Clickers in the Science Classroom: How to Use Clickers Effectively
Getting your students to talk to each other
about the things they are learning
can completely change the atmosphere in your classroom.
Tools like these clickers can help get your students excited
and engaged like you've never seen before.
Student: I love clickers.
Student: I definitely feel more involved when a class uses clickers.
Narrator: But this isn't automatic.
Clickers won't promote class participation on their own.
In this video, we take a closer look at how an instructor can use a clicker effectively.
You might be wondering...
(Asking the Question) How do you write a good, challenging, and conceptual question?
(Peer Discussion) A question that will spur peer discussion?
(The Vote) Then, how long do you let students chat before stopping the vote?
(Wrap-up Discussion) How do we go about guiding students
to understand the rationale behind an answer?
(Moving On) And then what?
How do we use this information to help guide our teaching?
We're going to zoom in on each of these steps in this video.
After all, it's not the clickers themselves, it's the "how" and "why"
they're used that makes them effective.
First and foremost, don't leave your students in the dark
as to why you're using clickers.
Margaret Asirvatham: The most important thing for a successful
experience for both the students and the instructor
is that everybody should buy into it.
Douglas Duncan: So if you want your students to hate your use of clickers,
fail to explain that it's a device to improve learning.
They will assume that it's a device to track them,
or to test them, and they will resent that.
Narrator: OK, but how do you use clickers to help your students learn?
Asking the Question
The best questions aren't about simple recall.
They're challenging and conceptual, and they'll help drive the lecture.
Asirvatham: I think the greatest challenge for the instructor
is to write meaningful questions.
Duncan: There's a tendency to use questions which are not challenging enough.
Maybe that's because we all feel good when 80 percent
of the students give the right answer.
Asirvatham: My personal philosophy is; the higher the level
at which you challenge your students, they will
rise to the occasion.
Steven Pollock: It seems to make the class
"hook" together much more nicely when the
clicker questions are part of the lecture, rather than,
"I'm done with something, let's see if you got it."
It's not a quiz, it's part of the class.
Maggie Hoffman: Clicker questions aren't helpful when I'm just
repeating what the teacher has just given me.
I like to have the questions progress the class,
rather than just sort of regurgitation of what I've been told.
Duncan: The best questions that I have to ask for peer discussion
are questions that have come from the students themselves.
Pollock: That's really where you want to zoom the clickers in on;
something where it's not trivial, it's not memorization,
it's an idea that they're struggling with.
Carrie Weidner: A well-formulated clicker question
should make you think, and it should
make you address the concept at hand,
but it shouldn't be too tedious or laughably simple,
because that's just a waste of time.
Peer Discussion
Narrator: The power of clickers is that they can get students
to articulate their reasoning, which in turn can help them
make sense of the material.
Ryan Freedle: I think I learn better when I talk
to other people around me.
There's something about debating, and in a sense,
teaching other people when you think you've got the right answer
or learning from other people when they've got the right answer
that's really helpful in that learning process.
Duncan: Students are learning more, and more deeply
when they're figuring things out for themselves.
Narrator: But what if students are reluctant to talk to each other?
Many students aren't used to participating in class
and you may have to show them that you're serious about this process.
I often wander around my lecture halls,
listening to student ideas, and asking questions.
I let students know that this is what we do in class;
discuss and debate ideas.
Having your students talk to each other doesn't just help them learn,
it also helps you as an instructor,
to see how they're thinking about the material.
Duncan: And I was never able to see inside my students' heads before.
Peer discussion and clickers make your students' reasoning
accessible to you.
(Student discussion) "... gas and dust, to me, those signal new stars..." "Right."
Narrator: Now you've got them all talking,
so what do YOU do during this time?
Duncan: One of the initial barriers to being comfortable
with peer instruction is the strange feeling of
standing in front of a classroom and not saying anything.
Janet Casagrande: I think that circulating around
the class and listening to what's going on can help
you feel that, yes, they are on topic,
and you haven't really given over the class.
It's a different way of the students learning the information.
Narrator: So, giving students the chance to talk to each other
helps them learn, and gives you the opportunity to see
how they're really thinking.
The Vote
Now you've got the room buzzing with debate.
How long do you let them talk?
Pollock: So, with the system that we're using, we get a count
of how many students have clicked in.
So, typically, when approximately 3/4 of the class
has clicked in, to me, that's a bit of a signal to
start wrapping things up.
And I also say, "well, let's wrap this one up."
(Classroom audio): "So, let's pull this together, and
have a little discussion."
Narrator: Typically, it's best to allow between two and five minutes
for student discussion.
Pollock: Sometimes it's the noise level in the room
that's gone down, and it's clear the conversation is over.
They have nothing left to say to each other,
and I might as well end it.
Wrap Up Discussion
Narrator: All right, so the results are in.
So how do you go about talking with the whole class about the question?
Jonathan Greany: I think the more that a teacher will
facilitate conversation after the clicker question has ended,
the more effective it is.
Christina Jones: After all the votes are in for a clicker question,
I really like it when professors ask people to
defend certain answers. So, they don't reveal
what people voted on yet, and they don't
say the right answer. It's really useful because
you get to follow the thought process all the way through.
