Article Cite This: J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Investigating the Influence of Gender on Student Perceptions of the Clicker in a Small Undergraduate General Chemistry Course Emily D. Niemeyer† and Maha Zewail-Foote*,† Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Southwestern University, 1001 East University Avenue, Georgetown, Texas 78626, United States ABSTRACT: The use of electronic response pads or “clickers” is a popular way to engage students and create an active-learning environment, especially within large chemistry courses. We examined students’ perceptions of how the clicker affected their learning, participation, and engagement in the classroom, as well as their overall experience within a first-semester general chemistry course at a liberal arts institution. Overall, students perceived that clickers provided a significant enhancement to their learning, with women valuing the technology to a greater extent. KEYWORDS: First-Year Undergraduate/General, Computer-Based Learning, Women in Chemistry, Chemical Education Research, Testing/Assessment FEATURE: Chemical Education Research
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widely adopted,16 fewer studies have examined how this technology may differentially impact students in the undergraduate science classroom.6,11,22−25 In their research on engineering students in a large introductory chemistry lecture, King and Joshi found that women students “participated more actively” than men (where active participants were defined as students who answered more than 75% of clicker questions during a particular lecture), and that answering clicker questions in class correlated directly with answering similar exam questions correctly.24 In a study of over 2000 students in a high-enrollment general chemistry course, Hoekstra observed gendered patterns of clicker use, with women participants more likely to work in groups to answer clicker questions compared with men who preferred to work alone.22 Reay, Li, and Bao reported that the use of clickers reduced the gap between the performance of women and men on examinations within an introductory calculus-based physics course.6 Terrion and coworkers found that women perceived that active-learning techniques such as using the clicker had a positive influence on their academic performance in science lectures.26 However, in a study of three large university lecture courses, MacGeorge et al. reported that evaluation of clicker technology was not substantially impacted by gender.11 The use of pedagogical strategies that may increase the success and retention of historically underrepresented groups, including women, has been an important focus within the sciences in recent years.27 With the use of clickers in the college chemistry classroom continually increasing,12,28 it is important to examine how this pedagogy may differentially affect the perceptions of women and men within foundational introductory courses. Students’ perceptions of their experiences, particularly factors affecting their motivation and confidence, are known to play critical roles in persistence in
lectronic response pads (also known as personal response systems or “clickers”) are a popular way to facilitate student involvement in science courses using interactive classroom exercises designed to test student comprehension of a particular subject. Additional pedagogical benefits reported for clickers include the instant formative feedback for both students and instructors on student understanding of a given topic and encouragement of more widespread class participation by promoting opportunities for peer collaboration while also providing student anonymity.1−3 The effect of clicker use on student learning has been assessed in a variety of disciplines within the sciences, particularly in physics4−6 and earth science,7,8 with a focus on large lecture settings where it is more challenging to foster an active-learning environment.9−12 Clicker usage in smaller courses has also been examined, but these studies have been limited to laboratory sections,13 upper-level classes,13,14 and an introductory allied health course.15 A recent survey of clicker use in undergraduate chemistry showed that around 21% of instructors regularly use clickers in their courses, with faculty teaching large lectures (>300 students) adopting the technology more readily.16 Clicker use has reported benefits in science classes, such as promoting more active learning, which in turn is associated with improved exam scores and decreased failure rates for students in introductory courses.17 In fact, clickers are a pedagogical strategy that can support constructivist classrooms,18 encouraging students to become active participants in the creation and construction of their own knowledge.19 Activelearning pedagogies are known to generally improve learning for all students within science courses, yet they are particularly advantageous for the performance of women and students from underrepresented groups.20,21 In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that women students would perceive greater benefit than their male counterparts from using the clicker within a small-sized introductory chemistry course. Although clickers are being © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
Received: June 7, 2017 Revised: November 20, 2017
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00389 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Journal of Chemical Education
Article
the sciences.29 Therefore, the goal of this study was to assess student perceptions of clicker use within general chemistry and identify if differences in those perceptions existed between women and men. In addition, we aimed to determine the pedagogical benefits of clickers within smaller chemistry classroom settings (
