Dr. Angel Hoekstra University of Colorado
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Transcript of Dr. Angel Hoekstra University of Colorado
Effective Pedagogical Use ofStudent Response Systems
Midwestern UniversityCollege of Health Sciences
Faculty Retreat – August 23, 2010
Dr. Angel HoekstraUniversity of Colorado
Outline for today’s workshopEffective Pedagogical Use of Student Response
SystemsQuestion and Answer SessionBreakSmall group work: Writing Effective Clicker
QuestionsUsing Student Response Systems to Collect Data
for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Research
LunchSmall group work: Writing SoTL Clicker QuestionsWrap-up Discussion & Conclusion
Socrates proposed that teaching be done
by questioning, not telling…
Introduction to Clicker Use
- SRS use is not designed to replace lecture, but to act as a supplement
- Enhancing student learning through peer teaching, interaction
- Peer talk makes conceptual application more engaging
- Giving students the ability to ask for help without raising a hand
Presentation Outline
IntroductionPedagogical guidelines for
clicker useOverview of research programDiscussion of data: Effects of
clicker use under an active learning pedagogical approach
More guidelines for clicker use
Conclusion
Additional Information
My backgroundTheoretical & methodological orientationTeaching experience, courses using clickersRecent PhD graduate, currently on the job market
Effective pedagogical use of clickersUse should match the instructor’s learning goalsUse varies depending on nature of the course
material, size of course, composition of the learning
community
On first glance, a simple process…
Lecture: 5 – 15 minutesPosting a multiple choice clicker questionInstructor pedagogical decision: Encourage peer
discussion? If so, before or after they click in?Students click in their answersSRS software gathers, tabulates, displays
responsesClass viewing of clicker responsesInstructor explanationMove on to next part of lecture
… is actually not quite so simple.
Clickers are a tool, not a pedagogical strategyClickers can be used in a variety of waysHow one “frames” clicker use (instructor talk)
strongly influences student behavior in classE.g. Lifting the “ban on talking,” versus
unintentionally reinforcing it, in the Principles of Journalism course
Literature theme: Importance of instructor meta-narrative about why clickers are being used
General Purposes for Clicker Use
In-class conceptual applicationFostering critical thinking about course
conceptsEncouraging peer talk and social solidarityHelping students identify common mistakes
when applying, calculating or solvingDriving large group discussionEngaging students more during class
Simulating the Effects of Clicker UseTake a moment to write in
answer to the following:
What aspect of student response system use most interests you?
Put another way, what are you most hoping clicker use may accomplish in your course/s?
Please turn to a neighbor, introduce yourselves, and then discuss your answers.
Approaches toGrading Clicker Responses
No creditGreat for first time SRS usersLess motivation for students to click in/come to class
Assigning clicker points “extra credit status”Motivates students to attend, without requiring them toLess motivation for students to click in on individual
questions
Incorporating clicker points into the course gradeStrongest motivator for student participation in class Recommended weight: 5-10% of overall course grade
Beware of allowing the SRS to become an attendance monitoring device!
Consider the social status of most undergraduate students:
- Seeking affirmation as adults
- Recently “on their own,” learning to pay bills, etc.
- Especially sensitive to instructor behaviors that seem patronizing or seem to reduce the instructor’s workload
Problematic instructor behaviors:
Using clickers too infrequently
Asking clicker questions that are too simplistic, too often
Not fully explaining the answer and/or each of the potential answer choices for a question
Next… A look at the social effects of clicker use for student behavior
Considering what motivates students to want to participate in
the learning process…
The Research ProgramMixed Methods Approach, Ethnographic design (2004-
2009)
Participant Observation6 courses observed in four disciplines, 87 classes observed
Survey Design (N = 3045) Students surveyed in all 6 courses, plus my own course
Anonymous Free Writes (N = 675)One-page free writes address types of clicker questions used,
potential problems/concerns with clicker use under different pedagogical formats
Semi-structured Interviews (N = 38)20 interviews with General Chemistry students (spring 2005) 8 interviews with General Chemistry students (fall 2005)10 interviews with Sociology students (fall 2007 & spring
2008)
Disciplines Studied
Chemistry
Astronomy
Journalism
Sociology
Effects of Single-vote Pedagogy & Active Learning Approaches
General Chemistry & Stars and PlanetsClicker questions interspersed during lecturePeer discussion verbally encouraged in small groupsData generated by SRS technology structurally
prompts students to increase their level of attention to their peers
Social Statuses chosen by studentsRegular clicker group membersFloatersLonersSelf-Testers
Regular Clicker Group ParticipationPosition preferred by the majority of students: to establish a
regular clicker group early in the course and maintain it over time
Vanessa, a diligent reader and regular attendee in General Chemistry, explains her experience in a regular clicker group,
I sit by a guy and a girl, and we always work together on clicker questions. I met them in the class… we just sat by each other and now we sit by each other every day and work together. I met them through the clickers, really… a question came up and we just started talking about it, and I definitely am the kind of person where, I will keep to myself before I talk to somebody else, so I was glad that the girl talked to me first… With clickers, I mean, they present the material and then they ask the question, so if you didn’t get it right away, then you are kind of lost. So it helps [to work in a regular clicker group], because then someone explains it to you and you get to think about it again, or in a different way, as you are discussing the question.
