Center for Teaching Development (UCSD) Weekly Workshop: Clickers 1: Intro to Peer Instruction with Clickers January 24, 2013 ctd.ucsd.edu

1. slides and resources: http://tinyurl.com/CTDClickers1
CTD WEEKLY WORKSHOPS:
CLICKERS 1:
INTRODUCTION TO PEER
INSTRUCTION WITH CLICKERS
Peter Newbury
Center for Teaching Development,
University of California, San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu @polarisdotca
ctd.ucsd.edu #ctducsd
Thursday, January 24, 2013
12:30 – 1:30 pm Center Hall, Room 316

2. We know How People Learn
…and what that means for teaching [1]:
1. Teachers must draw out and work with the pre-
existing understanding that their students bring with
them. Classrooms must be learner centered.
2. Teachers must teach some subject matter in depth,
providing many examples in which the same concept
is at work and providing a firm foundation of
factual knowledge.
3. The teaching of metacognitive (“thinking about
thinking”) skills should be integrated into the
curriculum in a variety of subject areas.
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3. traditional lecture student-centered instruction
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4. peer instruction w clickers
worksheets
videos
interactive demonstrations
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
discussions
student-centered instruction
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5. Typical Peer Instruction Episode
Alternating with 10-15 minute mini-lectures,
1. Instructor poses a conceptually-challenging
multiple-choice question.
2. Students think about question on their own.
3. Students vote for an answer using clickers,
colored/ABCD voting cards,...
4. The instructor reacts, based on the
distribution of votes.
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6. Let’s try it…
 Don’t get (too) distracted by the content of the
questions: this is not a test of your knowledge!
 Try to be aware of how the peer instruction is
“choreographed” – we’ll talk lots about it
afterwards
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7. Biology class
It’s Intro Biology and we’re about to start a new section
on photosynthesis…
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8. Clicker question
The molecules making up the dry mass of wood that
forms during the growth of a tree largely come from
a) sunlight.
b) the air.
c) the seed.
d) the soil.
Question credit: Bill Wood
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9. Astronomy class
We’re in an astronomy service course. We’ve just
finished a worksheet on the phases of the Moon.
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10. Clicker question
If this is the phase of the Moon when it rises:
what is the phase of the Moon 12 hours later?
A B C
D E
(Adapted from Ed Prather)
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11. Clicker choreography
To be effective, the instructor needs to run the peer
instruction in a way that gives students sufficient time to
think about, discuss and resolve the concepts.
We want students to participate without ever having to
stop and think, “What am I supposed to do now?”
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12. Clicker choreography
1. Present the question. Don’t read it aloud.
Reasons for not reading the question aloud:
• your voice may give away key features or even
the answer
• you might read the question you hoped to ask, not
the words that are actually there
• the students are not listening anyway – they’re
trying to read it themselves and your voice may, in
fact, distract them
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13. Clicker choreography
2. “Please answer this on your own.”
Goals of the first, solo vote:
• get the students to commit to a choice in their own minds
• get the students to commit to a choice so they’ll be
curious about the answer
• get the students prepared to have a discussion with their
peers
If they discuss the question right away:
• students are making choices based on someone else’s
reasoning
• those students cannot contribute to the peer instruction as
they have no ideas of their own
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14. Clicker choreography
2. “Please answer this on your own.”
Students may be reluctant to quietly think on their
own. After all, they have a better chance of picking
the right choice after talking to their friends.
If you’re going to impose a certain behaviour on the
students, getting their “buy-in” is critical. Explain to
them why the solo vote is so important. Explain it to
them early in the term and remind them when they
start drifting to immediate discussions.
www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/SEI_video.html
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15. Clicker choreography
3. Don’t start the i>clicker poll. Instead give the
students sufficient time to make a choice. What is
sufficient?
• Turn to the screen, read and answer the question as if
you are one of your students.
• Another possibility: keep facing the class, watching
for confused stares and/or and satisfied smiles.
• Another possibility: model how to think about the
question by “acting it out.”
• When you notice students picking up their clickers and
getting restless, they are prepared to vote.
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16. Clicker choreography
4. When you have made a choice or when you see the
class getting restless, ask the students, “Do you need
more time?”
