Scientific Reasoning Research Institute - classroom response systems

beatty-2009itc

ibeatty — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:56:00 +0000

Illuminating teacher change and professional development with CHAT

Beatty, Ian D.
Feldman, Allan

(2009)

In the Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Garden Grove CA, Apr 20.

Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment (TEFA) is an innovative pedagogy for science and mathematics instruction. Teacher Learning of TEFA is a research project studying teacher change as in-service secondary science and mathematics teachers learn TEFA in the context of a multi-year professional development (PD) program. Applying cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to the linked activity systems of PD and teachers’ classroom practice leads to a model of teacher learning and pedagogical change in which TEFA is first introduced into classrooms as an object of activity, and then made useful as a tool for instruction, and then—in rare cases—incorporated into all elements of a deeply transformed practice. Different levels of contradiction within and between activity systems drive the transitions between stages. CHAT analysis also suggests that the primary contradiction within secondary education is a dual view of students as objects of instruction versus students as willful individuals; the difficulties arising from this contradiction can either inhibit or motivate TEFA adoption.

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full text (PDF)	1.7 MB

lee-2009tic

ibeatty — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:16:14 +0000

Teachers' implementation of a classroom response system for formative assessment in secondary science and mathematics

Lee, Hyun Ju
Feldman, Allan
Beatty, Ian D.

(2009)

Conference paper accompanying a presentation at the 2009 Annual International Conference of the US National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Garden Grove CA, Apr 18.

This study of Technology Enhanced Formative Assessment (TEFA) reports on how secondary school science and math teachers learn to implement TEFA pedagogy using classroom response system technology, and identifies factors that impede implementation. We found that teachers struggled with both extrinsic factors, which are characteristics of the teacher's context that hinder them from implementing the technology and pedagogy, and intrinsic factors, which are characteristics of the teacher that impede implementation. The major extrinsic factors that we found are technology malfunctions, limitations, and availability of support; time and curriculum pressure; student attitudes and abilities; and characteristics of the TEFA professional development program. We found intrinsic factors of two separate types. The first type consists of gaps in teachers' knowledge and skills needed to operate the technology, develop TEFA questions, integrate TEFA into curriculum, orchestrate classroom discussion, and practice formative assessment. The second type consists of teachers' perspectives, beliefs, philosophy, attitudes, fears, doubts, uncertainties, background and experiences, which we collectively refer to as "ways of being a teacher."

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Conference Paper (PDF)	936.4 KB

beatty-2009tef

ibeatty — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:47:47 +0000

Technology-enhanced formative assessment: A research-based pedagogy for teaching science with classroom response technology

Beatty, Ian D.
Gerace, William J.

(2009)

Journal of Science Education and Technology, 18(2) 146.

Classroom response systems (CRSs) are a promising instructional technology, but most literature on CRS use fails to distinguish between technology and pedagogy, to define and justify a pedagogical perspective, or to discriminate between pedagogies. Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment (TEFA) is our pedagogy for CRS-based science instruction, informed by experience and by several traditions of educational research. In TEFA, 4 principles enjoin the practice of question-driven instruction, dialogical discourse, formative assessment, and meta-level communication. These are enacted via the question cycle, an iterative pattern of CRS-based questioning that can serve multiple instructional needs. TEFA should improve CRS use and help teachers "bridge the gap" between educational research findings and practical, flexible classroom strategies for science instruction.

Permalink(s): SpringerLink

DOI(s): 10.1007/s10956-008-9140-4

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Reprint (PDF)	245.8 KB

feldman-2008tlt

root — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:16:19 +0000

Teacher learning of technology-enhanced formative assessment

Feldman, Allan
Capobianco, Brenda M.

(2008)

Journal of Science Education and Technology, 17(1):82–99.

This study examined the integration of technology enhanced formative assessment into teachers' practice. Participants were high school physics teachers interested in improving their use of a classroom response system (CRS) to promote formative assessment (FA). Data were collected using interviews, direct classroom observations, and collaborative discussions. The physics teachers engaged in collaborative action research to learn how to use FA and CRS to promote student and teacher learning. Data were analyzed using open coding, cross-case analysis, and content analysis. Results from data analysis allowed researchers to construct a model for knowledge skills necessary for the integration of technology enhanced formative assessment into teachers' practice. The model is as a set of four technologies: hardware and software; methods for constructing FA items; pedagogical methods; and curriculum integration. The model is grounded in the idea that teachers must develop these respective technologies as they interact with the CRS (i.e. hardware and software, item construction) and their existing practice (i.e. pedagogical methods, curriculum). Implications are that for teachers to make FA an integral part of their practice using CRS, they must: 1) engage in the four technologies; 2) understand the nature of FA; and 3) collaborate with other interested teachers through action research.

