Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments

CHAPTER ONE

ENGAGING STUDENTS WITH CLICKERS

Classroom response systems are instructional technologies that allow instructors to rapidly collect and analyze student responses to questions posed during class. Systems are typically used in the following manner. First, an instructor poses a question, often a multiple-choice question, to the students. The students think about the question and submit their responses to the questions using handheld wireless transmitters, usually called clickers, which often look like television remote controls, and beam signals to a receiving device attached to the instructor’s classroom computer. Software on the computer produces a bar chart showing the distribution of student answers. Instructors then use these results to decide how to proceed during class: having students engage in small-group or classwide discussions on the question at hand, moving on to the next topic if the results indicate students are ready, or something else entirely.

For example, I once displayed the question in Example 1.1 in a course on probability. After giving students a minute or two to think about and respond to the question without discussing it with each other, I had my classroom response system generate the bar chart shown in Figure 1.1 as a summary of the student responses. Since the correct answer to the question is one boy and one girl, an answer that only four of the sixteen students selected, I then had the students discuss the question in pairs. After a minute or two of lively discussion, the students voted again using their clickers. The system then produced the bar chart shown in Figure 1.2, indicating to me that the small-group discussion time was productive and that most students had a better understanding of the question.

I then asked for a student who changed his or her mind from all are equally likely to one boy and one girl to share with the class the reasons for doing so. One of my students volunteered and offered an explanation of the question. I listened to the explanation and responded by drawing an appropriate diagram on the chalkboard, offering a supplemental explanation, and then asking for student questions. In less than ten minutes, most students came to their own understanding of the question at hand.

Example 1.1

Your sister-in-law calls to say that she’s having twins. Which of the following is more likely? (Assume that she’s not having identical twins.)

a. Twin boys

b. Twin girls

c. One boy and one girl

d. All are equally likely

Derek Bruff, Mathematics, Vanderbilt University

FIGURE 1.1. SAMPLE RESULTS FROM FIRST VOTE.

The use of small-group discussion in the manner described is usually called peer instruction, after Mazur (1997), and is described in more detail later in this chapter. The choice of the instructor to have students engage in peer instruction after seeing the results of the first vote is an example of what is sometimes called agile teaching (Beatty, Gerace, Leonard, & Dufresne, 2006), an approach to using classroom response systems explored in Chapter Two. The question in Example 1.1 might be classified as an application question since it requires students to apply the notion of a probability space to a particular situation. The example question, activity, and results described are drawn from my own teaching, but many other instructors use similar questions and similar techniques in their own disciplines. As the remainder of this book makes clear, however, there are many ways to use clickers in the classroom.

FIGURE 1.2. SAMPLE RESULTS FROM SECOND VOTE.

Since classroom response systems rely on students’ submitting their responses to questions with handheld clickers, using these systems requires some way of distributing clickers to students. At some institutions, students purchase clickers sold at the campus bookstores, right alongside textbooks and graphing calculators. A clicker usually costs between twenty and sixty dollars. Some textbook publishers bundle reduced-cost clickers with their textbooks. At these institutions, students bring their clickers with them to class and use them in multiple courses. Instructors often have students register their clickers to allow instructors to track and sometimes grade individual student responses. For example, students might enter their clicker serial numbers in their local online course management system, allowing instructors to import those serial numbers along with student names to their classroom response system software. After each class session in which clickers are used, instructors can assign participation grades to the students in the class based on their responses to questions.

On other campuses, schools or departments purchase sets of clickers for instructors to use. An instructor brings a box of clickers to class, and students pick one up on their way into the room. They use the clickers during class to respond to questions and return them to the box on their way out of the classroom. This method of distribution makes it easy for students to use clickers anonymously. If instructors using this method are interested in tracking student responses, the clickers might be clearly labeled with numbers and students instructed to pick up the same clickers in each class session. A spreadsheet that matches student names with clicker numbers can then be used to track and grade individual responses.

Instructors using classroom response systems also require receivers and appropriate software. Some instructors borrow receivers from instructional technology or classroom media offices or their departments. Other instructors use free or reduced-cost receivers from vendors or textbook publishers. The software for these systems is usually available for free download from vendor Web sites. Many vendors’ software programs include gradebook tools allowing instructors to track and manage student clicker grades and export them to commonly used online course management systems. Getting started using response systems can take some instructors some time. Chapter Five provides more on this issue, as well as information on the technical and logistical features of various systems.

