Student Diversity, Peer Instruction and Classroom Response Systems Some Lessons

Abstract

The diversity of undergraduate students within a given lecture is on the increase – both in terms of their personal traits and their performance. The latter development presents a challenge to lecturers, who may have difficulty adapting their teaching methodology because the students’ actual performance often materialises only at the end of the term.Based on practical experience, this paper shows how classroom response systems, using so-called ‘clickers’, can be employed to meet this challenge in several ways. A brief test of the material already taught in the first few lectures can provide the lecturer with a rough impression of the performance level in the class right at the start of the term. Yet, more interesting information is to be obtained from a simultaneous survey of potentially performance-related characteristics of the students. Simple statistical analysis will then reveal whether and, if so, which characteristics actually drive student performance. In the best case, the insights thus gained can be used to adapt teaching styles. The paper further argues that the continuous use of clickers in conjunction with the method of peer instruction can appreciably improve learning results without consuming too much lecture time.