I'm glad my message helped. If all clickers did for me was let students sit
silently in their seats clicking away, I wouldn't use them.
Since we're doing true confessions...
I was one of those quiet students. My students are always shocked to hear this;
I'm not sure that my peers are. I said very little in my classes until about
my senior year of college when most of my courses were in my major and filled
with people that I knew. Tha'ts when my class participation went from very
little to little. =)
In any given class I would feel comfortable enough to speak up about halfway
through. But by then I felt like I really had to have something good to say if
I was going to say anything ("Why is this silent person suddenly speaking?").
I've always been introverted, preferring to hang at the edges. Large groups
have always been a problem for me, but less so in the last 10 years.
So I have much empathy for my quieter students. Thus the "training wheels." =)
--
Sue Frantz Highline Community College
Psychology Des Moines, WA
206.878.3710 x3404 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/
--
APA Division 2: Society for the Teaching of Psychology
http://teachpsych.org/
Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology
Associate Director
Project Syllabus
http://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/syllabi.php
From: Steven Specht
Sent: Wed 2/20/2008 9:25 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: Re: [tips] why so traumatic?
This explanation makes me feel much better. I just worry about those
"parents" who don't take off the "training wheels" lest the kids fall
down. You're much more conscientious than that. Thanks Sue.
BTW, I've never been afraid of asking questions at conferences when I
have them. Interestingly for me, I've been very introspective over the
past couple of years about why I have never had a problem (throughout
academics) while others have. If you knew my up-bringing (country
bumpkin, basically 1st generation college kid; "broken" home), I bet
you would predict I'd be the intimidated type. BUT, the fact that my
alcoholic father left my high-school educated mother with 5 kids (with
NO support) and that she was heroic enough to get some education and
get off welfare to eventually put us all through college, I think
speaks to the issue. My students don't get a lot of sympathy from me
about superficial "crises" ;-)
I love TIPS!
-S
On Feb 20, 2008, at 12:14 PM, FRANTZ, SUE wrote:
>
>
> I see clickers as more of a foot-in-the-door; they're not the be-all
> and end-all.
>
> I want to quickly add that clickers have to fit the style of the
> instructor. They're not for everybody.
>
> I'm afraid that when I talk about clickers, people picture me using
> them every 3 minutes. Some class sessions I don't use them at all.
> Other days I may have 1 or 2 questions. And others there may be 8 or
> 9 -- as was the case when discussing the availability heuristic. Some
> of the questions are the kinds of questions you'd see on an exam.
> Others are more about taking the class' temperature, like, "How well
> do you understand _____?" Or "Want another example?" Other questions
> are about attitudes.
>
> I'm very much a lecturer, but I rely on student questions to flesh
> things out. And this has been the case for years. Before clickers, I
> could rely on about 20-30% of my students (class size: 35 to 50) to
> ask the questions.
>
> After clickers, I can expect a question (an actual raising of a
> hand followed by the use of a voice) at any time from about 2/3 of my
> class (I just went through my roster and noted who asked a question or
> made a comment last week). And this happens pretty quickly -- I'd say
> within the first 4-6 class sessions. Anecdotally, some students have
> said that they usually don't speak in class, but they do in this one.
>
> I'm attributing the change to the clickers, but I'm not sure what's
> driving it. I can imagine several possibilities. At root, I think,
> is an increased sense of group belongingness -- it's almost an
> us-as-a-class vs. The Question sort of mentality. Students get very
> excited when everyone gets an answer right. And when students get an
> answer wrong, there's comfort in knowing that they're not the only
> one. And sometimes when many get an answer wrong, I have them talk
> amongst themselves, changing their answers as they see fit. Just last
> week, I gave them examples of positive reinforcement, and punishment
> and negative reinforcement and punishment, and asked them to identify
> which was which. A lot of very good discussion ensued -- sometimes
> even heated debate. Generally it started as pairs then grew to groups
> of 4, then 6, then half the room. All without any prompting from me,
> other than telling them it was okay to talk to each other. So even if
> that other 1/3 of the class isn't speaking in front of the entire
> class, they are talking in smaller groups.
>
> [As an aside, I spoke with someone a few months ago who taught English
> as a Second Language courses. She said when she gave clickers to
> students, it shut them up completely. Not what you want in a language
> course. So she put them in groups and gave the group one clicker.
> Now they're talking again.]
>
> With attitude sorts of questions, students understand intellectually
> that they're not the only one who holds a particular attitude, but
> it's different when they can actually see that others believe as they
> do -- and, perhaps more importantly, see that others do not believe as
> they do.
>
> So, no, I don't see clickers as removing the student voice. Rather, I
> see them as the ice breaker... or as training wheels. Once they're
> comfortable speaking in class, and have a good experience with it, I
> hope students are more comfortable speaking in other classes -- or
> other non-academic situations. Now there's an empirical question...
>
> As another aside, I'd be curious to know how many faculty attend a
> session at a conference and don't feel comfortable raising their hands
> to ask a question...
