Learning technologies should be designed to increase, and not to reduce, the amount of personal contact between students and faculty on intellectual issues.
Clickers: A Teaching Gimmick that Works
(Study Group on the Conditions of Excellence in American Higher Education, 1984)
Introduction
One study after another over the past decade has shown that students who engage interactively with each other and the instructor in the classroom learn concepts better, retain them longer, and can apply them more effectively in other contexts than do students who sit passively listening, perhaps taking notes for future memorization in preparation for an exam (evidence reviewed in Handelsman et al., 2004, Science 304, 521–522). This general principle applies at all educational levels, from primary school through college and graduate courses. Science Direct - Click here to go online.
Advantages:
1. Children are excited to use it. They look forward to come to school every day morning. Classroom becomes an active learning experience!
2. Teachers get the exact feedback of how much effective the class was. The teacher gets a chance to strengthen and emphasize on the week points or lessons not areas which were not properly understood.
3. The teacher doesn’t have to wait till she examines all the students’ homework to assess the lessons she had taught. She doesn’t have to spent time correcting the test papers or dictations. Rather she can focus on stressing on points which were not properly communicated to the students.
4. Enhances teacher-student, student-student and student-teacher communication. This results in active learning!
5. Teachers no need to spend time to enter student test results data as all information will be stored and will be graded automatically by the software.
6. The Question Bank Software can have all your existing questions and you can add questions as and when needed.
7. These questions can be selected based on a blue print and all statistical analysis worked out after each assessment session and difficulty values and discrimination indexes will be worked out.
8. Students are answering anonymously—no one has to worry about the possible humiliation of giving a “dumb” answer.
9. Students who did not “get it” realize they're not the only ones. In a typical lecture situation, such students are often inhibited from asking a question by the belief that “everyone but me probably understood.”
10. Students who apparently did not “get it” often find out the reason was not their lack of knowledge, but an unclear or ambiguous question from the instructor.
11. Most important, the students are actively engaged with the topic at hand and, therefore, more likely to understand and retain it better than if they were only sitting passively and listening to the instructor.
12. Teacher can later find out from the software which students are present and give credit, if desired, for in-class participation.
13. Teacher knows immediately, in real time, what fraction of the students didn't “get it,” information that often does not become apparent in a standard lecture course until after the next exam, when it's too late to do much about it.
Nevertheless, not all students may like the clickers. Although the majority warmed up to them during our course, a small minority continued to be negative. We have some evidence that this resulted from the “big brother” aspect, that their responses were all being recorded and stored in the instructor's database. Probably more significant, they had to come to class in order to receive points for participation (a significant fraction of their course grade), and to pay attention while they were there.
Not all instructors will like clickers either, and how they are used will depend on the individual and his or her tolerance for student input and some disorder during class. For example, when half the class has chosen a wrong answer, one option is simply to tell them the correct answer and move on. In my opinion, this would be a great teaching opportunity lost, and would negate use of clickers as a tool to increase active engagement. Another option is to explain the concept again, preferably in a different way. This is better, but the students are still sitting passively and taking notes. The third option, inviting students to convince their neighbours of their point of view as described above, seems to me by far the most effective. When a split vote occurs, the tension and desire to resolve it are almost palpable, and students have an emotional as well as intellectual stake in doing so.
We attribute this success to three factors that enhance student learning, identified by Alexander Astin in his thirty year study of college student success:
ü increased amounts and quality of student-student interaction
ü Student-Faculty and Faculty-Student interaction
ü Student study outside of class.
The ability to frequently assess, track and analyze student comprehension and performance is an essential part of making sure every student participates and receives the help and instruction they need to succeed in and outside the classroom
Pasha Goodman an 8th grade teacher in Pearland Jr. High School East, Texas Says, “The progress my students have made in the classroom is extraordinary!” The immediate feedback provided by the clickers has also changed the way she teaches. Goodman is now able to immediately assess whether or not the kids understand a concept. As a result, if she sees that they do not understand it; she can quickly come up with a new strategy to re-teach the concept. Additionally, the behavioural problems have declined.
