The Past, Present, and Future of Clickers: A Review
Many years ago, I maintained an archive of scholarly literature on teaching with classroom response systems. Eventually, there was too much for me to keep up with, so I'm grateful to this recent (2024) literature review from J. Bryan Henderson and Elijah Chambers.
Many novel pedagogies use clickers to facilitate discussion. Research shows learning gains for students and improved student perception with novel pedagogies. Still, students and instructors struggle with clickers in both categories of use. In enhanced classrooms, instructors are concerned about technology, clicker questions, content, and the usage of time. Students may struggle with technology, financial burdens, and reticence for participation. Clicker research, in general, needs to build upon surveys of student/teacher perceptions toward understanding the effects of clickers. Perception data will aid in providing a fuller understanding of how teachers/students are impacted when working with clickers. Preliminary work has shown differential outcomes for specific student cohorts. Fostering more inclusive clicker classrooms demands a better understanding of this impact. This manuscript reviews the past and present of clicker use to explore potential best practices between the two discussed trends, and it concludes by discussing recommendations for future clicker use and research.