Dr. Douglas Duncan, Univ. of Colorado Clickers: A New Teaching Tool of Exceptional Promise Dr. Douglas Duncan University of Colorado, Boulder [email protected].

Dr. Douglas Duncan, Univ. of Colorado

Clickers: A New Teaching Tool of Exceptional Promise

Dr. Douglas Duncan

University of Colorado, Boulder

[email protected]


How many of you:

A. Have never used clickers

B. Have used clickers once

C. Have used clickers more than once


I primarily:

A. Teach college-level science, math, or engineering

B. Teach college-level humanities or social sciences

C. Teach another college-level subject

D. Am a Dean or Administrator

E. Am from the K-12 world


Why Use Clickers?

1. Rapid, accurate feedback to both you and your students.

2. Students learn less in lectures than we usually assume. Clickers can assist you in changing classes to make students more active and accountable for their own learning.

3. Some subjects are “touchy” and students hesitate to give opinions orally or by raising hands. Clicker responses are anonymous to students neighbors and produce more honest responses.

4. An amazing increase in student enthusiasm (if you use clickers well).

5. Other reasons (only if time…)


Many potential uses….

– Measure what students know before you start to teach them

– Measure student attitudes– Find out if they’ve done assigned reading– Get students to confront common misconceptions– Test student understanding– Increase student’s learning and retention of

what you teach– Facilitate discussion– Transform the way you do any demonstrations– Increase class attendance– Improve student attitudes (!)

Begin with the ends in mind. (John Dewey, ~1920)


It’s NOT about the clicker.

It’s about what you have your students do.


We’ve been teaching the same way for a long time…

2000 years ago

Today

How effective are we?


How well do students learn in lecture?A cautionary tale….

• about a violin….

From Carl Weiman’s*

“Physics of Everyday Life” class.

*Nobel prize winner AND good teacher



(b) Only 10% of students gave the correct answer.

Fifteen minutes later in the same lecture!

That was an anecdote…

Now for data


Over the last 20 years, the following methodology has been developed to study teaching and learning…

• Hundreds of interviews with students• Determine right and common wrong answers

(misconceptions) to important questions• Construct a multiple-choice test where the wrong

answers are commonly believed misconceptions• Give the test to thousands of students


R. Hake, ”…A six-thousand-student survey…” AJP 66, 64-74 (‘98).

<g> = post-pre 100-pre

traditional lecture

Force Concept InventoryIn a traditional lecture class, students learn about 25% of the concepts (that they don’t already know).


Traditional Model of Education

Instruction via

transmissionIndividual Content


• PowerPoint doesn’t fix this• Fancy videos, applets shown in class,

demonstrations don’t fix this• Lecturing as well as Carl Sagan or Jay

Leno doesn’t fix this

The problem is not the lecturer. The problem is…


Teaching by telling is surprisingly ineffective

- if you want students to master concepts.

Students minds must be active to learn.

What can you do?!

“Peer discussion” of conceptual questions forces students to talk and reason during class. Like this:


Consider a tiny acorn, and a giant oak tree.

A log from that tree weighs 10,000x as much as the acorn.

Where does MOST of

the mass come from?

A. Sunlight

B. Water

C. Dirt

D. Minerals in the soil

E. The air Then peer discuss


6 CO2 + 12 H2O → C6H12O6 + 6 O2 + 6 H2O Carbon dioxide water glucose (sugar) oxygen water

Photosynthesis

The correct answer is “The Air.”

Carbon dioxide from the air!


Notice the excitement!

You discover something new to you,

…and benefit from peer discussion.

This is a very important use of clickers.

Sort of like at a professional meeting – during coffee or cocktails. Students never see us in that setting!


<g> = post-pre 100-

pre

red = traditional, blue = interactive engagement

Physics learning at the University of Colorado leads the US!

The graph shows the fraction of everything taught students learn thoroughly during the semester.Red and blue histogram bars are for 52 classes throughout the US.

F01 F99F04F05

S05F03

S04F07

© Copyright Steven Pollock 2007

Traditional lecture (popular professor) Clickers Clickers + tutorials

Mazur – 10 yearsMazur – 10 years

What difference does interactive engagement make?

Coloredcards


Peer instruction reveals your students’ assumptions and arguments, which often are not what you expect.


Fish is Fish…




An entirely different reason to use clickers…

to get honest answers to touchy questions

Questions that involve race, sex,

or politics are good for clickers.


Clicker use means more work for students than just taking notes.

It means they have to talk to the person next to them. Who they may think is an idiot.

Without explanation students protest.

Real student quote: “I expected you to teach me, I didn’t expect to have to learn!”

Teachers must explain why they are using clickers, or students will not be happy!

-- and they should discuss what it means to learnBVSD


Keys to clicker success [the next 3 slides are on a printed handout ]

1.You must must must explain why you are using them!

2. Practice before using with students.

3. Have your own goals clearly in mind.

4. Discuss grading. Award credit for clicker use. If student participation is a goal, give partial credit for wrong answers. (e.g. 1 pt, 2 pt) Clickers = 10% of class grade is a good number.


Keys to clicker success (continued)

5. Start with a few clicker questions per class and increase when comfortable

6.Questions must relate to the heart of your course. Vary the complexity (“Bloom level”)

7.Clicker questions must relate to exam questions.

8.Questions should encourage discussion. 30% - 70% correct before peer discussion is ideal.