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Complete article (PDF)	707.54 KB

beatty-2008tlt2

root — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:07:40 +0000

Teacher Learning of Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment

Beatty, Ian D.
Feldman, Allan
Leonard, William J.
Gerace, William J.
St. Cyr, Karen E.
Lee, Hyunju
Harris, Robby J.

(2008)

Conference paper accompanying a special symposium presented at the 2008 Annual International Conference of the US National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Baltimore, MD, Apr 01.

Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment (TEFA) is a pedagogy for teaching with classroom response technology. Teacher Learning of TEFA is a five-year research project studying teacher change, in the context of an intensive professional development program designed to help science and mathematics teachers learn TEFA. First, we provide an overview of the project's participating teachers, its intervention (consisting of the technology, the pedagogy, and the professional development program), and its research design. Then, we present narratives describing the unfolding change process experienced by four teachers. Afterward, we present some preliminary findings of the research, describe a "model for the co-evolution of teacher and pedagogy" that we are developing, and identify general implications for professional development.

Permalink(s): in ERIC database

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Full conference paper (PDF)	355.8 KB

beatty-2008tia

root — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:14:40 +0000

Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment: An innovative approach to student-centered science teaching

Beatty, Ian D.
Gerace, William J.
Feldman, Allan P.
Leonard, William J.

(2008)

Paper accompanying Allan Feldman's talk to the Association of Science Teacher Educators (ASTE), Jan 10-12 2008, St. Louis MO.

Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment (TEFA) is an innovative pedagogical approach to secondary and post-secondary science instruction that uses classroom response system technology to teach in accord with educational research findings about effective learning environments. TEFA is built upon four core principles, which we label question-driven instruction, dialogical discourse, formative assessment, and meta-level communication. These are implemented in the classroom with an iterative question cycle. Mastering TEFA requires developing skill in five different areas: operating the technology, designing effective questions to pose to students, orchestrating whole-class discussion, modeling students and adapting to their needs, and integrating the TEFA approach with curricula and constraints. The details of how teachers learn, assimilate, and adapt TEFA are the object of a current research project.

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Complete conference paper (PDF)	268.46 KB

beatty-2006qdi

root — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:11:47 +0000

Question Driven Instruction: Teaching science (well) with an audience response system

Beatty, Ian D.
Leonard, William J.
Gerace, William J.
Dufresne, Robert J.

(2006)

Chapter 7 in Banks, David A. (ed.), Audience Response Systems in Higher Education: Applications and Cases (Idea Group Inc., Hershey PA).

Audience response systems (ARS) are a tool, not a magic bullet. How they are used and how well they are integrated into a coherent pedagogical approach determines how effective they are. Question Driven Instruction (QDI) is a radical approach in which an ARS-mediated "question cycle" organizes classroom instruction, replacing the "transmit and test" paradigm with an iterative process of question posing, deliberation, commitment to an answer, and discussion. It is an implementation of "real-time formative assessment." In QDI, an ARS is used to facilitate and direct discussion, to engage students in active knowledge-building, and to support "agile teaching" by providing the instructor with constant feedback about students' evolving understanding and difficulties. Class time is used primarily for interactively developing understanding rather than for presenting content; in QDI, an instructor is more an engineer of learning experiences than a dispenser of knowledge. This requires new teaching skills, such as moderating discussion and managing the classroom dynamic, interpreting students' statements and modeling their learning, making real-time teaching decisions, and designing ARS questions that teach rather than test and that target process as well as content. Above all, it requires understanding and communicating that ARS use is diagnostic and instructional rather than evaluative.

ISBN: 1-59140-947-0 (hardcover), 1-59140-948-9 (paperback), 1-59140-949-7 (e-book)

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Chapter preprint (PDF)	302.98 KB

The book is available in paperback, hardcover, and PDF download. Check the prices: as of 2007-11-21, the hardcover was cheaper than the paperback via Amazon!

CRS Systems List

root — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 02:53:21 +0000

This is a list (most likely incomplete) of extant classroom response systems, with comments on some of them.

On 2007-10-05, we updated all the links. We have NOT recently updated the list of systems represented here, or re-informed our opinions about them. If you know of any classroom response systems that belong on this list, or want to update us on the status of one listed here, we'd love to know. Thanks! -- ed

This list includes dedicated classroom response/communication systems, as well as presentation and distance learning systems that have question-posing, response-gathering functionality. If you know of a system we haven't listed here, please let us know and tell us where to find more information.