Goodman has also noticed a profound change in the classroom. Her students are now learning material quicker than ever before. In the past, it took Goodman four to five days to teach a lesson on calculating the surface area for various geometric shapes. With the new technology in hand, her students were able to master the concept in just two days.
The use of ALT products has not only been exciting for the kids, but it has been very beneficial for Goodman as well. The keypad has revolutionized her interaction with the students, as it allows her to be more mobile and get away from the front of the classroom. By constantly moving around the room, she noticed her students were paying more attention to her. The mobility also allowed her to check on their work as she passed each desk — something she never had the ability to do before.
“The kids are kept on their toes,” Goodman said. “They realize they have to pay attention because they will be asked to answer questions over the material they are being taught by using their clickers.”
Eric Green, a sixth grade math teacher at Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School in Brooklyn, New York, began using clickers and his classroom hasn’t been the same since, Green says that his students love using the CPS clickers. He has also noticed that they have made the students much more interested in and dedicated to their work.
“Clickers allow me to make out which kids understand the concept I am teaching and which kids do not,” Green said. “I have a better idea about when my students are ready to move on and when I need to ret each a concept.” Since Green incorporated Clickers into his classroom, his students’ test scores have risen, their attention span has increased and Green has been able to greatly reduce the amount of time he used to spend grading papers.
"Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education"
1. Encourages Contact between Students and Faculty
Frequent student-faculty contact in and out of classes is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement. Faculty concern helps students get through rough times and keep on working. Knowing a few faculty members well enhances students' intellectual commitment and encourages them to think about their own values and future plans.
2. Develops Reciprocity and Cooperation among Students
Learning is enhanced when it is more like a team effort than a solo race. Good learning, like good work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working with others often increases involvement in learning. Sharing one's own ideas and responding to others' reactions sharpens thinking and deepens understanding.
3. Encourages Active Learning
Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves.
4. Gives Prompt Feedback
Knowing what you know and don't know focuses learning. Students need appropriate feedback on performance to benefit from courses. When getting started, students need help in assessing existing knowledge and competence. In classes, students need frequent opportunities to perform and receive suggestions for improvement. At various points during college, and at the end, students need chances to reflect on what they have learned, what they still need to know, and how to assess themselves.
5. Emphasizes Time on Task
Time plus energy equals learning. There is no substitute for time on task. Learning to use one's time well is critical for students and professionals alike. Students need help in learning effective time management. Allocating realistic amounts of time means effective learning for students and effective teaching for faculty. How an institution defines time expectations for students, faculty, administrators, and other professional staff can establish the basis of high performance for all.
6. Communicates High Expectations
Expect more and you will get more. High expectations are important for everyone -- for the poorly prepared, for those unwilling to exert themselves, and for the bright and well motivated. Expecting students to perform well becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when teachers and institutions hold high expectations for them and make extra efforts.
7. Respects Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning
There are many roads to learning. People bring different talents and styles of learning to college. Brilliant students in the seminar room may be all thumbs in the lab or art studio. Students rich in hands-on experience may not do so well with theory. Students need the opportunity to show their talents and learn in ways that work for them. Then they can be pushed to learn in new ways that do not come so easily.
Benefits of enhancing the way people learn are limitless
Continual learning fuels continual improvement.
The more you learn, the better able you are to arrive at your own solutions. The more knowledge you gain, the better equipped you are to sort through the information overload of today’s business world.
Most of us are too busy for our own good–both at the office and in our personal lives. If we would only invest a little time to learn better, we would work better. Most executives think education is the key to their success. However, most of them would never attend training session–partly because they’re too busy, and partly because they don’t have enough respect for their company’s training department.
