Investigating Instructional Influences on the Productivity of Clicker Discussions

智力优点：该项目通过描述学生讨论和测试教学方法的变化如何影响这些讨论的生产力，将研究和教育结合起来。 教授科罗拉多大学生物学导论不同部分的教师正在促使学生讨论推理，提供富有成效的讨论模式，培训讨论主持人，或让个人和团体对他们的讨论负责。 教师和多个小组的学生的反应是无线录音和成绩单评分，以评估在这些不同的设置讨论的质量和有效性。 研究结果有助于确定哪些学习技巧导致了更富有成效的讨论。 该项目的成果包括改进了适用于点击器讨论的编码工具，建立了一个包含数百份编码学生成绩单的数据库，并审查和分发了“有效点击器讨论指南”。“更广泛的影响：该项目提供了必要的信息，以开发一个更好的生物学导论和其他课程的师生学习伙伴关系的平台。 “有成效的点击器讨论指南”和其他可交付成果的分发也将使更多的个人和机构受益于该项目。 此外，学生不太可能把科学作为职业（例如，来自代表性不足群体的学生）受益于更广泛地采用以讨论为导向的方式，使用点击式问题，因为这种方式在课堂上形成了一种文化，通过分享想法和理由进行富有成效的互动，并促进建立包容性的同龄群体。

Intellectual merit: This project integrates research and education by characterizing student discussions and testing how changes in pedagogy impact productivity of these discussions. Faculty teaching different sections of Introductory Biology at the University of Colorado are prompting their students to discuss reasoning, providing models of productive discussion, training discussion facilitators, or holding individuals and groups accountable for their discussions. The responses by faculty and multiple small groups of students are audiotaped wirelessly and transcripts scored to assess the quality and effectiveness of discussions under these different settings. The results are helping determine which learning techniques have resulted in more productive discussions. Outcomes of this project include the refinement of coding tools applicable to clicker discussions, a database of hundreds of coded student transcripts, and a vetted and disseminated "Guide to Productive Clicker Discussions." Broader impacts: This project provides needed information to develop a platform for a better instructor-student learning partnership in introductory biology, and possibly other courses. The dissemination of the "Guide to Productive Clicker Discussion" and other deliverables also will allow additional individuals and institutions to benefit from the project. Moreover, students less likely to pursue science as a career (e.g., those from underrepresented groups), benefit from more widespread implementation of a discussion-oriented style using clicker questions because this style engenders a culture in the classroom of interacting productively through sharing ideas and justifications and promoting the establishment of inclusive peer groups.