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ABSTRACT: I comment on Derek Bruff's excellent "Classroom Response
System Bibliography" with its references to classroom communication
system (CCS) articles in biology, business, communications, computer
science, earth science, economics, engineering, law, medicine,
nursing, philosophy, physics, and political science. Unfortunately
except for biology, computer science, earth science, economics,
engineering, and physics, no standardized diagnostic tests appear to
be available to gauge the need for, or effects of, CCS's (or any
other type of reform pedagogy) on student learning. I give five
pedagogical points regarding the use of CCS's and relay some RF
keypad vendors from CCS guru Ray Burnstein.
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Nora Bynum (2007) in her POD post of 15 Jun 2007 titled "Review
article on electronic instructional polling?" wrote:
". . . is there a particular review article on the effectiveness of
the use of electronic/handheld polling or audience response devices
in instruction that folks on the listserve would recommend? "
Derek Bruff responded [bracketed by lines "BBBBB. . . ."; my insert
at ". . . .[insert]. . . ."]:
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As it turns out, I was just updating our center's bibliography on
classroom response systems / audience response systems. The first
two items on the page are recent, useful literature reviews:
. . . . [with a line break between "/technology/crs_b" and "iblio.htm"]. . . .
I hope that helps!
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In my opinion, Derek's bibliography is very well done, providing,
among other things, discipline specific articles (most of them
hot-linked) for Biology, Business, Communications, Computer Science,
Earth Science, Economics, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Nursing,
Philosophy, Physics, and Political Science.
Unfortunately, as far as I know (please correct me if I'm wrong),
except for biology, computer science, earth science, economics,
engineering, and physics, no standardized diagnostic tests are
available :-( to gauge the need for, or effects of, classroom
communication systems (or any other type of reform pedagogy) on
student learning. As I keep fruitlessly emphasizing [Hake (2005a,
2006a,b; 2007)], academia, in general, has ignored a salient lesson
of the physics education reform effort [Hake (2002)]:
**High-Quality Standardized Tests of the Cognitive and Affective
Impact of Courses Are Essential to Gauge the Relative Effectiveness
of Non-Traditional Educational Methods.**
On a relatively trivial note, for some subscribers, easier access to
Derek's bibliography might have been possible if:
2. The bare URL had been replaced by an academic reference e.g., Bruff (2007).
Regarding "1", suggestion #9 of my universally ignored "Fourteen
Posting Suggestions" [Hake (2005b)] is:
"9. Give URL's as <http://......>. For most (but not all) server/mail
systems: the "http://"; serves to hot-link URL's, and the angle
brackets <. . .> serve to preserve hot-linking across line breaks.
Note that unlike <http://www.aera.net/publications/?id=711>, its
abbreviation <www.aera.net/publications/?id=711> is NOT hot-linked.
CLICK ON ALL URL'S IN YOUR MESSAGE TO BE SURE THEY WORK."
Returning to classroom communication systems, although the references
are now somewhat dated the posts "Handheld Devices" [Hake (2006c)],
"Classroom Communication Systems" [Hake (2004a)] with 62 references,
and "Classroom Communication Systems - Additional References" [Hake
(2004b)] with 11 references might be of interest.
In the Hake (2004a] I wrote [SEE THAT POST FOR THE REFERENCES]:
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Five points: Classroom Communication Systems (CCS):
1. Are not by themselves magic bullets, but have been used - at least
in physics - to effectively promote "interactive engagement" (IE)
methods: "heads-on (always) and hands-on (usually) activities which
yield immediate feedback through discussion with peers and/or
instructors." IE methods were found to have a nearly two-standard
deviation superiority [cf. Bloom (1984)] over traditional (T) methods
in enhancing students' conceptual understanding of mechanics by Hake
(1998a,b; 2002a) and many other physics-education research groups as
referenced in Hake (2002a,b)].
2. Are best tried in combination with pre/post testing to assess
their impact on student learning relative to traditional methods, as
in the work of Mazur (1997), Crouch & Mazur (2001), Fagen et al.
(2002), Meltzer & Manivannan (2002), Dori & Belcher (2004), and Cheng
et al. (2004). Such pre/post testing using reasonably well matched
control groups (the traditional courses) does not meet the U.S. Dept.
of Education's (USDE's) PSEUDO "gold standard" of randomized control
trials, but [as argued in Hake (2004a)] would nevertheless probably
pass muster at the USDE's "What Works Clearing House"
<http://www.w-w-c.org/> as "quasi-experimental studies of especially
strong design" [see <http://www.w-w-c.org/reports/standards.html>].
