The 3R Method Optimizes the Use of Student Response Systems in Physical Therapist Education

Abstract

Background and Purpose. The use of student response systems (SRS) has steadily increased in higher education and has led to improved learning and retention, as well as increased student engagement, motivation, and enjoyment. The use of SRS in health professions education, especially at the graduate level, has been less well-documented, although similar positive outcomes have been reported. Traditional SRS quizzes are fully administered during in-class lectures or as stand-alone in-class assessments. This paper summarizes higher education SRS literature and describes an improved method for using SRS quizzes in physical therapist (PT) education.Case Description. The is a 3-step approach to administering SRS quizzes: recall, refine, and reveal. In the first step, students are given the SRS quiz questions in advance and instructed to answer questions outside of class using what they remember from previous readings and instructional sessions. They then consult their materials in the second step to correct those answers. The second step also occurs outside of class. Finally, in the third step, they use SRS to indicate their final answers in class, and compiled student responses and the correct answer are projected for the class to see. Guided discussion follows, in which students describe, clarify, and compare their bgic.Outcomes. PT student responses to this 3R Method of administering SRS quizzes have been extremely positive. Not a single negative student comment was received and many comments suggested that these quizzes significantly augmented student learning and examination preparation. Students even requested that these quizzes be used more often in the future.Discussion and Conclusion. This approach to SRS quizzes would be equally useful in physical therapist assistant and other health professions education programs. A larger prospective comparative trial is being designed that will further assess the value and student perceptions of SRS quizzes, specifically including the addition of the 3R Method.Key Words: Student response system, Health professions education, Scholarship of teaching and learning, Physical therapist education, Higher education.BACKGROUND AND PURPOSESeveral years ago, a few of our physical therapist professional program faculty began incorporating student response systems (SRS) into our classrooms. Our results were generally reflective of what had been published about this technology in higher education: students were highly engaged112 and their perceptions were very positive.1,2·1218 Multiple-choice SRS questions were used more and more regularly in a variety of classes, and quiz sessions expanded to include facilitated group discussion of response options and the logic behind them. The value of these discussions also emerged in SRS literature.5,6,15,16,1922Our use of SRS has continued to evolve, largely in response to the results of a formal mixed-methods inquiry conducted several years ago with our physical therapist students.23The method being described in this paper is the result of that evolution and combines the elements of SRS that were previously reported by our students as being most helpful in their learning with other elements designed to capitalize on additional learning theories. This method also has the advantage of being particularly efficient with classroom time. The purpose of this paper is to describe what my students and I believe has been a particularly effective way to implement SRS into physical therapist professional education.Student response systems- also known as clickers, audience response systems, and personal response systems- are handheld devices that enable individuals to transmit responses via radio -frequency or infrared technology to a receiver that is attached to a computer. When used in the classroom, the instructor projects each question and answer option from his or her classroom computer via an LCD projector, and then waits while each student transmits his or her answer selection to a receiver attached to the same computer. …