People in your organization are learning all the time. So you might as well find a way to capture the knowledge they’re gaining and reap its benefits.
Clickers: A Teaching Gimmick that Works
(Study Group on the Conditions of Excellence in American Higher Education, 1984)
Introduction
One study after another over the past decade has shown that students who engage interactively with each other and the instructor in the classroom learn concepts better, retain them longer, and can apply them more effectively in other contexts than do students who sit passively listening, perhaps taking notes for future memorization in preparation for an exam (evidence reviewed in Handelsman et al., 2004, Science 304, 521–522). This general principle applies at all educational levels, from primary school through college and graduate courses. Science Direct - Click here to go online.
Advantages:
1. Children are excited to use it. They look forward to come to school every day morning. Classroom becomes an active learning experience!
2. Teachers get the exact feedback of how much effective the class was. The teacher gets a chance to strengthen and emphasize on the week points or lessons not areas which were not properly understood.
3. The teacher doesn’t have to wait till she examines all the students’ homework to assess the lessons she had taught. She doesn’t have to spent time correcting the test papers or dictations. Rather she can focus on stressing on points which were not properly communicated to the students.
4. Enhances teacher-student, student-student and student-teacher communication. This results in active learning!
5. Teachers no need to spend time to enter student test results data as all information will be stored and will be graded automatically by the software.
6. The Question Bank Software can have all your existing questions and you can add questions as and when needed.
7. These questions can be selected based on a blue print and all statistical analysis worked out after each assessment session and difficulty values and discrimination indexes will be worked out.
8. Students are answering anonymously—no one has to worry about the possible humiliation of giving a “dumb” answer.
9. Students who did not “get it” realize they're not the only ones. In a typical lecture situation, such students are often inhibited from asking a question by the belief that “everyone but me probably understood.”
10. Students who apparently did not “get it” often find out the reason was not their lack of knowledge, but an unclear or ambiguous question from the instructor.
11. Most important, the students are actively engaged with the topic at hand and, therefore, more likely to understand and retain it better than if they were only sitting passively and listening to the instructor.
12. Teacher can later find out from the software which students are present and give credit, if desired, for in-class participation.
13. Teacher knows immediately, in real time, what fraction of the students didn't “get it,” information that often does not become apparent in a standard lecture course until after the next exam, when it's too late to do much about it.
Nevertheless, not all students may like the clickers. Although the majority warmed up to them during our course, a small minority continued to be negative. We have some evidence that this resulted from the “big brother” aspect, that their responses were all being recorded and stored in the instructor's database. Probably more significant, they had to come to class in order to receive points for participation (a significant fraction of their course grade), and to pay attention while they were there.
Not all instructors will like clickers either, and how they are used will depend on the individual and his or her tolerance for student input and some disorder during class. For example, when half the class has chosen a wrong answer, one option is simply to tell them the correct answer and move on. In my opinion, this would be a great teaching opportunity lost, and would negate use of clickers as a tool to increase active engagement. Another option is to explain the concept again, preferably in a different way. This is better, but the students are still sitting passively and taking notes. The third option, inviting students to convince their neighbours of their point of view as described above, seems to me by far the most effective. When a split vote occurs, the tension and desire to resolve it are almost palpable, and students have an emotional as well as intellectual stake in doing so.
We attribute this success to three factors that enhance student learning, identified by Alexander Astin in his thirty year study of college student success:
ü increased amounts and quality of student-student interaction
ü Student-Faculty and Faculty-Student interaction
ü Student study outside of class.
The ability to frequently assess, track and analyze student comprehension and performance is an essential part of making sure every student participates and receives the help and instruction they need to succeed in and outside the classroom
Pasha Goodman an 8th grade teacher in Pearland Jr. High School East, Texas Says, “The progress my students have made in the classroom is extraordinary!” The immediate feedback provided by the clickers has also changed the way she teaches. Goodman is now able to immediately assess whether or not the kids understand a concept. As a result, if she sees that they do not understand it; she can quickly come up with a new strategy to re-teach the concept. Additionally, the behavioural problems have declined.
