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| Sarah Dalrymple, PhD |
Clicker systems are an interactive technology used by many instructors in large lecture courses to get immediate feedback on student understanding. When used properly, clickers can increase student engagement and learning in a course. However, instructors have the ability to enhance or impede these effects by the way they deliver and review clicker questions. The following three tips on how to use clickers more effectively are based on educational research and my own personal experiences using clickers in my classes.
1. Let students talk while answering and give specific discussion prompts.
Unless you are specifically trying to assess individual student knowledge, you should consider allowing students to talk to one another as they choose their answers. Students learn more from explaining their reasoning to peers than they do by simply choosing the right answer (Smith et al., 2009). In addition, research has shown that the prompt instructors use when delivering the question influences the quality of student discussion (Knight, Wise & Southard, 2013). Rather than just saying “Discuss the question with your neighbor,” give a more directed prompt, such as:
- · Explain to your neighbor the reason the answer you chose is correct.
- · Discuss the reasons why each of the incorrect answers is wrong.
- · Explain how you would change the incorrect answers to make them correct.
In addition to providing feedback to instructors about student understanding, clickers can also be used to provide feedback to students. If you simply reveal the right answer and move on, the students who chose the wrong answer may never know why their answer wasn’t correct. Take the time to discuss the reasoning behind correct and incorrect answer choices. One strategy I use is to ask different students to explain to the class why each incorrect answer is wrong. This provides another opportunity for students to teach one another. In my experience, students are very interested in knowing why they got a question wrong, so they are always very attentive during this time and often ask good questions to clarify confusion.
3. Know when to re-poll a question.
I will often write clicker questions to reveal common misconceptions or errors that I anticipate students will make on exams. Since these questions tend to be difficult, a large number of students often choose the wrong answer (see slide below). The first time this happened to me my initial reaction was disappointment, but I now recognize these moments as rich opportunities for productive discussion and peer instruction. I don’t have a strict cutoff, but if < 50% of the class gets the answer right on the first try, I will give them another chance to answer and encourage them to talk to new people in the class. The volume of student discussion often grows louder during the re-poll and students are more engaged in discussion with one another. The result is usually that a greater number of students answer correctly on the second try. In addition, the follow-up whole class discussion is more productive than if I immediately reveal the right answer without the re-poll.
Leave a comment below if you have any tips to add to this list!
References and Resources
ASU's Clicker Information Page: https://ucc.asu.edu/clickers/
Knight, J. K., S. B. Wise, and K. M. Southard. 2013. Understanding clicker discussions: student reasoning and theimpact of instructional cues. CBE Life Sciences Education 12:645-654.
Smith, M. K., W. B. Wood, W. K. Adams, C. Wieman, J. K. Knight, N. Guild, and T. T. Su. 2009. Why peerdiscussion improves student performance on in-class concept questions. Science 323:122-124.
Thanks for these suggestions! I especially appreciate tip #3.
ReplyDeleteI consult with faculty in many disciplines as an instructional designer, and I often encourage them to probe students for the "best" or "expected" instead of "correct." This opens the opportunity for discussion about WHY an answer is the expected answer and encourages students to consider how to defend their choice of best or their assumptions about what is expected. In my experience, this leads to more discussion than merely settling on the one right answer.
Hi, It has been a pleasure to read your contribution with this article. We (my husband and me) use the clickers and have a company where offer this amazing devices to improve the education system in Perú. As a teacher, I think your tips describe perfectly the way how benefitial is the peer instruction in a classroom, because more than a simple class is offer an interactive learning enviroment and the opportunity to assimilate the knowledge and transform it in a significant learning to use it in a real world.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!