Some subscribers may be interested in a report "The Case for
Classroom Clickers - A Response to Bugeja" [Hake (2008)]. The
abstract reads:
*******************************************
ABSTRACT: Michael Bugeja in an article "Classroom Clickers and the
Cost of Technology" states that clickers at Iowa State have been
pushed by commercial interests in way that subverts rather than
enhances education, a complaint that deserves to be taken seriously
by universities.
But Bugeja then goes on to imply that clickers (a) were introduced
into education by manufacturers, thus ignoring their academic
pedigree, and (b) are nearly useless in education, ignoring the
evidence for their effectiveness. Perhaps the most dramatic such
evidence has been provided by Eric Mazur, who increased the class
average *normalized* learning gain <g> on a standardized test of
conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics by a factor of about
two when he switched from traditional passive-student lectures to
clicker-assisted "Peer Instruction" (PI).
In addition, clickers: (1) have contributed to the spread of the PI
approach by providing a relatively easy and attractive bridge from
traditional passive-student lectures to greater interactivity, (2)
allow instructors to obtain real-time student feedback in histogram
form thus "making students' thinking visible and promoting critical
listening, evaluation, and argumentation in the class," (3) archive
student responses so as to improve questions and contribute to
education research.
From a broader perspective, clickers may contribute to the spread of
"interactive engagement" methods shown to be relative effective in
introductory physics instruction - i.e., methods designed to promote
conceptual understanding through the active engagement of students in
heads-on (always) and hands-on (usually) activities that yield
*immediate feedback* through discussion with peers and/or instructors.
*******************************************
To access the entire report please click on
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/CaseForClickersJ.pdf> , or else
see ref. 56 at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>.
Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands.
<[email protected]>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/>
<http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com/> (Contains this post and allows comments.)
REFERENCES
Hake, R.R. 2008. "The Case for Classroom Clickers - A Response to
Bugeja"; online at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/CaseForClickersJ.pdf> (716 kB)
and as ref. 56 at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/> and also at
<http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com/>.
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