Re: Personal Response Systems (clickers)

[Richard Hake <rrhake@earthlink.net>]

Peter Campbell, in his ARN-L post of 1 Mar 2006 12:44:42-0600 titled 
"Personal Response Systems (clickers)" wrote:

" 'Personal Response Systems' (sometimes referred to as 'clickers') 
are getting more attention in higher ed settings as a way to create 
more interactive learning environments. There's increasing interest 
at my university, and so far the feedback has been fairly positive. 
In my view, these devices open up interesting possibilities for 
formative assessment."

In a post "Classroom Communication Systems" [Hake (2004a)] I made 
five points regarding the use of Classroom Communication Systems 
(CCS) (aka "Student Response Systems") and listed 62 references to 
the relevant literature. That was followed by a post "Classroom 
Communication Systems - Additional References" [Hake (2004b)] that 
contained 11 more CCS reference given by David Meltzer in a post to 
PhysLrnR [Meltzer (2004)].

The five points that I made in Hake (2004a) are these - CCS [see that
post for the references]:

1. Are not by themselves magic bullets, but have been used - at least 
in physics - to effectively promote "interactive engagement" (IE) 
methods: "heads-on (always) and hands-on (usually) activities which 
yield immediate feedback through discussion with peers and/or 
instructors." IE methods were found to have a nearly two-standard 
deviation superiority [cf., Bloom's (1984) two sigma problem] over 
traditional (T) methods in enhancing students' conceptual 
understanding of mechanics by Hake (1998a,b; 2002a) and many other 
physics-education research groups as referenced in Hake (2002a,b)].

2. Are best tried in combination with pre/post testing to assess 
their impact on student learning relative to traditional methods, as 
in the work of Mazur (1997), Crouch & Mazur (2001), Fagen et al. 
(2002), Meltzer & Manivannan (2002), Dori & Belcher (2004), and Cheng 
et al. (2004). Such pre/post testing using reasonably well matched 
control groups (the traditional courses) does not meet the U.S. Dept. 
of Education's (USDE's) PSEUDO "gold standard" of randomized control 
trials, but [as argued in Hake (2004a)] would nevertheless probably 
pass muster at the USDE's "What Works Clearing House" 
<http://www.w-w-c.org/> as "quasi-experimental studies of especially 
strong design" [see  <http://www.w-w-c.org/reports/standards.html>]. 
Despite rampant pre/post paranoia [Hake (2000, 2004b)], pre/post 
assessments of student learning are being more and more utilized in 
fields such as astronomy, economics, biology, chemistry, computer 
science, engineering, and physics [see Hake (2004c)].

3. May allow a cost-effective Socratic approach [Hake (1992, 2002c, 
2004d), Abrahamson (1998)] to instruction in large-enrollment 
"lecture" sections. The Socratic potential of CCS has been generally 
overlooked in the literature, possibly because of the gross 
misunderstanding of the Socratic Method by academics (Hake 2004d).

4. May be more effective if used in conjunction with activities such 
as "Just in Time Teaching" (JITT) [Novak et al. (1999), Crouch & 
Mazur (2001)]. JITT induces study of and thinking about course 
material PRIOR to the "lecture."

5. Could be considered as "Low Threshold Applications" (LTA's) for 
the initiation of more effective education. LTA is a term evidently 
coined by Steve Gilbert of the Teaching, Learning and Technology 
Group <http://www.tltgroup.org/listserv/index.html> for applications 
or activities that are not overly demanding of effort, resources, and 
time [see <http://www.tltgroup.org/LTAs/Home.htm>.


REFERENCES
Hake, R.R. 2004a. "Classroom Communication Systems," online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0412&L=pod&O=D&P=24855>. 
Post of 18 Dec 2004 15:00:07-0800 to POD, AERA-C, AERA-D, AERA-J, 
AERA-K, ASSESS, DrEd, EvalTalk, PhysLrnR, and STLHE-L.

Hake, R.R. 2004b. "Classroom Communication Systems - Additional 
References," online at 
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0412&L=pod&P=R22831&I=-3>.
Post of 1 22 Dec 2004 11:03:41 -0800 to POD, AERA-C, AERA-D, AERA-J, 
AERA-K, ASSESS, DrEd, EvalTalk, PhysLrnR, and STLHE-L.

Meltzer, D. 2004a. Re: Classroom Communication Systems." PhysLrnR 
post of18 Dec 2004 19:16:58-0600; online at
<http://listserv.boisestate.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0412&L=physlrnr&F=&S=
&X=0988E219B818270BC1&Y=rrhake@earthlink.net&P=3523>, or more 
compactly at <http://tinyurl.com/a94zo>. The encyclopedic URL 
indicates that PhysLrnR is a
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