Chan, Yin Ha, Emmy

Cheung, Man Wai, Janet

Wong, Nga Lun Alan

English

VTC Institutional Repository (Vocational Training Council)

ORAL PRESENTATION Open AccessEngaging students with clickers in languagelessonsJanet, Man-wai Cheung1*, Alan, Nga-lun Wong1, Emmy, Yin-ha Chan2From Practical Social and Industrial Research (PSIR) Symposium 2014Wanchai, Hong Kong. 5 December 2014BackgroundTo engage students, researchers have been integratingclickers in classroom delivery for study. Clickers, alsoknown as ‘personal response systems’[1], ‘student responsesystems (SRS), audience response systems (ARS), or perso-nal response systems (PRS)’,[2] are a technology that allowstudents to respond to the teacher in real time and receiveinstant feedback from the teacher, thus enhancing learningand teaching[3]. Featuring instance and interaction, thetechnology can cater to students’ needs and learning stylesas ‘[Net Generations] are used to interactive, participatory,investigative enquiry’[3]. Some researchers have exploredthe functions and effectiveness of clickers for use as ques-tion aids in class[4], promotion of active learning[1,2] andimprovement in learning[5]. This study aimed to investi-gate the effect of clickers as a pedagogical approach onstudent satisfaction.MethodsA web app with the clicker function was integrated intothe teaching of English and Communication at FoundationDiploma Level in IVE (LWL), wherever found suitable, asa pedagogical method to engage learners for one semesterin one of the classes in which three English modules weredelivered. The three modules included one listening andspeaking module and two reading and writing modules.The two classes involved in this research were taught bythe same teacher. The same sets of TLP were used in the2 classes, but the difference was in the delivery of selectedactivities during class: adoption of clickers versus non-technology-aided activities. The teacher would explainanswers based on the instant results from the clickers. Thecorresponding exercises would be replaced by other activ-ities such as discussion in the other class. With modelanswers, the questions were set in the form of multiplechoice or short questions. At the end of the semester, thetwo classes were invited to do a perception survey andinterview.ResultsStudents reflected that using clickers motivated them tolearn in lessons (mean: 3.64), supported their learning(mean: 3.72) and reflected the learning progress to theteacher (mean: 3.74), and these values were higher thanthose in the class using non-technology-aided activities(reported means of 3.33, 3.71 and 3.71, respectively).Seventy-two per cent of the students indicated theirinterest in future lessons with clicker technology.As challenges, 26% reflected that they were distractedby the mobile technology, which is 5% higher than thatin the other class. Failed and incomplete clickerattempts were recorded in all of the clicker activitiesdue to a weak Wi-Fi connection. The average rate ofincompletion of clicker activities was around 43%.ConclusionsIn general, the positivity in students’ feedback showed thefavorability of clickers as a learning tool. In future, clickerquestioning techniques, effective ways of embeddingclickers in teaching, and their relation with active learn-ing and learning effectiveness can be areas for furtherstudy.Authors’ details1Centre for Learning and Teaching, Vocational Training Council, Hong Kong.2Language Centre, Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Lee WaiLee), Hong Kong.Published: 4 December 2014References1. Sternberger CS: Interactive learning environment: Engaging studentsusing clickers. Nurs Educ Perspect 2012, 33(2):121-124.* Correspondence: janet@vtc.edu.hk1Centre for Learning and Teaching, Vocational Training Council, Hong KongFull list of author information is available at the end of the articleCheung et al. SpringerPlus 2014, 3(Suppl 1):O8http://www.springerplus.com/content/3/S1/O8a SpringerOpen Journal© 2014 Cheung et al; licensee Springer. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative CommonsAttribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction inany medium, provided the original work is properly credited.2. Martyn M: Clickers in the classroom: An active learning approach.Educausereview Online [Internet]., c-2007 [cited 2013 Dec 2]. Availablefrom: http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/clickers-classroom-active-learning-approach.3. Murphy B, Smark CJ: N-Gens of change: Personal response systems andNet-Generation students. University of Wollongong Research Online[Internet]., c-2006 [cited 2014 Feb 19]. Available from: http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3211&context=commpapers.4. Laxman K: A study on the adoption of clickers in higher education.Australasian J Educ Technol 2011, 27(8):1201-1303.5. Yourstone SA, Kraye HS, Albaum G: Classroom questioning withimmediate electronic response: Do clickers improve learning? DecisionSciences Journal of Innovative Education 2008, 6(1):75-88.doi:10.1186/2193-1801-3-S1-O8Cite this article as: Cheung et al.: Engaging students with clickers inlanguage lessons. SpringerPlus 2014 3(Suppl 1):O8.Submit your manuscript to a journal and benefi t from:7 Convenient online submission7 Rigorous peer review7 Immediate publication on acceptance7 Open access: articles freely available online7 High visibility within the fi eld7 Retaining the copyright to your article    Submit your next manuscript at 7 springeropen.comCheung et al. SpringerPlus 2014, 3(Suppl 1):O8http://www.springerplus.com/content/3/S1/O8Page 2 of 2

Engaging students with clickers in language lessons

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Engaging students with clickers in language lessons

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