Teaching Large Classes with Clickers: Results from a Teaching Experiment in Comparative Politics Marcela Velasco, Colorado State University Gamze Çavdar, Colorado State University ABSTRACT Instant-response technologies, or clickers, are student response devices that help address some of the challenges involved in teaching large classes, namely student motiva- tion and engagement with the material. This article evaluates a diverse set of teaching and learning strategies enabled by clicker technology and their impact on student learning. We highlight five aspects of teaching that are enhanced by the use of clickers, describe an experiment comparing student performance in traditional and clicker lectures, and report results of a survey of student perception about the effects of this technology on motivation, learning, and engagement. We argue that while the use of clickers is time-consuming for the instructor and presents a steep learning curve, clickers improve teaching effectiveness in large classes and hold promise for increasing student learning. A lthough large classes have become common in higher education, many instructors are not fully pre- pared to address the challenges they present. These challenges include low student interest, irregular class attendance, low grades, and limited student– instructor interaction. Furthermore, research shows that increased class size has “a negative and statistically significant impact on the amount learned, instructor rating, and course rating” (Monks and Schmidt 2010, 15). Facing some of these challenges, we adopted instant-response technology, or “clickers,” in each of our sections of Introduction to Comparative Government and Politics, which normally enroll 110–190 students. Clicker use refers to “an elec- tronic application where a receiver located in the instructor’s com- puter captures information from student keypads in response to questions posed by the instructor” (Premkumar and Coupal 2008, 146). We share the results of a course redesign to introduce clickers. We analyzed the restructured lectures and how we incorporated clickers, organized a learning experiment, and gathered survey results. The work is based on two courses taught in the fall semes- ter of 2010. Section 1 had 108 students enrolled and met three times a week in 50-minute lectures. Section 2 enrolled 151 stu- dents and met twice a week in 75-minute lectures. The teaching experiment was performed in section 2, and both sections pro- duced data for the survey. Here we argue that while the use of clickers is a time-consuming endeavor that presents the instruc- tor with a steep learning curve, using clickers makes teaching large classes more effective and promises to increase student learning. HOW TO INCORPORATE CLICKERS INTO THE CLASSROOM Incorporating clicker questions into lectures requires a major restructuring of the course slides or outlines. We find that at most, five or six questions can be included in a 50- to 75-minute lecture. Incorporating clicker questions is time-consuming work, and instructors need to plan the pace of the lecture accordingly. We also find that student participation rises considerably when responses receive a grade or when students know that some clicker questions will also appear in the exams. 1 However, instructors should specify which questions are graded and which are not. Our analysis of the way we incorporated clicker questions into our lectures revealed that the technology enhanced the following learning and teaching strategies: (1) student attentiveness, (2) problem-solving group work, (3) real-time assessment of student comprehension, (4) critical thinking skills, and (5) simulation exer- cises. Although this is not an exclusive list, it does address some of the main pedagogical challenges confronting instructors of large classes. Student Attentiveness Maintaining student attentiveness is a major challenge in large classrooms (Bunce, Flens, and Neiles 2010; Hoekstra 2008) for several reasons. First, many university students hold jobs and often work full time (Perna 2010, xiii) and may have trouble finding a proper balance between academic and work responsibilities. Marcela Velasco is an assistant professor in the department of political science at Colo- rado State University. She can be reached at Marcela.Velasco@colostate.edu. Gamze Çavdar is an associate professor in the department of political science at Colo- rado State University. She can be reached at Gamze.Cavdar@colostate.edu. The Teacher ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. doi:10.1017/S1049096513001121 © American Political Science Association, 2013 PS • October 2013 823