Classroom response systems allow teachers to collect student feedback anonymously, assess students, and hold them accountable. They increase student participation and engagement by having students respond to questions before hearing peers' answers. This minimizes peer pressure and encourages consideration of all possibilities. Response systems also provide immediate feedback on student learning, enabling teachers to modify lessons in real-time based on students' understanding. When creating clicker questions, teachers should consider the learning goals, what they want to learn about students, and how response distribution may inform changes to engage students with course content.
2. Why Use Student Response Systems? Some of the benefits include the ability to: Collect student feedback rapidly Allow students to respond anonymously Allow students to be accountable Assess students
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4. Monitors the number students responding to questionsEncourages students to ask more questions Students held responsible when responses included in grades Anonymous responses allow for more honestly
5. Student Engagement Respond before hearing other students’ answers Promote engagement in subsequent discussions Minimize the effect of peer pressure Encourages consideration of all possibilities
6. Feedback on Student Learning Student response systems enable Immediate summary feedback Just-in-time modification of lessons Students to know what they do and do not understand immediately Teachers to collect, grade, and record student performance
9. What will my student learn about each other?How might this question be used to engage students with course content? What distribution of responses do I expect to see? What might I change after viewing results?
12. Using the Question Results Be strategic Students share reasons for answers in further discussion Reengage and revote a difficult questions
13. Conclusion Use classroom response systems to Increase student participation Increase student engagement Increase frequent feedback on student learning Reference Bruff, D. (2009). Teaching with Classroom Response Systems. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Notas do Editor
The focus of this presentation is on the many choices teachers have when using the Classroom Response Systems and exploring those choices.The choice any individual teacher makes depends on several factors:The learning goals the teacher has for the studentsThe ways in which teacher’s students are motivated to engage in their lessons.
Teachers use classroom response systems for a variety of reasons. Some of the benefits of clickers (a common name for classroom response systems), such as the ability to collect student feedback rapidly, are difficult to achieve in the classroom without the classroom response systems. Other benefits, such as the ability for students to respond anonymously to questions. This presentation will highlight the unique capabilities of these response systems to enable classroom experiences that are difficult to achieve without clickers and to enhance other teacher methods that can be used with or without clickers.In general the student response systems allow the teacher:The ability to collect student feed back rapidlyThe ability for students to respond anonymouslyThe ability to assess
A classroom response system can be used to increase student participation during class in several ways, one of which is increasing the percentage of students who participate during class. Clickers provide each student with a chance to respond to a question, including shy students who might not volunteer an answer verbally during class.Since classroom response systems allow teachers to monitor the number of responses to a clicker question as student respond, teachers can keep collecting responses until most or all students have had a chance to respond. This can increase the participation of students who are not typically able to compose a response quickly enough to participate in a classwide discussion.Using a classroom response system encourages students to ask more questions and that lowers the barrier between students and teacher.Since classroom response systems can be used to identify the responses to individual students, they allow teachers to hold student accountable for their participation in class sessions, which also increases student participation. Clickers allow teachers to hold students accountable for their contributions and participation, particularly when responses are factored into their grades.Classroom response systems also allow students to respond to questions without their peers knowing how they respond. This anonymity can make it easier for students to express minority perspectives and for students to respond to questions without worrying about answering incorrectly in front of their peers. If the teacher does not track individual student responses, clickers allow students to respond anonymously and perhaps more honestly.
Clickers provide each student a chance to think about and respond to a question before hearing other students’ answers. This opportunity for independent thinking can engage students more fully with a question by encouraging students who might typically wait to hear their peers’ responses before seriously considering a question to think about a question on their own.It also can prepare students to engage in subsequent small-group and classwide discussions by giving them time to collect their thoughts about a question before sharing them publicly.Giving students the chance to respond to a question before seeing others’ responses can also minimize the effect of peer pressure, which in turn can foster more diverse perspectives among students.Students who know that a particular response is an unpopular one, might not consider it as seriously as other responses. Using clickers to collect responses encourages students to consider all possibilities before selecting a response.
Clickers enable teachers to collect information on student learning from all students in a classroom quickly, easily, and simultaneously. Classroom response systems automatically summarize this information and report this summary to teachers and students in easy to read charts. This means that quick formative assessment of student learning can be conducted several times in a single session.This information on student learning provided by clickers can be used by teachers to modify their lesson plans during class to respond to immediate student learning needs. For example if the clicker results indicate students understand a particular topic, teachers can move along to the next topic. If not, then more time can be spent on the topic using lecture, small-group or classwide discussion, or further clicker questions. Formative assessment not only provides teachers with useful information about student learning, it also lets students know what they understand and do not understand. They allow students to have a better sense of how well they understand material during a class session while they are able to ask questions of their teachers and their peers. Use of a classroom response system can also greatly increase the speed and efficiency with which teachers collect, grade, and record student performance on quizzes and tests. Instructors can review quizzes and tests immediately following their completion, while the quiz questions are still fresh in the students’ minds, focusing on the questions most missed by students and on incorrect answer choices most selected by students.
In drafting classroom response system lesson questions, teachers should consider:What are the student learning goals?What do I hope to learn about my students by asking this question?What will my students learn about each other when they see the results of this question?How might this question be used to engage students with course content in small-group or classwide discussions or by creating a time for telling?What distribution of responses do I expect to see from my students?What might I do if the actual distribution turns out very differently?
Look for answer choices for potential clicker questions in student responses to open-ended questions, ones asked on assignments in previous courses, on homework questions, or during class. This can lead to answer choices that better match common student misconceptions and perspectives.
Use a variety of types of clicker questions. Some courses lend themselves to particular types of questions, of course, but experimenting with different kinds of questions (application questions, critical thinking questions, student perspective questions, monitoring questions) can help teachers use clickers in ways that engage students and meet course learning goals.
Choose carefully when to indicate to students the correct answer to a clicker question. Once some students know the correct answer, they are likely to be less interested in further discussion.When reviewing a clicker question with students, spend a least some time on each of the answer choices—right and wrong ones. Students often appreciate hearing their teacher’s perspective on the answer choices they selected, even when they know those choices are incorrect.When reviewing a clicker question with students, have them share their reasons for their answers. Not only does this shift student’s focus away from getting questions right or wrong, and toward thinking critically, but it also provides useful insights into student’s thinking.When students find a question difficult, have them reengage with it through small-group or classwide discussion and then revote. Giving students multiple opportunities to answer a question while providing them with feedback mechanisms along the way, can help them make sense of course material.
In ConclusionEngaged students are those who actively and intentionally participate during class, giving serious thought to the topics discussed. Clickers provide teachers the opportunity to tailor instruction to the learning needs of students and can facilitate assessments.
