mouth is, I have also started giving interview tests. During the interview tests, students have to sit down with me, one on one, and answer questions about the physics they have learned. Based on their answers I ask follow up questions to figure out whether they really understand or not. I'm doing this because I think sometimes students can figure out how to do well on tests or quizzes and not really understand. But during the interview test if they say something vague, or try to fake a canned answer, I can ask "what do you mean by that?"

Hopefully by doing this, I can convince more students that it isn't enough to just get the right answer. You have to also understand why we consider it right.

For the first interview test my blended class averaged an 88.8%. My other traditional classes averaged an 85.1%. So the students in my blended section appear to be understanding the material as well, or better than the students in the traditional classes.

I'll be interested to see if this trend continues on the next interview test that I'm giving this Friday.