Opinions and notes about the various systems are our current impressions only. Many are based on only a shallow review of online literature, and may not do justice to the system. They are included here to help the reader (and ourselves) begin to categorize and make sense of the myriad options available.

Commercial

Calculator Clients (proprietary network)

Classtalk by Better Education (Discontinued)
The granddaddy of CCS... Ahead of its time with its rich feature set and pedagogic support, but plagued by a finicky proprietary network and fragile software. No longer in use at UMass.

TI-Navigator by Texas Instruments
A wired-plus-wireless network for connecting TI graphing calculators to a teacher's computer in order to distribute problem sets, share results, etc. Aimed primarily at the K-12 market. Not suitable for large university classes.

Proprietary, Dedicated Clients (mostly infrared-based)

PRS and PRS-RF by InterWrite (GTCO CalComp)
Infrared system using a proprietary remote control ("clicker"), supporting only multiple-choice answers with low/normal/high confidence level. They've just come out with a new RF-based system that looks pretty darn nice, and we've chosen it for our TLT project. Control software now runs on Mac as well as Windows. Used extensively at UMass.

CPS by eInstruction
Similar to PRS, though we found annoying shortcomings in the software (possibly resolved by the time you read this: the software is under active development).

H-ITT by Hyper-Interactive Teaching Technology
Supposedly an alternative to PRS with much less expensive "clickers"

ACTIVote by Promethean
Unknown.

Qwizdom by Quizdom, Inc.
Unknown.

Laptop/Tablet/Palmtop Clients (Ethernet/WiFi)

Discourse by ETS
Discontinued??

Silicon Chalk by Horizon Wimba
Unknown.

Pocket Classroom & LearnTrac by eLearning Dynamics
PDA-based CCS (Pocket Classroom is for iPaq-type devices, LearnTrac is for PalmOS devices) with relatively simple polling, statistical reporting, and messaging capabilities. (Discontinued??)

SmartTRAX by LearnStar
Unknown.

Virtual Rooms by Hewlett-Packard
Unknown.

DyKnow
Essentially a shared-whiteboard system, sending contents of an instructor's electronic whiteboard (or tablet PC) to students and allowing students' drawings to be returned to the instructor or shared with the class. Claims some support for multiple-choice questions with answer reporting to the instructor, as well as assignment-submission and grading. MS Windows only.

Cell Phone Clients (SMS + Web)

Poll Everywhere
Students use their own cell phones to send SMS text messages with their question responses, and the instructor uses a web site to see results. Priced for access to the web site/service, according to the maximum number of students to be permitted in a class.

Noncommercial/Home-Grown

Numina by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Unknown.

Classroom Presenter by the University of Washington
Primarily presentation software (PowerPoint on steroids) taking advantage of the tablet PC's inking abilities. Has added some support for sending questions to a class and gathering answers, by means of multiple-choice questions that are "inked" to indicate an answer, and gathered back to the instructor. Not a full-featured CCS in the classic sense.

Beyond Question by Erskine College
Unknown.

ActiveClass by University of California at San Diego
Subsumed into the ActiveCampus project? Discontinued??

Sledgehammer by Purdue
PDA-based CCS: discontinued? Vaporware??

beatty-2006deq

root — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:27:56 +0000

Designing effective questions for classroom response system teaching

Beatty, Ian D.
Gerace, William J.
Leonard, William J.
Dufresne, Robert J.

(2006)

American Journal of Physics 74(1), 31-39.

Classroom response systems (CRSs) can be potent tools for teaching physics. Their efficacy, however, depends strongly on the quality of the questions used. Creating effective questions is difficult, and differs from creating exam and homework problems. Every CRS question should have an explicit pedagogic purpose consisting of a content goal, a process goal, and a metacognitive goal. Questions can be engineered to fulfil their purpose through four complementary mechanisms: directing students' attention, stimulating specific cognitive processes, communicating information to instructor and students via CRS-tabulated answer counts, and facilitating the articulation and confrontation of ideas. We identify several tactics that help in the design of potent questions, and present four "makeovers" showing how these tactics can be used to convert traditional physics questions into more powerful CRS questions

Permalink(s): Arxiv (physics/0508114), Scitation

DOI(s): 10.1119/1.212175

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Complete article (PDF)	890.1 KB

Based upon a talk given by Ian Beatty at the Winter 2005 AAPT meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (This paper replaces beatty-2005deq, which was the preprint version.)