Collecting Feedback

Page created by Laura Guertin (Pennsylvania State University Brandywine) and Rebecca Teed (SERC)

Interactive lectures give instructors a variety of ways to get feedback on how well students are learning the material before they take a quiz or exam (more than a visual scanning of the students for glazed eyes, bewildered looks, or engaged students can provide). This feedback

• provides immediate or rapid responses from students
• allows for an immediate response from you (or rapid in the case of written feedback)

If most of the class understands, you can move on. If not, it's time to work on the topic some more (assessing and repeating as necessary).

Collecting Responses to Multiple-Choice Questions

In situations where the students are working as individuals, questions with multiple choice answers (such as Conceptests) can be assessed quantitatively, but participation may have to be enforced (a participation grade may provide an incentive).

• Have students raise their hands and count or estimate: This option is easy to implement, but can be misleading if:
  • Students look around and change their answer to whatever the majority supports
  • Some students who don't raise their hands
• Have students simultaneously hold up cards (on a count of three):
  • The cards, usually in a set of three for each student, with a big "A", "B", or "C" printed on them, are prepared and distributed by the instructor, and should be collected at the end of class.
  • In a traditional lecture hall in which all students face the instructor, you can see what the students have answered, but they can't see what anyone else has answered (except by looking behind them, which will only allow a partial view).
• Have students use finger signals (Paulson, 1999 )
  • To answer, students hold their hands up to their chests, so other students can't easily see them, but the instructor can.
  • Students hold up one finger for "A", two for "B", etc. If they don't know the answer, they hold up a closed fist.
• Use electronic classroom communication systems.
  • These look and work somewhat like TV remote controls.
  • The student can punch in their answer (A, B, C) and a central computer receives and records all of the signals.
  • The computer is usually set up to summarize and record the data, not only for the whole class but also for individual students. Some of these devices also allow a student to include an estimate of confidence in their answer.
  • A display of the results of the class as a whole is also provided by these systems, allowing both the instructor and the student to know what percent of the class picked each answer.
Learn more about classroom communication systems here.

Written Responses

Questions or problems with variable, open-ended, or complex responses can be used as the basis for think-pair-share or longer activities. The Question of the Day response is written (or drawn, or calculated). Written feedback from these activities also enables instructors to quickly assess student learning.

• Have each student write their answer (observations of an outcrop or interpretation of a graph given on a handout) and turn in for credit/no credit
• Have each student write a short paper on an index card or fill in a worksheet summarizing their group's findings or answering questions about it and turn it in for a grade.
• Have each student write a reponse to one or two questions given a few minutes before the end of class (commonly called one-minute papers). The instructor reads responses and uses the first part of the next class to address questions raised by the student responses. If pressed for time, read a random sampling of these papers and do a whole-class assessment based on those. Common questions for the one-minute papers include:
• What was the most important point made in class today?
• What was the muddiest point of the class today?
• What is one question you have about the material presented in class today?

Why Wait? Informally Assess Learning during Group or Pair Activities

Listening to your students' discussion during as part of the follow-up to an activity will also enable you to assess their understanding. This can supplement or replace written feedback.

• During the activity, listen in on a few random groups and do a rough assessment of how well they understand the topic (and if they are on topic).
  • This encourages students to stay on task.
  • You can offer help to groups that are struggling with the activity, or quickly make adjustments if the whole class is having trouble.
• For a follow-up summary/discussion: pick groups or students within groups to report at random.
• Have all groups report. This is helpful when each group has something different to say (for example if each group is looking at a different aspect of a problem) and the class size is small enough to do so. It may be useful to have each group designate a spokesperson who will speak for the group.

Responding to the Responses

One of the challenges of interactive lecturing is dealing with incorrect answers. If many students don't understand, you or you haven't explained it properly, or it's simply a very difficult topic. At least with an interactive lecture, you discover the problem early.

It is important to respond to student answers and to think carefully about how you will handle incorrect answers.

• If multiple-choice answers are evenly divided, many or most students may not understand the question or may be guessing. You will need to decide how to address the issue. You could give a different explanation or could use student responses, careful questioning, and discussion to resolve the issue.
• If it's only one or a few groups that are wrong, the class size is small, and you have time, enable them to get back on track using techniques like Socratic Questioning, and then move on.
• If you give one-minute papers at the end of class, it is important that you indicate to the students that you have read their answers to the questions posed and that you address any issues raised by their responses.

References and Resources

Dufresne et al., 1996

Judson, E., and Sawada, D., 2002, Learning from Past and Present: Electronic Response Systems in College Lecture Halls. Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, v. 21, n. 2, p. 167-181.

Shapiro, J.A., 1997, Student Response Found Feasible in Large Science Lecture Hall. Journal of College Science Teaching, v. 26, n. 6, p. 408-412.