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Clicker Response Systems


A few months ago, an article was published entitled, "Clickers can promote fact retention but impede conceptual understanding: The effect of the interaction between clicker use and pedagogy on learning" by Shapiro, et al (2017). Student Response Systems (SRS) such as clickers have been around for many years, even before technology, faculty would ask students to raise pieces of paper or even their fingers to represent their choices on a question.

In this paper, the authors summarized their work with three points:

  • Factual and conceptual clicker questions enhanced only fact learning in the didactic course.

  • Factual questions impaired conceptual learning in the problem-oriented course.

  • Clicker effects are mediated by pedagogy, learning strategy, and prior knowledge.

The authors do mention that "clickers being used in classrooms where conceptual learning has improved, when used as one of several interventions, such as small group problem solving (Mazur, 2009), which provide scaffolds for deep learning."

I do wish to share that with every method, there is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Teaching and learning is a complex art and science, which to do well, requires multiple approaches. University of Iowa has created a helpful website that can assist in how to create and implement SRS questions so they align with the instructors and learning outcomes.

Mazur, E. (2009). Farewell, lecture? Science, 323, 50-51, 10.1126/science.1168927

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