Education research: clicker literature review

Some contemporary observations on the use of electronic response systems (clickers), and how they are implemented at Cuesta College.

Duncan (2006) discusses an idealized use of clickers in introductory astronomy:

The regular use of clickers can transform the classroom in a very positive way. Students become active participants, not merely passive listeners to a lecture. They ask more questions... If students are allowed to discuss their answers with the neighbors before responding, the impact is even stronger.

These aspirations come with qualifications, especially with the end goal (peer instruction) in mind:

Using clickers does not mean that your class will immediately achieve the results of an interactive education course... Particularly good results are achieved when clickers are used in conjunction with peer discussions. Peer instruction is based on two ideas: (1) ask conceptual questions that probes students' understanding of a topic, and (2) get students to discuss (argue, debate) and try to convince each other of the correct answer.

Judson and Sadawa (2002) reiterate the benefits of peer interaction over conventional lecturing by an instructor:

The only positive effects upon student academic achievement, related to incorporation of electronic response systems [clickers] into instruction, occurred when students communicated actively to help one another understand. It is more beneficial for a student, who has just arrived at a new conceptual understanding, to explain to peers how he/she struggled and arrived at his/her new rationale than it is for an instructor to simply explain the abstraction.

To this end, Beatty (2007) suggests how clicker questions can best be used to elicit peer interaction:

For effective use, [clickers] should be used in a low stakes environment where students are willing to explain their thinking and reasoning. The intent of these ideas is to reveal student thinking, not to assess their knowledge. Many of the answers to the [clicker questions] have been included because they are common but incorrect choices.

Similarly, Crouch and Mazur (2000) also stress the importance of clicker questions as a means to drive peer interaction, and not just for assessment:

[Clicker questions] should be designed to give students a chance to explore important concepts, rather than testing cleverness or memory, and to expose common difficulties with the material. For this reason, incorrect answer choices should be plausible, and when possible, based on typical student misunderstandings. A good way to write questions is by looking at students' exam or homework solutions from previous years to identify common misunderstandings, or by examining the literature on student difficulties.

The use of clickers in Astronomy 10 (introductory astronomy) at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, CA has been implemented with these guidelines in mind since summer 2003. Clickers will also be implemented for the first time (fall 2007) in Physics 5A (college physics, algebra-based).

• As per Duncan (2006) and Judson and Sadawa (2002), clicker questions at the end of a class previous to an exam for Astronomy 10 at Cuesta College are scored collaboratively, in order to maximize peer interaction among students. During this review session of five-ten questions, students are awarded points for each clicker question that they answer, regardless if their response is correct. However, their total points for the review session are doubled if the cumulative class average is above an 80% threshold, giving the students both a non-penalizing incentive to response freely, but also a strong motivating incentive to collaborate and cooperate in order to respond correctly en masse. Further discussion of this mode of clicker response scoring is discussed in Len (2006), as well as in a scheduled workshop presentation, "Formative, Summative, and Cooperative Clicker Instruction in Astronomy" at the 2007 Cosmos in the Classroom conference sponsored by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific at Pomona College, August 3-5, 2007.
  
• Following Beatty (2007) and Crouch and Mazur (2000), clicker questions for Astronomy 10 at Cuesta College typically include incorrect responses culled from previous student essay questions, questions raised by students during lecture, misconceptions from science-fiction films and other popular culture sources, and obsolete theories (which often are still incorporated in K-12 legacy curriculum materials).
  

Beatty, I., A2L: Assessing to Learn and A2L: Suggestions for Using Items webpages, retrieved June 10, 2007.

Crouch, C., & Mazur, E. 2001, "Peer Instruction: Ten Years of Experience and Results," American Journal of Physics 69(9).

Duncan, D. 2006, "Clickers: A New Teaching Aid with Exceptional Promise," Astronomy Education Review, 5(1), 70.

Judson, E., & Sawada, D. 2002, "Learning from Past and Present: Electronic Response Systems in College Lecture Halls," Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, 21(2), 167.

Len, P. M., 2006, "Different Reward Structures to Motivate Student Interaction with Electronic Response Systems in Astronomy," Astronomy Education Review, 5(2), 5.