CLICKERS, REMOTE RESPONSE DEVICES. A STRATEGY OF ACTIVE LEARNING METHODOLOGY TO INCREASE THE SUBJECT MOTIVATION, PARTICIPATION AND ATTENTION OF STUDENTS

Traditional teaching methods used in the classes result in passive learning where the students are expected to attend class and collect information from the teacher, playing the role of passive observer. As the class progresses their level of attention is reduced, nevertheless, student engagement is important for learning. The increase of the class size in the first year of university also contributes to this. On the other hand, advances in modern technology and social changes appeared nowadays have enabled students to learn more easily using new learning methods that have been developed, such as the classroom response technique called “clickers”. This response devices increase participation and attention during the class due to the increased motivation towards the subject, promote teacher-student interactivity and allow learners to assess their performance in relation to that of their peers. Moreover, this makes sessions more enjoyable.

The teacher can screen in real time the presence, involvement and continuous assessments of every student and can be aware of their mistakes thanks to the students’ feedback.

We evaluate the impact of the implementation of the clickers on the results obtained in the Chemical Engineering Fundamentals subject coursed in the first year of Industrial Engineering Degree.

In this study, we have implemented these devices in a classroom as follows. After introducing concepts the teacher presents Power Point slides with several teacher-created questions (multiple choice questions) about the previously teached concepts in order to enable the students to answer at the end of each master class. Students respond individually by using their clicker and the teacher promotes a discussion for every question, explaining why its answer is correct and solving students’ mistakes.

Although at the beginning, students showed reluctance towards this new activity, after trying it they became very interested in the response devices and perceived clickers as a positive addition to their classes.