Pollock: I might say to the class,
(Classroom audio) "So, irrespective of whether you voted this,
I would really like to know WHY you think somebody might
reasonably vote 'E'".
And this has changed what it means to respond.
It doesn't mean you believe it, it means
that you're actually a good student for coming up with an incorrect reason.
Caryn Burnett: The best part, I think, is when they go over
why the wrong answers are wrong.
You know, you think it's answer 'A', you really think
that that's why... you've got a reason why you chose answer 'A,'
and they're like "Oh, OK, so the answer is 'C'. Moving on..."
And you're like, well, I don't understand why my answer was wrong.
One of the best ways to learn is making a mistake or
doing the wrong thing and learning why that was wrong.
Narrator: Well, what about the histogram of student responses?
Asirvatham: For the students, I think what is most rewarding
is the feedback that they receive when the histogram
is projected in real-time.
Narrator: But when do you show this to the students?
This prompt feedback helps students learn from their mistakes.
But you can choose whether to show the histogram
to the students immediately, or wait until after
you talk about the question.
This is an important part of the clicker question,
and it depends on how the students voted.
Pollock: So when I have the histogram,
there's many different outcomes.
And the most common one is, it's 90% correct.
Narrator: In this case, there are pros and cons to
showing the histogram before having a whole-class discussion.
Either way, it's important to discuss the answer before moving on.
(In-class audio): "Let's take a look at this,
so there's a pretty strong agreement on 'E', 'None of the above,'
but I got some B's and C's, umm...
'B' is very tempting. I like 'B'.
What's wrong with 'B'?" (inaudible) "Pardon?"
(inaudible) "It's not you, its' big 'R'. It's just notational convention..."
Asirvatham: As I've talked to students, they always come back
and tell me they appreciate the fact that we still
talk about the correct process, even when over 90% of the
students got the right answer.
I think that's important for instructors to know.
Narrator: What if about 70% of the students got it right?
What might you do then?
Pollock: If it's 70/30, you know, you look at that histogram
and you sort of think, "Oh, they all got it."
But they sure as heck didn't.
A third of the class did not get that question.
That would probably be a time when I might not show the histogram.
Keeping it hidden allows you to say,
Who can tell me a reason for 'B'?"
And if you're voting 'B', and it's wrong, you don't know
that you're in the minority yet, and so you might get that voice.
Narrator: So the histogram is particularly important
when the student votes are NOT unanimous.
Sometimes the class will be really divided on a question.
(Classroom audio) "There is a mixed vote."
Narrator: Showing the histogram here can be really powerful,
as long as you don't take the first right answer, and move on.
Pollock: If it's 50/50, it's brilliant.
You show the histogram, because that gets everybody excited.
Now there's a debate in the room, and we have to resolve it.
And I try very hard not to be the "resolver."
So, if it's 50/50, we've gotta hear voices, and
we've gotta let the students decide.
Duncan: So, I'll typically call on someone who gave a wrong answer,
and let them speak first, and then
call on someone who gave a correct answer,
and let them articulate their reasoning.
And them maybe turn to the class and say,
"So, what do you think about these two arguments?"
And then I'll wrap the whole discussion up myself,
and say "This is the reason I favor the correct answer."
(Classroom audio): "....the Milky Way, and that's a good analogy, because, it is."
Narrator: So, you'll have very different kinds of
wrap-up discussion depending on how the students voted.
Then what?
Moving On
Clicker questions give valuable feedback to you, and your students.
Marika Meertens: What I like most is that it gives me
a chance to think about what I know and to test myself,
independent of everybody else in the class.
Janet Casagrande: I think the most powerful thing
about using clickers in the classroom is
the ability to instantly get feedback about what
the students are thinking about the material
and whether they're grasping the material.
Narrator: Great. But then what?
It may be tempting to use clickers as a quick check
to see if your students are on-board and simply
continue with your plans for the day.
But they're not just a quiz.
They can help you to determine how you might
continue with your lecture.
Jonathan Greany: When the histogram comes up
and I do see a large variation,
or even the majority choosing the wrong answer,
it lets me know that I'm not the only one that's not getting it,
it lets the teacher know,
"Maybe I need to change my approach."
Narrator: That's one reason why it's important to make
the clickers count only as a trivial amount of the
That helps the students take them seriously,
but not stress about getting the right answer.
Ryan Freedle: Use the clickers regularly,
and use them in such a way that people really have to talk about it.
Asirvatham: Don't ever take for granted that your
students learned it the first time you presented it.
Students need for us to go back and review concepts,
to integrate it, put it in context, and
the more we engage them as learners,
I think they are also active participants in the process,
which is what we all want.
Narrator: Using clickers well will take some practice, but it's worth it.
Be patient with yourself as you learn to use this new tool.
Clickers are an effective tool, but they are no magic bullet.
For videos on how to best use clickers, research results on clicker effectiveness, and other resources, visit http://STEMclickers.colorado.edu.
English Subtitles: Stephanie Chasteen