Teaching with Classroom Voting

Document Type

Presentation Abstract

Presentation Date

4-5-2007

Abstract

Classroom voting can be a very powerful tool for teaching mathematics that we have successfully integrated into our calculus classes at Carroll College. This technique involves posing multiple-choice questions to the class and having them discuss the issue with their peers before voting on the right answer with a set of hand-held "clickers." Their votes are recorded and tabulated with a computer, giving the instructor almost instantaneous feedback on student understanding. After the vote, we then ask individual students to explain and defend their answers, to justify their vote. Sometimes the answer quickly becomes clear, but the best questions result in an extended debate, as students who chose different answers explain their thoughts. Research on this method indicates that the most powerful effect on student learning comes from these classroom discussions, both before and after the vote. With some organization we have found that classroom voting requires no additional class time, allowing us to cover exactly the same syllabus and give similar exams to what we covered before classroom voting. Instead we replace many of the examples that would be done on the board with similar problems that the students do themselves, as well as use voting questions to provoke common misconceptions and bring up issues that would otherwise be dealt with in a lecture format. We have recently received an NSF grant to develop a library of classroom voting questions for differential equations and linear algebra classes and are looking for colleagues who might be interested in testing these materials.

Additional Details

Thursday, 5 April 2007
4:10 p.m. in Math 109

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