Despite rampant pre/post paranoia [Hake (2000, 2004b)], pre/post
assessments of student learning are being more and more utilized in
fields such as astronomy, economics, biology, chemistry, computer
science, and engineering [see Hake (2004c)].
3. May allow a cost-effective Socratic approach [Hake (1992, 2002c,
2004d), Abrahamson (1998)] to instruction in large-enrollment
"lecture" sections. The Socratic potential of CCS has been generally
overlooked in the literature, possibly because of the gross
misunderstanding of the Socratic Method by academics (Hake 2004d).
4. May be more effective if used in conjunction with activities such
as "Just in Time Teaching" (JITT) [Novak et al. (1999), Crouch &
Mazur (2001)]. JITT induces study of and thinking about course
material PRIOR to the "lecture."
5. Could be considered as "Low Threshold Applications" (LTA's) for
the initiation of more effective education. LTA is a term evidently
coined by Steve Gilbert of the Teaching, Learning and Technology
Group <http://www.tltgroup.org/listserv/index.html> for applications
or activities that are not overly demanding of effort, resources, and
time [see <http://www.tltgroup.org/LTAs/Home.htm>.
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Those considering the adoption of CCS should be aware that the
technology is advancing very rapidly. CCS guru Ray Burnstein (2001,
2003) wrote to me [Burnstein (2007)] in April 2007:
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Let me present a list of RF keypad vendors and their e-mail
addresses. There are more manufacturers but these are the principal
vendors. RF keypads are widely available and cheap.
To cull the sample I would eliminate #4 and #5. This still leaves a
large sample to research. I played around with a lot of new keypad
systems when I was visiting UTexas Austin, a year ago, but some of
the keypad system models have even changed since then. . . . . .
The Burnstein/Lederman (2003) paper. . . . .[ Bruff (2007)
references that paper under "Vendor Comparison"]. . . . . . . on
keypad systems is out of date as well as some more recent posters
sessions presented at AAPT meetings. . . . [AAPT = American
Association of Physics Teachers]. . . ..
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Hake, R.R. 2002. "Lessons from the physics education reform effort,"
Ecology and Society 5(2): 28; online at
<http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol5/iss2/art28/>. Ecology and
Society (formerly Conservation Ecology) is a free online
"peer-reviewed journal of integrative science and fundamental policy
research" with about 11,000 subscribers in about 108 countries.
Hake, R.R. 2004a. "Classroom Communication Systems (was Sotl on
Electronic Personal Response Systems?)," online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0412&L=pod&O=D&P=24855>.
Post of 18
Dec 2004 15:00:07-0800 to AERA-C, AERA-D, AERA-J, AERA-K, ASSESS,
DrEd, EvalTalk, PhysLrnR, POD, and STLHE-L.
Hake, R.R. 2004b. "Classroom Communication Systems - Additional
References," online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0412&L=pod&P=R22831&I=-3> .
Post of 22 Dec 2004 11:03:41-0800 to AERA-C, AERA-D, AERA-J, AERA-K,
ASSESS, DrEd, EvalTalk, PhysLrnR, POD, and STLHE-L.
Hake, R.R. 2005b. "Fourteen Posting Suggestions," online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0507&L=pod&P=R12861&I=-3>.
Post of 23 Jul 2005 11:38:29-0400 to AERA-C, AERA-G, AERA-GSL,
AERA-H, AERA-I, AERA-J, AERA-K, AERA-L, ASSESS, EvalTalk, Math-Learn,
PhysLrnR, POD, STLHE-L, TeachingEdPsych, and TIPS.
Hake, R.R. 2006a. "A Possible Model For Higher Education: The Physics
Reform Effort (Author's Executive Summary)," Spark (American
Astronomical Society Newsletter), June, online at
<http://www.aas.org/education/spark/SparkJune06.pdf> (1.9MB). Scroll
down about 4/5 of the way to the end of the newsletter.
Hake, R.R. 2006b. "Possible Palliatives for the Paralyzing Pre/Post
Paranoia that Plagues Some PEP's" [PEP's = Psychometricians,
Education specialists, and Psychologists], Journal of
MultiDisciplinary Evaluation, Number 6, November, online at
<http://evaluation.wmich.edu/jmde/JMDE_Num006.html>.
Hake, R.R. 2007. "Should We Measure Change? Yes!" online as ref. 43
at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>. To appear as a chapter in
"Evaluation of Teaching and Student Learning in Higher Education," a
Monograph of the American Evaluation Association
<http://www.eval.org/>. A severely truncated version appears at Hake
(2006b).