Classroom response system technology dates back at least to the 1960s. Early systems used transmitters and receivers connected by wires instead of the infrared and radio frequency wireless connections of today’s systems. Many of the ways today’s systems are used to engage and assess students were described in the literature on these early systems. ( Judson and Sawada, 2002, provide a review of this literature, as well as some historical information on early systems. Historical information is also provided in Abrahamson, 2006, and Judson and Sawada, 2006.)

Classroom response systems are known by many other names, including student response systems, audience response systems, personal response systems, classroom communication systems, group response systems, and electronic voting systems, and others too. I use classroom response system in this book as a popular and fitting term for these systems. Audience response system is another popular term (Banks, 2006), but some instructors who use clickers to engage students during class dislike the idea of describing students as audience members given the passive role audiences usually play in other settings. Student response system is also a useful term, but it can be used to describe online as well as classroom response systems. This book focuses on the use of these kinds of systems in face-to-face classrooms, although some of the principles and strategies for using classroom systems are likely to apply in online settings.

Some instructors interested in teaching with classroom response systems are curious to know what research studying their effectiveness has been conducted. The consensus of several literature reviews (Caldwell, 2007; Fies & Marshall, 2006; Judson & Sawada, 2002; Roschelle, Penuel, & Abrahamson, 2004; Simpson & Oliver, 2007) seems to be that the use of clickers often increases student attendance, participation, and enjoyment of classes and provides students and instructors with useful feedback on student learning. Most students and instructors like using clickers, which they find fun and enjoyable to use. There also seems to be consensus regarding the impact of classroom response systems on student learning. The impact depends in large measure on the instructional methods by which clickers are used. Teaching methods that use active learning, such as small-group and classwide discussion methods, typically result in improved student learning over methods in which students play more passive roles. It is not clear from the literature the extent to which classroom response system technology plays a role in these learning gains. It is possible that the methods themselves are responsible for learning gains, and clicker technology merely facilitates and supports those methods. This finding motivates much of the discussion of teaching choices found in this book since it appears that how instructors choose to use classroom response systems is the most important variable in their impact on student learning. Most literature reviews call for further research into the effects of clickers on student learning. I hope that this book, particularly the reasons for using clickers outlined in Chapter Six, will provide future researchers with useful frameworks for their investigations.

One reason to use classroom response systems is that they have the ability to allow every student to respond to a question and the ability to display the distribution of student responses for all students to see. These abilities can make a classroom response system an effective tool for engaging students during class. Here the term engagement refers to more than just participation in class. Engaged students are those who are actively involved in class discussions and thinking intentionally about course content during class. Classroom response systems can be used to engage students in a variety of ways, including classwide and small-group discussions, that can foster active learning in the classroom.

GENERATING CLASSWIDE DISCUSSIONS

One common use of classroom response systems is generating and fostering classwide discussion. A typical structure for doing so might be called think-vote-share, after the think-pair-share classroom engagement technique first proposed by Lyman (1981), which many instructors use without clickers. Instructors using clickers in this way first pose a multiple-choice question to their students. Students think about the question and submit their answers using their clickers. The instructor then displays the bar chart generated by the system showing the results of the question, indicating how many students selected each answer choice. These results, along with the thinking that students do prior to submitting their responses, inform and enhance subsequent classwide discussion facilitated by the instructor.

Case Study: Communication Studies

Michael Dorsher teaches a course on mass media ethics at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire. Each section of the course has between thirty and forty students. In the past, section sizes tended to be smaller, and the sections were oriented toward discussion. As enrollment in the course grew, Dorsher found it more difficult to have the kinds of discussions in which he wanted his students to engage. He now uses a classroom response system to help generate these kinds of discussions. For example, he presents his students with the following ethical dilemma: Suppose you are an editor at the Washington Post, and the Unabomber has demanded that you print his thirty-thousand-word manifesto or he will continue sending mail bombs as acts of terrorism. Dorsher then poses the first two questions in Example 1.2, asking his students to identify the values and loyalties that would be most important to them in this situation and leading a classwide discussion after each question. He then poses the third question in Example 1.2, asking them to identify the ethical philosophy and course of action that best matches the most important value and loyalty identified in the previous two questions.

