Clicking on or off?

Lecturers’ rationale for using student response systems

Abstract

Student response systems, also known as clickers, have been used in lecture theatres with large groups of students to stimulate interest in lecture materials and to provide a means of interaction between lecturer and students or between students and their peers. Whilst the related literature offers practical guidance on using these systems, questions relating to their impact on learning outcomes and best pedagogic practice are in need of further investigation. Discussions with colleagues and a literature review led us to the hypothesis that clickers provide little more than a false dialogue or a cul-de-sac towards the analytical thinking skills required in tertiary education. In order to support or reject this hypothesis, qualitative data collected from interviews with staff members who had used or planned to use clickers was examined alongside quantitative data collected from 177 students on their use. The results from this data support findings from other studies insofar as lecturing staff have adopted this technology in an attempt to stimulate interaction and student motivation in their lectures. The results also suggest it may be possible for lecturers to develop approaches for using clickers that align with both their personalities and discipline-specific contexts.