Students’ experiences of the use of classroom response systems in

class discussion

M. S. Herbert

Department of Physics University of the Western Cape

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This presentation discusses the results of a survey on students’ experiences of the use of classroom response systems in class discussion

The purpose of the survey was to assess if the use of clickers in class discussion o influences students’ taking part in class discussion, o improves students’ understanding of subject content; o and whether students enjoyed class discussion using the clickers. The survey also asked the students to reflect on the use of color-coded flash cards in class exercises. These results will be compared with those obtained using clickers.

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Course teaching approach

• Lecturers’ role is to facilitate the students’ learning.

• Students are required to complete “warm-up” tasks and exercises to prepare them for the lectures.

• Student interaction and engagement form the basis for content delivery.

• Group work to facilitate peer learning.

• Constructive feedback is given as soon as possible and regularly.

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Literature review of clickers as a tool to promote active student participating in their learning.

o Results of research suggest that clickers integrated into a student-centered active learning pedagogic approach can serve as a tool to promote active student participating in their learning.

o Examples of these in a physics class include the work of

Eric Mazur, “Peer Instruction”

Beatty , “Question-driven instruction”

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Classroom Response System (clickers)

It is an electronic voting system.

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Questions are displayed on a screen

Students submit answers via

clickers

Student responses accumulated and displayed (bar chart or individual mark

in a list) immediately

Responses can be projected on

screen

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Color-coded flash cards

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The following research questions were

investigated: If the use of clickers in class discussion o influences students’ taking part in class discussion,

o improves students’ understanding of subject

content; o and whether students enjoyed class discussion

using the clickers.

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Data collection

o In the last week before the term ended students were asked to complete a survey of their experiences of the use of clickers in classroom based on the research questions investigated.

o The survey also asked the students to reflect on the use of color-coded flash cards in class exercises. These results will be compared with those obtained using clickers.

o Note! A scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) for each survey question was assigned.

Percentage of students who agreed or strongly agreed on clickers survey (N=67)

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Taking part in class discussion with the clickers increased my interaction with the lecturer.

90% (60)

Taking part in class discussion with the clickers increased my interaction with other students.

75%(50)

Taking part in class discussion with the clickers increased my feeling of being part of class.

88%(59)

I think the use of clickers in the classroom promotes class discussion.

93%(62)

The use of clickers in class discussion made my understanding of subject content known to the lecturer.

75%(50)

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The use of the clickers in class discussion allows for immediate feedback on my understanding.

87%(58)

I used the clickers in class discussion to monitor my understanding of the subject content.

91%(61)

Taking part in class discussion with the clickers improved my understanding of the subject content.

73%(49)

I enjoyed taking part in class discussion with clickers. 91%(61)

I would highly recommend the use of clickers in class discussion.

87%(58)

Comparison between clickers and color-coded flash cards

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Note! A scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) for each survey question was assigned. A mean score was calculated for each question.

Questions Clicker mean score

Flash card mean score

Taking part in class discussion with the clickers/flash cards increased my interaction with the lecturer.

4.21 4.17

Taking part in class discussion with the clickers/flash cards increased my interaction with other students.

4.01 3.53

Taking part in class discussion with the clickers/flash cards increased my feeling of being part of class.

4.01 4.04

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I think the use of clickers/flash cards in the classroom promotes class discussion. 4.39 3.93

The use of clickers/flash cards in class discussion made my understanding of the subject content known to the lecturer.

4.09 4.11

The use of the clickers/flash cards in class discussion allows for immediate feedback on my understanding.

4.13 4.04

I used the clickers/flash cards in class discussion to monitor my understanding of the subject content.

4.22 3.70

Taking part in class discussion with the clickers/flash cards improved my understanding of subject content.

3.89 3.74

I enjoyed taking part in class discussion with clickers/flash cards. 4.37 3.64

I would highly recommend the use of clickers/flash cards in class discussion. 4.34 3.97

Conclusions

The classroom response system is a useful tool to engage students in class discussion (finding 1).

The clickers helped students monitor their understanding (finding 2).

Similar results (findings 1 and 2) were obtained from the color-coded flash card survey – there seem to be no statistically significant differences between the clickers and color-coded flash cards results.

The results show that the students enjoyed both the clickers and color-coded flash cards for class discussions, however, more so with clickers (finding 3).

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