Example 1.2

Question 1. As Post editor, which would you value most?

a. Upholding First Amendment independence from government

b. Increased readership

c. Maintaining credibility

d. Possibly helping save lives

e. Informing readers

f. Not acquiescing to terrorists

g. Possibly helping capture a criminal

Question 2. As Post editor, to whom do you most owe loyalty?

a. The terrorist, who’s threatening you

b. Future potential victims of the terrorist

c. The surviving victims and families of dead victims

d. The government

e. Your readers/the public

f. Yourself and other journalists

Question 3. With a top value of ______ and a top loyalty of _______ , which ethicist would you follow?

a. John Rawls: Protect the vulnerable; print the manifesto.

b. John Stuart Mill: The greatest good for the greatest number; don’t print it to uphold press independence.

c. Aristotle: The golden mean would be to excerpt it in the paper and publish it all online.

Michael Dorsher, Communication and Journalism, University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire

Dorsher’s third question can be particularly challenging for students since it may not have a single right answer depending on the value and loyalty selections the students chose in the first two questions. Students are required to select the one answer they feel best matches the responses to the earlier questions. On a quiz or exam, this kind of ambiguity would be a problem in a multiple-choice question. However, for a question used to foster in-class discussion, this ambiguity is a strength: it creates the opportunity for students to share and discuss the reasons they have for selecting particular answer choices, thereby encouraging critical thinking.

Dorsher finds that without clickers, often the vocal minority of students in his class ends up making the decisions on the first two questions. With clickers, more student voices are heard, and the majority makes the decision instead. One danger he finds in this process is that sometimes the minority can be silenced by the fact that they know they are in the minority, a fact made evident by the display of the clicker results to the entire class. Dorsher is careful to encourage the minority to express and defend their reasoning, playing the role of devil’s advocate as necessary to keep the discussion going.

WHY USE CLICKERS FOR CLASSWIDE DISCUSSIONS?

Although classwide discussion is a frequently used instructional technique, it is worth mentioning a few reasons to have students engage in these discussions. Since students are often better able to make sense of ideas and concepts when they are given the chance to process those ideas and concepts in some way as they are learning about them, classwide discussion can be a useful way to help students learn during class. A lively classwide discussion can also help students pay attention and stay engaged during class. Classwide discussions also help instructors leverage the social aspects of the community of learners that constitutes a classroom. For instance, students often appreciate the chance to hear from and get to know each other, a process that can occur during a classwide discussion. Furthermore, sometimes students are better able to follow an explanation given by a peer than one given by their instructor. Classwide discussions provide opportunities for students to hear each other describe and grapple with course content.

Classroom response systems can augment classwide discussions in several ways. For example, instructors not using clickers often pose a question to their students, then ask for student volunteers to share their answers to the question. This approach has the disadvantage that students who do not volunteer answers need not engage seriously with the question. Some do, of course, but some may not, preferring to wait and hear from their peers before thinking deeply about the question at hand. Since students are more likely to learn when they do their own thinking, it is useful to encourage as many to think independently about a question as possible. Clickers can help make that happen since each student is asked to respond to a question before hearing other students’ answers. This gives all students a chance to thoughtfully respond to a question, setting the stage for a productive class discussion that involves more students who are ready to share their diverse thoughts and perspectives.

Clickers give all students the chance to respond to a question independently, including shy students who might be hesitant to speak up in front of their peers, students who take more time to compose responses than might be provided otherwise, and students who simply would not be heard due to time constraints. This gives more students a voice in the classroom, as Dorsher observes, and helps these students prepare to participate more fully in a class discussion.

Since clickers allow students to respond to a question without their peers knowing their answers, they provide students with a level of anonymity that can encourage participation. Students who might not voice their opinions about a topic publicly for fear of being in the minority are given a chance to register those opinions with their clickers. When responding to questions with right and wrong answers, some students are hesitant to volunteer their responses publicly out of fear of being wrong in front of their peers. Clickers allow these students to answer questions honestly and risk being wrong.

Furthermore, although students cannot use a classroom response system to identify the individual responses of their peers, instructors may do so after class. This allows instructors to hold students accountable for their participation in a class session. It can remove the students’ cloaks of invisibility, a phrase used by Lee Shulman (quoted in Merrow, 2007) to describe the anonymity that students can use to avoid participation and engagement. Each student’s responses to clicker questions can be viewed by instructors after class and factored into participation or other course grades. Knowing the system has this capability, students are often more likely to participate constructively in class.

