USING A PERSONAL RESPONSE SYSTEM TO PROMOTE AND ASSESS PEER LEARNING DURING LECTURE: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

The use of personal response systems (PRS) has become fairly common in large and small classrooms. Their use has ranged from collecting attendance to administering exams and quizzes. Several advantages to using a PSR include: the students and instructor receive immediate feedback, everybody responds (especially if using the PRS in anonymous mode), data is collected by the system for later review, and class attendance improves. Several potential disadvantages to using a PRS are the setup time required (if used in a multiuse classroom or moved between classrooms) and the time taken from traditional lecture. A PRS was used at Muskingum College during the 2003-2004 academic year to collect data about the effectiveness of incorporating conceptests into introductory geology classes to promote peer learning. Conceptests are questions specifically designed to assess a student’s understanding of principal concepts underlying lecture material. They are multiple-choice questions that feature one correct answer and reasonable distracter answers that typically reflect student misconceptions. One or two conceptests were given during lecture and anonymous responses were collected from the students using the PRS system. Approximately 30 questions were used during the course of the semester. Most questions used during the semester generated between 40 and 70 percent correct responses the first time the class was polled. The class was then instructed to discuss the question with nearby students for several minutes after which the class was polled a second time. In nearly every case the number of students answering the question correctly increased with the second polling of the class. This suggests that peer instruction resulted in an increase in the understanding of geologic principles. The GALT (Group Assessment of Logical Thinking) and Libarkin tests were used to assess the effectiveness of the use of a PRS and conceptests in promoting peer learning. The average GALT score improved from 7.4 (beginning of semester) to 8.0 (end of semester) and the average Libarkin raw score improved from 9.5 (beginning) to 11.3 (end of semester). In conclusion it appears that the advantages of using a PRS outweigh the disadvantages and that using a PRS in combination with conceptests increase peer learning during lecture.