If many students are not ready to vote, they will not
have committed to a choice and will be unprepared to
discuss the question.
Some students may be uncomfortable asking for more
time. Make it clear, from the first class, that you’ll
honour the request with no repercussions.
5. “Yes!” Give them a few more seconds.
“[silence]” Ask them to prepare to vote.
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17. Clicker choreography
6. Open the poll, “Please vote.”
If you’ve given them sufficient time to commit to a
choice, the voting should take very little time.
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18. Clicker choreography
7. Prepare to close the poll
When almost all the votes are in, say, “Final votes,
please, in 5…4…3…2…1…Thank-you!” and close
the poll.
Don’t wait for every last student to vote. Some may
be choosing not to vote.
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19. Clicker choreography
8. Initiate small group discussions: “Please turn to your
neighbors and convince them you’re right.”
Students may not know how to “discuss” the question so
give them direction: “…convince them you’re right.”
Don’t display the histogram: if the students see it, they
tend to pick the popular choice on the 2nd vote even if
it’s not the answer they feel is correct: “lemming effect”
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20. Clicker choreography
9. Wander around the room, listening to the
conversations.
o Avoid joining conversations – this is their time to
talk, not yours.
o Listen for misconceptions, places where students get
stuck – these nuggets of student thinking are your
source for improving the questions, clarifying the
questions, etc.
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21. Clicker choreography
10. When it starts to get quiet and/or you notice
students starting to disengage or talk about other
things, collect the 2nd vote:
“Group vote, please!” Start the poll.
“Last call on the group vote [pause 10 seconds] in
5…4…3…2…1…thank-you!” Stop the poll.
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22. Clicker choreography
11. Now you can display the histogram – this is the
signal to the students that a discussion is about to
begin.
Depending on their votes, you have several choices
for sparking the discussion…
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23. Clicker choreography
11. Right answer is the clear winner.
Ok, well done, B is correct but…
why might A be tempting?
why might someone think it could be E?
could someone explain why D is wrong?
(possible follow-up question)
How would be change the question so that A is right?
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24. Clicker choreography
11. No clear winner.
Ok, this was a harder one, we
need to look at all the options…
what reasoning would someone use for A (repeat for
all popular choices)
if you changed your vote, what did you discuss in your
group?
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25. Clicker choreography
11. If you’re not sure what to do, you’re never wrong
asking,
What did your group talk about?
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26. Clicker choreography
12. At the end, confirm the answer(s) and continue with
the class.
Even if more than 80–90% of the students have
picked the correct choice, some students may still not
sure why that choice is correct.
Briefly confirm the correct choice:
• explain why the right answer is right
• explain why wrong answers are wrong
• allows students who chose the right answer to
make sure they had the correct reasoning
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27. In effective peer instruction
 students teach each other while they students learn
may still hold or remember their novice and practice
misconceptions how to think,
 students discuss the concepts in their communicate
own language like experts
 the instructor finds out what the students know
(and don’t know) and reacts
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28. Effective peer instruction requires
next
week identifying key concepts, misconceptions
1.
2. creating multiple-choice questions that before
require deeper thinking and learning class
today
3. facilitating peer instruction episodes that
spark student discussion during
class
4. resolving the misconceptions
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29. Resources
1. National Research Council. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and
School: Expanded Edition. J.D. Bransford, A.L Brown & R.R. Cocking
(Eds.),Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2000.
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9853&page=1
2. Peer instruction resources from the Carl Wieman Science Education
Initiative at the Univ. of British Columbia :
http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/clickers.htm
3. Videos by the Science Education Initiative at the Univ. of Colorado
(Boulder) provide excellent background for using clickers:
http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/SEI_video.html
4. Peer Instruction network blog.peerinstruction.net
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30. slides and resources: http://tinyurl.com/CTDClickers1
CTD WEEKLY WORKSHOPS:
CLICKERS 1:
INTRODUCTION TO PEER
INSTRUCTION WITH CLICKERS
Peter Newbury
Center for Teaching Development,
University of California, San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu @polarisdotca
ctd.ucsd.edu #ctducsd
Thursday, January 24, 2013
12:30 – 1:30 pm Center Hall, Room 316