The results of a clicker question can be displayed for an entire class to see, and this feature can help encourage discussion as well. For instance, students can learn that some classmates have different ideas and opinions, encouraging some students to want to hear more from those with different views. Also, students can learn that they are not alone in their ideas and opinions, which can encourage them to voice their thoughts during a discussion. This feature of classroom response systems can be a challenge as well, as Dorsher noted. Sometimes students who find themselves unexpectedly in the minority can be less eager to participate in a classwide discussion. Instructors often need to be careful when facilitating discussions in these situations. In addition, the display of clicker question results can demonstrate to students who answer a question correctly that many of their peers do not understand the question as well as they do. This can help justify to these students the use of class time devoted to exploring the question further.

Case Study: Biological Sciences

Adam Rich teaches a sophomore-level course in anatomy and physiology at the State University of New York College at Brockport that typically enrolls about 170 students. He uses clicker questions to generate classwide discussions that focus on the reasons for right and wrong answers to those questions in an effort to help students learn to build arguments.

Rather than using the think-vote-share activity, Rich poses a question to his students and has them submit their initial answers using their clickers. Instead of displaying the results to the students, he facilitates a classwide discussion of the question while allowing students to change their answers at any time. The classroom response system Rich uses allows him to monitor the distribution of responses as they change, providing him with information about how students are changing their minds during the discussion. He can use this information to continue the discussion until the students converge on the correct answer. Since the students cannot see the distribution of responses as they are submitted, they tend not to change their minds out of any kind of peer pressure. Instead, Rich finds that they consider and respond to the arguments their peers make during the discussion.

Rich has occasionally left the bar chart showing the real-time distribution of responses on the classroom projector screen for the students to see. When he did this, there was almost immediate convergence to a single answer choice, demonstrating what can happen when students do not respond independently to a classroom question. Instead of making sense of the arguments their peers put forth in favor of various answer choices, many students simply changed their responses to the most popular response, likely assuming that the popular answer was the correct one. Rich’s clicker questions count toward 5 percent of his students’ course grades. By not showing students the current responses to a clicker question but allowing them to change their responses during the discussion, he uses his students’ interest in performing well in the course to motivate them to engage productively in his classwide discussions. He finds that students do so as long as they have the chance to change their answer choice to the correct one.

Case Study: Language Instruction

Karina Kline-Gabel teaches intermediate- and upper-level Spanish courses at James Madison University in Virginia, many of which have around forty-five students. She uses clickers frequently for oral exercises in her classes. For example, she might display a piece of artwork on her classroom projector screen and make a series of statements about the artwork. She asks her students to use their clickers to label each statement as correct or incorrect based on the grammar and vocabulary used in the statement. Often she makes the first few statements rather comically incorrect, probing students’ vocabulary, before moving on to more challenging grammar issues. Clicker questions focused on grammar and vocabulary function to warm up students for more complex, subsequent tasks, such as discussing their opinions of the artwork.

Many of Kline-Gabel’s clicker questions are correct-incorrect or true-false questions. Although students are likely to guess at correct answers to these questions half the time, Kline-Gabel almost always follows such a question with another question that asks students for reasons for their answers. For instance, she might ask, The sentence was not correct. What was the mistake in the sentence? and provide students with several possible choices. Kline-Gabel also often leads a classwide discussion of the correct-incorrect or true-false question that elicits reasons for student answers. Since her students know that they will be asked to supply reasons for their responses, she finds that they tend to take the questions seriously and not guess randomly. Her clicker questions, then, function to have students commit to answers to questions before a classwide discussion. This commitment can help them engage more actively in that discussion since they have a more vested interested in defending their answer choices.

Kline-Gabel finds that these exercises help students improve their second-language listening skills, in part because they isolate those skills from reading, writing, and speaking skills. She often conducts clicker-enhanced listening activities in lieu of activities in which students work independently on reading and writing activities. She finds that her students ask more questions about a clicker question they miss than they will about a reading exercise they do not understand. She believes this is because the clicker questions are discussed as a class, whereas a student with a question about a reading exercise has to raise his or her hand to ask it. Discussing difficulties as a class somehow makes it more acceptable for students to ask questions. Furthermore, she finds that when students are engaged in individual work in or out of class, they often move too quickly through that work, not engaging in it as seriously as they could. Clicker questions allow her to slow down her students’ pace, encouraging them to engage in the work more seriously and ask more questions. She also finds that her clicker activities help her students stay on task more than small-group activities.

STRATEGIES FOR LEADING CLASSWIDE DISCUSSIONS

Many instructors have experience effectively leading classwide discussions. However, since classroom response systems provide each student in