Goodman has also noticed a profound change in the classroom. Her students are now learning material quicker than ever before. In the past, it took Goodman four to five days to teach a lesson on calculating the surface area for various geometric shapes. With the new technology in hand, her students were able to master the concept in just two days.
The use of ALT products has not only been exciting for the kids, but it has been very beneficial for Goodman as well. The keypad has revolutionized her interaction with the students, as it allows her to be more mobile and get away from the front of the classroom. By constantly moving around the room, she noticed her students were paying more attention to her. The mobility also allowed her to check on their work as she passed each desk — something she never had the ability to do before.
“The kids are kept on their toes,” Goodman said. “They realize they have to pay attention because they will be asked to answer questions over the material they are being taught by using their clickers.”
Eric Green, a sixth grade math teacher at Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School in Brooklyn, New York, began using clickers and his classroom hasn’t been the same since, Green says that his students love using the CPS clickers. He has also noticed that they have made the students much more interested in and dedicated to their work.
“Clickers allow me to make out which kids understand the concept I am teaching and which kids do not,” Green said. “I have a better idea about when my students are ready to move on and when I need to ret each a concept.” Since Green incorporated Clickers into his classroom, his students’ test scores have risen, their attention span has increased and Green has been able to greatly reduce the amount of time he used to spend grading papers.
"Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education"
1. Encourages Contact between Students and Faculty
Frequent student-faculty contact in and out of classes is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement. Faculty concern helps students get through rough times and keep on working. Knowing a few faculty members well enhances students' intellectual commitment and encourages them to think about their own values and future plans.
2. Develops Reciprocity and Cooperation among Students
Learning is enhanced when it is more like a team effort than a solo race. Good learning, like good work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working with others often increases involvement in learning. Sharing one's own ideas and responding to others' reactions sharpens thinking and deepens understanding.
3. Encourages Active Learning
Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves.
4. Gives Prompt Feedback
Knowing what you know and don't know focuses learning. Students need appropriate feedback on performance to benefit from courses. When getting started, students need help in assessing existing knowledge and competence. In classes, students need frequent opportunities to perform and receive suggestions for improvement. At various points during college, and at the end, students need chances to reflect on what they have learned, what they still need to know, and how to assess themselves.
5. Emphasizes Time on Task
Time plus energy equals learning. There is no substitute for time on task. Learning to use one's time well is critical for students and professionals alike. Students need help in learning effective time management. Allocating realistic amounts of time means effective learning for students and effective teaching for faculty. How an institution defines time expectations for students, faculty, administrators, and other professional staff can establish the basis of high performance for all.
6. Communicates High Expectations
Expect more and you will get more. High expectations are important for everyone -- for the poorly prepared, for those unwilling to exert themselves, and for the bright and well motivated. Expecting students to perform well becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when teachers and institutions hold high expectations for them and make extra efforts.
7. Respects Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning
There are many roads to learning. People bring different talents and styles of learning to college. Brilliant students in the seminar room may be all thumbs in the lab or art studio. Students rich in hands-on experience may not do so well with theory. Students need the opportunity to show their talents and learn in ways that work for them. Then they can be pushed to learn in new ways that do not come so easily.
Benefits of enhancing the way people learn are limitless
Continual learning fuels continual improvement.
The more you learn, the better able you are to arrive at your own solutions. The more knowledge you gain, the better equipped you are to sort through the information overload of today’s business world.
Most of us are too busy for our own good–both at the office and in our personal lives. If we would only invest a little time to learn better, we would work better. Most executives think education is the key to their success. However, most of them would never attend training session–partly because they’re too busy, and partly because they don’t have enough respect for their company’s training department.
People in your organization are learning all the time. So you might as well find a way to capture the knowledge they’re gaining and reap its benefits.