Benefits of Regular Clicker Group Participation
Teams engage in shared activity around common goalsHelping one another understandHolding one another accountable
Survey data: General Chemistry (N= 814)
75-80% of General Chemistry students said clicker-prompted discussions were at least “somewhat helpful” for learning
45% said peer talk during clicker questions was “quite” or “extremely” beneficial
Student Experiences in Regular Clicker Groups
A male student in Stars and Planets,
At first I hated the clicker, I thought it was just a stupid piece of equipment we were being forced to spend our money on, [but] right from the first day, Dr. D said how clickers would be used, and [he] has stuck to his policy. He asks us clicker questions about the reading, or to apply concepts, or [to] express our opinions. I would never really [have] talked to the people next to me if not prompted to through clickers. In other classes I’ve had in this room, I’ve felt completely separate from the class and the material, but thanks to clickers, I feel involved.
Liz, explains her experience in a regular clicker group in General Chemistry,
I like the people I am working with a lot… [using clickers] gives us some time to chat in the class and see how each other are. And, there was a week… I had a really hard week, just personally I wasn’t doing so well, and I wasn’t caught up in the class and they noticed it, and they were like, “Hey, is everything going okay? You seem like you are kind of behind.” I was like, “Yeah, I am behind… okay, so by this Friday, I will have read up to this chapter… so you guys ask me on Friday.” And they did [ask her]… so it’s definitely been beneficial, just in accountability.
FloatersA term derived from the interview participants:
“those willing to work with others but not attached to a regular clicker group”
A small but significant percentage (15-20%) of sampleFloaters tended to sit in the middle/back of the
classroom
The extent to which individual students participated in discussions of clicker questions with others depended on:
1) the individual’s preference for social interaction2) whether s/he consistently did the reading before class
• Distinguishing between “floating” and “free-riding”
Loners and Self-testers
Both groups contain students who say they prefer to work alone on clicker questions Loners do, while self-testers work with others
Self-testers comprised a small but significant percentage (<20%) of each sample, while students who consistently worked alone were rare
Two primary reasons for working entirely on one’s own:1) The student is unprepared and so feels uncomfortable
discussing the material with others, and 2) shyness/introversion.
Loners & self-testers tended to sit in the back or on the side of the classroom, and were much more likely to be maleStereotypes about “who” does science; “who” works well with
technology; “who should be able to do things independently”
Additional GuidelinesExplain regularly to students how clickers
are designed to benefit their learning (they will forget)
Encourage peer talk during clicker questionsYou’re challenging years of educational
socialization!
Keep in mind, most research suggestsclicker use is beneficial to learning
in a variety of ways!
Two minute writing exercise inpreparation for the Q & A…
Please reflect on what you have just learned by writing for two
minutes.
What do you think about all this?What questions do you have?
Question & Answer Session
Followed by a break… please return at 10:30.
Writing Didactic Clicker Questions
Individual & Small Group Work10:30 – 11am
Guidelines for Clicker Question WritingMost questions should range from medium-difficultEasy clicker questions can be used but not too oftenResponse categories should offer answers that address
common mistakes or misconceptions about the conceptWhenever you explain a clicker question, you should
address both the correct and the incorrect answersPossible response categories with your system: 10
Students can choose a single answer from 0 – 9 on TurningPoint, or they can rank a set of multiple answers
Guidelines for Clicker Question UseQuestions should be used to “break up lecture” into
sections of conceptual material… helps keep young adults engaged
Consider not using questions in the last five minutes of class
Consider giving students a few seconds to read the clicker question before peer discussion begins
Explain to your students how the clicker questions they see in class may mirror, or be similar to, your exam questions
Writing exercise: Goals for clicker use in your classroom
Please list three to five goals that you hope to achieve through clicker use in your course/s. As you write, please take into account the particular nature of the material in your discipline. In addition, please write a little about your anticipated pedagogical approach to clicker use.
Small Group Work
Please work with your colleagues in your small group to write a few clicker questions together at this time. Introduce yourselves, choose a topic to write a few questions on, and then work through writing them together.