>
>
> --
> Sue Frantz Highline Community College
> Psychology Des Moines, WA
> 206.878.3710 x3404 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/
> --
> APA Division 2: Society for the Teaching of Psychology
> http://teachpsych.org/
> Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology
> Associate Director
> Project Syllabus
> http://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/syllabi.php
>
>
> From: Steven Specht
> Sent: Wed 2/20/2008 4:51 AM
> To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
> Subject: [tips] why so traumatic?
>
> But doesn't this "enable" non-responding? Some of my colleagues use the
> same argument when justifying on-line discussion groups. I would rather
> work on students' abilities to be confident in themselves so that being
> "wrong" is not so "socially traumatic". It's difficult to say the
> emperor has no clothes when you're afraid to respond.
> Of course, I have the luxury of having small classes (usually under 25)
> and spend some valuable class time talking about why students feel
> uncomfortable raising their hands. It relates to availability heuristic
> in a way I suppose too, when related to asking questions in class. I
> ask them to think back on all the times they were thankful that someone
> else raised his/her hand to ask a reasonable question compared to the
> times when they thought someone asked a "stupid" question. We talk
> about the fact that there seems to be less "stupid" questions asked, by
> far. And I assure them that as a professional educator, I will handle
> politely rare "stupid" question (which, imho, are very rare).
> Just my 7.5 percent (adjusting for this year's CPI).
> -S
>
> On Feb 19, 2008, at 9:22 PM, FRANTZ, SUE wrote:
>
> > I can't help with the cointoss -- although for some students
> > calculating 50% may be a problem. I've seen students take out
> > calculators (or cell phones) to add up 5 single digit numbers.
> >
> > For other things where there is a right or wrong answer, like the
> > penny, some students would probably prefer to not participate rather
> > than be wrong in front of their peers.
> >
> > I'm a proponent of clickers for the latter reason -- they won't help
> > with the math issue. For instance, I do a demo for the availability
> > heuristic. Students are asked to estimate the number of shooting
> > deaths in our county (large metro area), and then they are asked to
> > estimate what percentage were homicides, suicides, and accidents.
> > When I used to ask for a raise of hands or for students to volunteer
> > what they thought, I got very little response. With clickers, I get
> > 100% response -- and after the correct answer is revealed, students
> > can see that they weren't alone with their wrong answers -- AND
> > they're willing, en masse, to talk about why they were wrong.
> >
> > --
> > Sue Frantz Highline Community College
> > Psychology Des Moines, WA
> > 206.878.3710 x3404 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/
> > --
> > APA Division 2: Society for the Teaching of Psychology
> > http://teachpsych.org/
> <http://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/syllabi.php>
> > Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology
> > Associate Director
> > Project Syllabus
> > http://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/syllabi.php
> > <http://www.apadiv2.org/otrp/index.php>
> >
> > ________________________________
> >
> > From: William Scott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Sent: Tue 2/19/2008 5:45 PM
> > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
> > Subject: [tips] Students who attend class but are not there
> >
> >
> >
> > In an intro class today I did a demonstration meant to show them the
> > absence of psychic abilities. I had them predict a coin toss on 20
> > throws. I had planned to have those who succeeded by more than 50%
> > then predict on another series of coin tosses and show the effect of
> > the normal curve. After the first round, I asked how many got less
> > than 50% right. About one quarter of the class raised their hands.
> > Then I asked how many got more than 50% right and another quarter of
> > the class raised their hands. What the ...!! I have concluded that
> the
> > current students have found a way to send 3dimensional holographic
> > avatars to class so that they can appear to be there, but they
> > actually are still back in their dorm rooms sleeping.
> >
> > The same sort of thing happened a few years ago when I did a classic
> > demonstration of choosing the face of a one cent piece. I asked the
> > students to raise their hands regarding which of the different
> > representations of a penny they chose. As I went through the options,
> > I ended up with about 50% of the class still not claiming one as I
> got
> > to the last one, which none of them admitted to choosing at the end.
> >
> > Perhaps these new clicker systems that allow us to do anonymous class
> > polls might help, but I really would like to know why students come
> to
> > class but don't take part in it.
> >
> > Bill Scott
> >
> >
> > ---
> > To make changes to your subscription contact:
> >
> > Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
> >
> >
> >
> > ---
> > To make changes to your subscription contact:
> >
> > Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])<winmail.dat>
>
>
> ========================================================
> Steven M. Specht, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Psychology
> Utica College
> Utica, NY 13502
> (315) 792-3171
>
> "Mice may be called large or small, and so may elephants, and it is
> quite understandable when someone says it was a large mouse that ran up
> the trunk of a small elephant" (S. S. Stevens, 1958)
>
> ---
> To make changes to your subscription contact:
>
> Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
>
>
> ---
> To make changes to your subscription contact:
>
> Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
>
========================================================
Steven M. Specht, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Utica College
Utica, NY 13502
(315) 792-3171
"Mice may be called large or small, and so may elephants, and it is
quite understandable when someone says it was a large mouse that ran up
the trunk of a small elephant" (S. S. Stevens, 1958)
---
To make changes to your subscription contact:
Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
---
To make changes to your subscription contact:
Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