Keys to clicker failure

1. Fail to explain why you are using them.

2. Use them for attendance.

3. Don’t have students talk with each other.

4. Use only factual recall questions.

5. Don’t make use of the student response information.

6. Fail to discuss what learning means or the depth of learning you expect.

7. Think of clickers as a testing device, rather than a device to inform learning.

If you don’t really believe the data I’ve presented about the need for student-centered learning….

Don’t Use Clickers.


As clicker users become more experienced, they incorporate better practices:


More experienced clicker users engage more with studentsMore experienced clicker users engage more with students

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Leaves Stage Ans. St. Qs Disc. w/ St.

2 New users (yellow) vs. 2 Experienced Instructors


More experienced users spend more time discussing incorrect responses

More experienced users spend more time discussing incorrect responses

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

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Bloom’s Taxonomy


How do students feel about clicker use?

It depends on how you use them, and how well you explain your intent.

How do students feel about clicker use?

It depends on how you use them, and how well you explain your intent.


Students in classes that promote discussion rate clickers as

more useful

Students in classes that promote discussion rate clickers as

more useful



These are quotes recorded by Angel Hoekstra, who is writing a sociology Ph. D. thesis on student clicker use.


Astronomy student comments…

“I like clicker questions because it helps me understand key concepts and it makes me read the chapters in the book. I think clickers are critical to learning more information about the topic being taught.” (astronomy)

“It’s not that I like [clickers], as a matter of fact, I hate them; but I think that they’re really useful.” Student did not specify why. (astronomy)


Journalism student comments

“In this class, no, they do not help us learn class material. It feels like she uses them just for attendance purposes and then doesn’t really fully go over them. It’s mostly just a waste of time… My physics professor used them very well… let us discuss them with our classmates, and then went over the right answer, thoroughly explained [the clicker question], and then told us why the other options were wrong, that really helped.”

(journalism student)


From Journalism students…

“A lot of people hate [clickers] because they say it is the only reason that they go [to class,] but that is bullshit. They just want to skip [class] without losing ‘points.’ I like the interaction [clickers incite], it helps me know what I need to study more. Most kids that don’t like them, I feel, don’t have too many ‘solid’ reasons [for] why.”


Comparison of classes in which clicker use varied – typical student comments

Journalism I-

Professor was relatively new to clickers when I observed last semester, uses them primarily to take attendance

Discussion was not used or encouraged: students answered all clicker questions on their own

On average, 1-3 clicker questions were used per class, often none.

Professor invites a number of guest speakers who currently work “in the field” to come and speak to the class: clickers were not used on these days.

Students were least favorable to the use of clickers in this class


Stars and Planets (Astronomy)-

Lecture focuses on concepts from assigned reading, Professor emphasizes students take responsibility for their own learning, as developing scientific thinkers.

Clicker questions punctuate every lecture Professor uses various types of clicker questions to facilitate

student discussion and critical thinking about course concepts

Peer discussion is encouraged and common: more likely to occur when the clicker question is challenging or prompts a student to evaluate prior ideas (conceptual change model)

Students were highly favorable to the use of clickers in this class


Explain why you are using clickers every week for the first few weeks.

Continually explain that it's in student’s own best interest to come up with an answer first before talking to their neighbors.

Change classroom seating a few weeks into the semester because by then students have learned who the 'smart ones' are and often turn to them.

No brain – No gain!

Even advanced students fool themselves….


Are we sure that peer instruction produces genuine learning? M. K. Smith et al. (U of Colorado, 2008)


Other useful references & student comments

We find that most students problem solving strategies and abilities can be improved by working in short term collaborative groups without any other intervention. – Cooper et. al, Clemson Chemistry Dept.

Facility in solving quantitative problems is not an adequate criterion for functional understanding. Questions that require qualitative reasoning and verbal explanation are essential.

A coherent conceptual framework is not typically an outcome of traditional instruction. Students need to participate in the process of constructing qualitative models that can help them understand relationships and differences among concepts.

Growth in reasoning ability does not usually result from traditional instruction. Scientific reasoning skills must be expressly cultivated.

American Journal of Physics, Vol. 61, #4, copyright 1993, Lillian C. McDermott, University of Washington

http://www.aapt.org/pubs_catalog/pubs.html


You can help your students become more metacognitive.

Why not use some clicker questions to do so?


If you ask me or your Teaching Assistant a question, should we:

A. Tell you the answer 45

B. Give you hints so that you can figure out the answer 54

Asked using clickers; % response in red (non major class of 150 students)


Which do you think results in more long-lasting learning?

A. When my TA tells me the answer 21

B. When she give me hints so that I can figure out the answer myself 78

Tell my laptop story…


Do you expect one day to have a job that requires you to figure things out on your own?

A. Yes 93

B. No 7

Tell my laptop story…


This kind of teaching means that you will be more engaged!

It makes teaching more interesting, especially if you have taught for many years.


We’ve discussed some potential uses; there are more….

– Measure what students know before you start to teach them

– Measure student attitudes– Find out if they’ve done assigned reading– Get students to confront common misconceptions– Test student understanding– Increase student’s learning and retention of

what you teach– Facilitate discussion– Transform the way you do any demonstrations– Increase class attendance– Improve student attitudes (!)


• Addison Wesley -

New edition is coming

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Dr. Douglas Duncan, Univ. of Colorado Clickers: A New Teaching Tool of Exceptional Promise Dr. Douglas Duncan University of Colorado, Boulder [email protected].

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