1. Quick Tips for Response Questions
2. Taxonomy of Questions
3. Working with Groups and Teams
4. References and Resources
    

Quick Tips for Response Questions

• Objectives
  • When implemented appropriately, a CRS can be an effective way to increase student understanding and engagement, and to test student understanding.
  • As the authors of this Resource Guide explain, classroom response systems can be used effectively in multiple ways.
    • elicit or reveal pre-existing thinking
    • test conceptual understanding
    • apply ideas in new context and/or explore implications
    • predict results of a lecture demo, experiment, simulation, video, etc
    • draw on knowledge from everyday life
    • relate different representations (graphical, mathematical, etc.)
• Planning
  • Set up the system and practice before class
  • Allow a few days for students to buy and register clickers
  • Spend some time in the class testing with students to use clickers
  • Plan for how to deal with students whose clickers are forgotten, need batteries, or are broken
  • Find a resource/support person
  • Have a TA trained to use the system
• Writing Effective Questions
  • Write questions that address
    • Learning goal
    • Content goal
    • Skill
    • Misconceptions
  • Include a variety of questions
    • Content questions
    • Application questions
    • Student perspective questions
    • Student-written questions
  • Include “I don’t know” as an answer choice to prevent guessing
• Communication with Students
  • Explain why you are using the system and what you expect them to gain from the experience
  • Discuss the policy regarding lost, forgotten, broken clickers
  • Discuss cheating by using multiple clickers to answer questions for classmates
• Grading
  • Plan a grading system in advance
  • Make grades accessible on a regular basis to reduce student anxiety
  • Consider giving partial credit for participation
• In Class
  • The integration of student discussion is a key to maximizing the impact of your CRS questions. Consider integrating the following steps into your practice.
    • ​Step 1: Ask a question
    • Step 2: Allow for pair or small group discussion
    • Step 3: Students submit their answers
    • Step 4: Conduct class discussion

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Taxonomy of CRS Questions

• Regardless of your purpose and approach, it is important to adhere to principles of good question construction, to help maximize the benefits of CRS use. The easiest way to do this is to think about your questions in terms of your intended learning outcomes: what do you want your students to learn or demonstrate they have learned?
• Learning outcomes can be categorized according to the cognitive processes they engage (e.g. remembering vs. explaining vs. proving). The Bloom's chart below provides sample question stems associated with each of six categories of cognitive processing.
• Multiple Choice Questions
  • The Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt College offers an excellent resource on multiple choice question construction here. As you read it, keep in mind that in-class questions are often used to spark student discussions, so it may not be necessary for your classroom response questions to have a unique correct answer (as is important for formal assessments like tests and quizzes).
  • Types of Questions Table (see below)
  • Sample Questions
    • There are a number of repositories of classroom response questions available, particularly for STEM classes. The best way to find them is to search with the term “ConcepTests." Here are a list of some great sites to get started.
      • The Interactive Learning Toolkit by the Mazur Group at Harvard University guides you step-by-step: https://galileo.seas.harvard.edu
      • Arizona State University has sample questions for Math and Chemistry: http://modeling.asu.edu/modeling/ConcepTests.htm
      • Carnegie Mellon University offers a getting started guide with concept tests and resources: http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/howto/assesslearning/concepTests.html

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Working with Groups and Teams
 

Teaching with group work

• ​In this section, you will find information about some specific group work-based teaching techniques, evidence about the effectiveness of group work and a comparison between collaborative and competitive approaches to group work.
• Sections
  • Why incorporate group work into your teaching?
  • What are some group based teaching techniques?
  • What evidence is there about the effectiveness of teaching through group work?
  • Should I choose competition or collaboration?  What goals does each best serve?  What evidence is of their effectiveness? 
  • What are some resources with more strategies about how to incorporate group work, collaboration, and competition into my classes?
     

• Why incorporate group work into your teaching?

  • Group work enables classroom discussions that are valuable for helping students (including those in STEM fields), reflect on their emerging understanding, make predictions and apply ideas and tools to analysis and problem solving. Group work also helps students develop skills in collaboration, teamwork and effective leadership.  With adequate structure and support, students may also find group work enjoyable and develop positive feelings about the discipline that extend beyond a single course. 

• What are some group based teaching techniques?

  • Group work based teaching techniques range widely from low-tech and informal to higher-tech, long-term and central to the pedagogical approach. 
  • See this list of group work examples
• What evidence is there about the effectiveness of teaching through group work?
  • A number of studies have provided evidence for the effectiveness of group work in student learning outcomes. See this list of research evidence.
• Should I choose competition or collaboration?  What goals does each best serve?  What evidence is of their effectiveness? 
  • Serious games for education may combine elements of both competition and collaboration. 
    • For example, games that have a team competition structure combine the benefits of group work with the sense of urgency driven by competition. 
  • Serious games challenge students to acquire, apply, and hone discipline-based knowledge and skills in a rich virtual environment. 
  • Well-constructed serious games have:
    • specific outcomes for students to achieve that hold their attention;
    • rules that constrain the students’ process of achieving the outcome (in order to keep them from taking the easy way out);
    • feedback to let the students know how well they are progressing towards their goals;
    • inspiration for students to voluntarily spend more time than is required;
    • a skill level tailored to the student so that their skill level grows the more they play the game. 
  • Unless an instructor is a skilled game-designer, developing a serious game is not recommended.  However, many disciplines have a growing body of serious games for educational purposes that individual instructors may adopt or adapt. 
  • Reference
    • Cain, J. and Piascik, P. 2015. Are Serious Games a Good Strategy for Pharmacy Education? American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. 79(4): 7 pages.
• What are some resources with more strategies about how to incorporate group work, collaboration, and competition into my classes?
  • Barkley, E., Cross, K.P., and Major C.H. (2005). Collaborative Learning Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty. Jossey Bass: San Francisco.
  • Brookfield, Stephen and Stephen Preskill.  2005.  Discussion as  A Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms.  San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass.
  • Duch, B., Gron, S., and Allen, D. 2001. The Power of Problem-Based-Learning: A Practical "How to" For Teaching Undergraduate Courses of Any Discipline. Stylus Publishing.
  • Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Smith, K.A. 1998. Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom. Edina, MN: Interactive Book Company.
  • Mazur, E. 1996. Peer Instruction: A User's Manual. Addison-Wesley.
  • Michaelsen, L., Knight, A.B., and Fink, L.D. 2004. Team-Based Learning: A Transformative Use of Small Groups in College Teaching. Stylus Publishing.
  • Schell, Julie. “Turn to Your Neighbor: The Official Peer Instruction Blog.” http://blog.peerinstruction.net/

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References and Resources

• Beatty, Gerace, Leonard, and Dufresne (2006). Designing effective questions for classroom response system teaching. American Journal of Physics. 74(31): 31-39. LINK
• ​Bruff, D. (2009). Teaching with classroom response systems: Creating active learning environments. John Wiley & Sons.
• Sullivan, Roberta (2008). Principles for Constructing Good Clicker Questions: Going Beyond Rote Learning and Stimulating Active Engagement with a Course. Journal of Educational Technology Systems. 37(3): 335-347. LINK

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