Using Student Response Systems to Collect Data for Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning Research
Midwestern UniversityCollege of Health Sciences
Faculty Retreat – August 23, 2010
Dr. Angel HoekstraUniversity of Colorado
What is SoTL Research?
“Published work on teaching and learning by college faculty” *
SoTL research focuses on post-secondary teaching & learning, whereas educational research refers to all levels
Professional associations that sponsor this kind of research:
Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL)American Association of Higher Education (AAHE)International Society of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL)
_______________________________________________________________* A great resource: Maryellen Weimer, 2006. Enhancing Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning: Professional Literature that Makes a Difference. Jossey-Bass.
The Challenge of Pedagogical ScholarshipHas not traditionally been valued in promotion &
tenureThis status is changing as more attention is being paid
in academic culture to:Using active learning to keep students engagedHolding students accountable for their own learning Increased focus on confirming learning outcomes through
research
“Faculty’s continuing fixation with teaching prevents them from seeing that teaching has no purpose unless it can be directly and explicitly connected with learning outcomes… If practice is to improve and college teaching is to develop respect… there must be a viable literature associated with it.” (Weimer 2006, 7)
Two basic approaches to SoTL Research
1) Wisdom of Practice Scholarship: experience-based work, sometimes called the “how-to literature of teaching”
2) Research Scholarship: addresses pragmatic and applied empirical questions about teaching and learning
SoTL scholarship makes some academics anxious because it challenges the traditional model of “discovering new knowledge by empirical means,” but SoTL scholars point out that there are other ways of knowing… ways that come from practice, from experience. These different ways of knowing are still legitimate, especially when paired with good data.
Wisdom of Practice Scholarship
Personal accounts of changeRecommended practices reportsRecommended content reportsPersonal narratives
Advice giving based on “personal experience or research evidence or both” (Weimer, 40)
Involves reflective and critical analysis of one’s teaching
Content sometimes has an emotional tone, sometimes does not
Research Scholarship
Strives to examine teaching practices and learning outcomes by means of rigorous objectivity & rational analysis
This work can be quantitative, qualitative, descriptive, or some combination of all three… but is defined by data collection, analysis
Many “hybrid” approaches are used (e.g. Dr. Hoekstra’s doctoral thesis work)
Handout: List of SoTL Periodicals
What characteristics of SoTL research make it credible, rigorous, valued?
Well-designed research program w/appropriate methods
Viable and timely research question/sAdequate to exceptional literature reviewPlacement of the phenomenon under study within an
appropriate theoretical and/or epistemological context
A well-written and insightful report of the resultsReliability and validity of the data can be establishedAuthor/s explain potential implications of the work
Benefits of using clickersto gather data for SoTL research
Clicker questions mimic Likert-style survey question formatData gathering is efficient, no more hand coding responsesData can be stored in clicker software by student ID #s
Optional nature of participation is obvious to studentsA few survey questions can be asked per class day, rather
than distributing an entire set of questions all at onceHandout: our study this fall in three science courses uses a
statement encouraging honesty in clicker survey responses
Individual work: Reviewing examples
Please choose two of the following four exemplary SoTL pieces to read before
lunch, and we will discuss them in small groups when we return to the workshop.
As you read these, please note in the margins:
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each piece?
Choose one from each category:“Walking on Eggs: Mastering
the Dreaded Diversity Discussion.” Frederick (1995). Personal narrative, some data Great practical advice for how
to manage conflict in discussion
“Helping Students Understand Grades.” Svinicki (1998). Nice placement of issue in
context Strong practical advice,
examples
“Using Clickers in Nonmajors- and Majors-Level Biology Courses.” Crossgrove & Curran (2008). Strong literature review Comprehensive approach to
research design, data analysis
“Active Learning and Cooperative Learning in the Organic Chemistry Lecture Class.” Paulson (1999). Combines personal change
account with strong quantitative data
Great practical advice, examples
Small & Large Group Discussions
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of these exemplary SoTL
articles?
Which did you like better, and why?
What other questions do you have?
Concluding Comments…
Thank you for your participation!
Many thanks to Dr. Derek Bruff,Dr. Stefanie Mollborn & Dr. Douglas Duncan.
Some data in this presentation taken from the following:
Mollborn, Stefanie and Angel Hoekstra. 2010. “A Meeting of Minds: Using Clickers for
Critical Thinking and Discussion in Large Sociology Courses.” Teaching Sociology, 38(1): 18-27.
Hoekstra, Angel. 2008. “Vibrant Student Voices: Exploring Effects of the Use of Clickers
in Large College Classrooms.” Learning, Media, and Technology, 33(4): 329-341.