ctd wi14 weekly workshop: best practices for running peer instruction with clickers

CTD WEEKLY WORKSHOPS:

BEST PRACTICES FOR RUNNING

PEER INSTRUCTION WITH

CLICKERS

Peter Newbury

Center for Teaching Development,

University of California, San Diego

[email protected] @polarisdotca

ctd.ucsd.edu #ctducsd

resources: ctd.ucsd.edu/programs/weekly-workshops-winter-2014/

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

12:00 – 12:50 pm Warren College Room

We know How People Learn

Best Practices for Peer Instruction with Clickers 2

…and what that means for teaching [1]:

1. Teachers must draw out and work with the pre-

existing understanding that 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 revealing/modeling an expert’s

conceptual framework of the content.

3. Teaching (and practicing) metacognitive (“thinking

about thinking”) skills should be integrated into the

curriculum.


student-centered instruction traditional lecture


peer instruction with clickers

interactive demonstrations

surveys of opinions

reading quizzes

worksheets

discussions

videos

student-centered instruction

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

Astronomy class


We’re in an astronomy survey course. We’ve just

finished a worksheet on the phases of the Moon.

Clicker question


This is the phase of the Moon when it rises:

What is the phase of the Moon 12 hours later?

(Adapted from Ed Prather)

A B

D

C

E

Clicker choreography

Best Practices for Peer Instruction with Clickers

The instructor needs to run the peer instruction in a way

that gives students sufficient time to

1. think,

2. discuss, and

3. resolve the concepts.

We want students to focus all of their precious cognitive

load on the concept. We don’t want them wasting any

of it wondering, “What am I supposed to do now?”

8



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

9



2. “Please answer this on your own.”

Goals of the first, solo vote is to get the students

• to commit to a choice in their own minds

• curious about the answer

• 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

10



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

11



3. Don’t immediately 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.

12



4. When you have made a choice or when you see the

class getting restless, ask the students, “Do you need

more time?”

5. “Yes!” Give them a few more seconds.

“[silence]” Ask them to prepare to vote.

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.

13



6a. Open the poll, “Please vote.”

If you’ve given them sufficient time to commit to a

choice, the voting should take very little time.

14



6b. 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.

15



7. Initiate small group discussions: “Please turn to your

neighbors and 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”

Students may not know how to “discuss” the question so

give them direction: “…convince them you’re right.”

16



8. 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.

17



9. 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.

18

one best answer

(~ STEM)



10a. 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…

19

one best answer

(~ STEM)



10b. Correct 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?

20

one best answer

(~ STEM)



10b. 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?

21

one best answer

(~ STEM)



10b. If you’re not sure what to do, you’re never wrong

asking,

What did your group talk about?

22

one best answer

(~ STEM)



11. 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

23

one best answer

(~ STEM)



8. 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.

24

many answers

(~ A&H, SS)



9. When it starts to get quiet and/or you notice

students starting to disengage or talk about other

things…

Show the histogram – this is the

signal to the students that a

discussion is about to begin.

25

many answers

(~ A&H, SS)



10. Facilitate a class discussion, provoking the students to

share

which answer they chose

what evidence they have to support that choice

(for example, citing readings)

26

many answers

(~ A&H, SS)



11. Continue the discussion until each choice has been

discussed.

Create a “summary” slide with each point or

argument + evidence you wanted covered.

If the students get to all of them, great. If not, you can

briefly add anything that was missed.

27

many answers

(~ A&H, SS)

Peer instruction takes time!


28

Where does that time come from?

(Image: Ready steady go by purplemattfish on flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Traditional classroom


29

first exposure to material is in class, content is

transmitted from instructor to student

learning occurs later when student struggles alone to

complete homework, essay, project

learn easy

stuff together

learn hard

stuff alone

transfer assimilate

Flipped classroom


30

student learns easy content at home: definitions,

basis skills, simple examples. Frees up class time for...

students come to class prepared to tackle

challenging concepts in class, with immediate

feedback from peers, instructor

learn hard

stuff together

learn easy

stuff alone

transfer assimilate


* *

* *

typical set of class slides

identify “easy” content & content you want to do together

assign as pre-class readings and/or tasks

identify key

points, concepts

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

CTD WEEKLY WORKSHOPS:

BEST PRACTICES FOR RUNNING

PEER INSTRUCTION WITH

CLICKERS

Peter Newbury

Center for Teaching Development,

University of California, San Diego

[email protected] @polarisdotca

ctd.ucsd.edu #ctducsd

resources: ctd.ucsd.edu/programs/weekly-workshops-winter-2014/

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

12:00 – 12:50 pm Warren College Room

Typical Episode of Peer Instruction (PI)


1. Instructor poses a conceptually-challenging,

multiple-choice question.

2. Students think about question on their own and vote using

clickers, colored ABCD cards, smartphones,…

3. The instructor asks students to turn to their neighbors and

“convince them you’re right.”

4. Students vote again and

instructor leads a class-wide

discussion about why the right

answer(s) is right and the

wrong answers are wrong.

4. Instructor leads a class-wide

discussion where students give

evidence to support each

choice.

one best answer (STEM) many answers (A&H, SS)