How Incorporating Clickers into My Classroom Has Completely Revolutionized My Teaching

Some blogging in the edu-blogo-sphere and the physics-blog-sphere I’ve run into lately has led me to finally get around to writing about my clickers.

I mentioned them briefly in a previous post about recording student data. Essentially, the clickers are small hand held devices that function as “ask the audience” devices a la “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” Each student has their own clicker assigned to them, which in turn allows me to see each of their responses, and even grade the students on them. The particular brand which I have, Turning Technologies incorporates directly into power point.

It seems like a simple and fun addition to the classroom, which helps to engage the students at a higher level than the average “raise your hand” poll. And this is true. The students do enjoy using the clickers. Also, the software includes several different ways to create competitive games, with leader boards and horse races galore.

I’ve never seen kids be more excited to solve for the final velocity of a falling object before! However, the clickers have a great deal of value beyond student engagement. They present an incredible assortment of data to the instructor. After teaching a new topic, the clickers can instantly show me how well the students understood it through a series of multiple choice questions on the new concept. At the end of class, a brief set of review questions can show me the small set of students that is way behind and not understanding the new material. This helps me to pick out students to encourage them to work harder, come for extra help etc. The software also generates reports which separates the statistics by any subgroup you wish to define. For example, you can check how various demographic groups perform with respect to each other.

Teachers are always surprised when test day comes around and the students under-perform. With a system like this, I am always in the know about what students know and what they are able to do long before the big cumulative assessment comes around. The students, as well, are always given timely, private, and clear feedback, since the slide instantly shows whether or not they got the correct answer, and I, immediately afterward, explain why the right answer was the correct choice.

The technology itself is impressive, but how it fits in with my course’s routines, and how it plots the course of my teaching is what makes it so revolutionary. When the students walk in, they grab their clickers from a numbered shoe bag like this

…without the shoes of course. The students take a seat and start working on the “Do Now.” After the kids have quieted down and I’ve finished setting up whatever is needed for the period, I explain our objectives for class. Then we typically jump straight into a clicker quiz, reviewing the topics we’ve been working on lately for three reasons. First, it helps remind the students what we’ve been doing and it puts their minds in the right place. Second, it helps me to see what is clear, and what is not for the students from the previous day’s topics. Third, it gives me an opportunity to re-teach key points that the students MUST come away with.
Once the students have completed that, we get into the content of the day’s lessons, and I will pause several time throughout the lesson to ask additional clicker questions. This is different from asking thought provoking questions in class. Every student has to answer. Every student has to think. Once class nears the end, I will again ask several clicker questions to see what students have down, and what I need to re-emphasize in the next class.
My handwriting is terrible, and I have no artistic ability. Teaching physics is hard enough; the kids can’t deal with the board being a sloppy mess of scribbles. Thus I am confined to power point. A major criticism of teaching through the projector is that the class is not interactive enough. If the kids don’t get something, it is hard for teachers to respond and to improvise. With the clickers, this problem is partially fixed by letting me know immediately what the students are struggling with.  I can address the issue orally immediately, and turn back to previous slides if necessary.  I don’t have to wait until the next test. The very next day, I can have slides specifically geared towards the concept that the students aren’t getting as well. The feedback (both from me to the students and from the students to me) is invaluable.

The often overlooked data in looking at the success of these tools is what students think about them. Informally, almost all of the students LOVE the clickers. Some formal survey data is coming soon.