A new study in the journal Computers &
Education claims that while classroom response clickers are effective for
helping students with rote learning, the devices can actually impair their
ability to understand more conceptual information.
The
results were most striking when fact-based questions answered with clickers
were followed by big-picture conceptual questions. Lead author Amy M. Shapiro,
interim associate dean of graduate studies and research, University of Massachusetts
Dartmouth, said that the factual questions appeared to shift students into a “hyperfocus”
on factual knowledge that made grasping the deeper concepts that followed more difficult.
“While
many published reports indicate the technology can substantially benefit
learners, we found that clicker effects are somewhat more complicated than previously
reported,” the study said. “The technology’s use appears to interact strongly
with overall pedagogy, resulting in different outcomes for students enrolled in
large, lecture-based courses than for those in smaller, problem-oriented
courses.”
The
study, whose results are so far unique, doesn’t recommend that educators delete
clickers from their toolbox, but it does suggest limits to the devices’
efficacy in certain types of courses and that instructors may need to consider
changes in how they’re used.
