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This module covers different strategies for dealing with unexpected situations that may arise from clicker use.

An instructor who has not used clickers before may encounter three novel situations. These can be positive experiences if you are ready for them and respond accordingly, but can be quite negative if you are not.

  1. You have given the clearest explanation you know how, yet it is obvious from responses to a clicker question that students are not getting it. When you try to give up and go on, students respond assertively, saying that it is obvious they don’t understand this and you need to teach it right before going on.

In dealing with this situation, the most important thing to keep in mind is that it happens, so be prepared for it and don’t panic. Recognize that it is not entirely negative; it indicates that students are taking much more responsibility for their learning and setting higher expectations for learning than in a traditional course. Chastising the class for being unprepared, stupid, or inattentive (even if some of this is true) produces quite negative reactions. If you find yourself unable to figure out in real time how to clarify the point by presenting it in a different way, try to find a student in the class who can clarify and/or address their confusion. If that fails, then just admit to the class that you are stuck, and say you will return to this point in the next class after more thought. Encourage the students to do the same. Then make sure you do return to the topic as promised.

  1. You are asked a question that is sufficiently deep that you do not know the answer. A good clicker question and discussion generates far more and deeper questions from students than encountered in a non-clicker class, so this is a much more likely occurrence when using clickers.

Deal with this as in case 1. Admit you do not know the answer, say that you will research the subject to try to figure out the answer by next class, and encourage the students to do the same. At start of next class, see if any students came up with the answer, and if not provide the answer you figured out. It is particularly valuable if you are quite explicit in explaining what was challenging about the question, and how you went about finding out or figuring out the answer. This models expert thinking in a way students very seldom get to see and they often find quite memorable when it is displayed in cases like this. Of course, explicitly modeling expert problem solving in this way is also beneficial when answering clicker questions, but it is seldom as memorable for students as when there is a question they saw you could not answer initially.

  1. There are so many good questions that you do not see how you can answer them and come close to getting through all the material you planned to cover that day.

Again, this should be seen as a positive event. The best indicator of a good clicker question is probably how many thoughtful follow up questions it generates. For this case of “too many” questions, the first thing you should do is analyze how many of the students are asking questions. If it is a relatively small number and they are the students who frequently ask questions, it is likely rest of class will be annoyed if too much time is spent on answering questions from that group. Then it is best to tell those students you will talk with them individually after class or during your office hours, and move on. However, if you have a situation that is fairly unique to clicker classes, where there are questions from many students, including those who do not ask frequent questions, you should remember that when a substantial fraction of the class is interested and asking questions, they will learn much more from what you tell them in response to those questions at that time than anything else you can teach them. Also remind yourself that their interest in and learning of the subject is more important than your covering the topics in the order and pace you had originally planned. So adjust your lesson accordingly in real time.

Questions & Answers

A golfer on a fairway is 70 m away from the green, which sits below the level of the fairway by 20 m. If the golfer hits the ball at an angle of 40° with an initial speed of 20 m/s, how close to the green does she come?
Aislinn Reply
cm
tijani
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John Reply
what is physics
Siyaka Reply
A mouse of mass 200 g falls 100 m down a vertical mine shaft and lands at the bottom with a speed of 8.0 m/s. During its fall, how much work is done on the mouse by air resistance
Jude Reply
Can you compute that for me. Ty
Jude
what is the dimension formula of energy?
David Reply
what is viscosity?
David
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emma Reply
what is chemistry
Youesf Reply
what is inorganic
emma
Chemistry is a branch of science that deals with the study of matter,it composition,it structure and the changes it undergoes
Adjei
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Adjanou
chemistry could also be understood like the sexual attraction/repulsion of the male and female elements. the reaction varies depending on the energy differences of each given gender. + masculine -female.
Pedro
A ball is thrown straight up.it passes a 2.0m high window 7.50 m off the ground on it path up and takes 1.30 s to go past the window.what was the ball initial velocity
Krampah Reply
2. A sled plus passenger with total mass 50 kg is pulled 20 m across the snow (0.20) at constant velocity by a force directed 25° above the horizontal. Calculate (a) the work of the applied force, (b) the work of friction, and (c) the total work.
Sahid Reply
you have been hired as an espert witness in a court case involving an automobile accident. the accident involved car A of mass 1500kg which crashed into stationary car B of mass 1100kg. the driver of car A applied his brakes 15 m before he skidded and crashed into car B. after the collision, car A s
Samuel Reply
can someone explain to me, an ignorant high school student, why the trend of the graph doesn't follow the fact that the higher frequency a sound wave is, the more power it is, hence, making me think the phons output would follow this general trend?
Joseph Reply
Nevermind i just realied that the graph is the phons output for a person with normal hearing and not just the phons output of the sound waves power, I should read the entire thing next time
Joseph
Follow up question, does anyone know where I can find a graph that accuretly depicts the actual relative "power" output of sound over its frequency instead of just humans hearing
Joseph
"Generation of electrical energy from sound energy | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore" ***ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7150687?reload=true
Ryan
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Maurice Reply
what are the types of wave
Maurice
answer
Magreth
progressive wave
Magreth
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Muhammad Reply
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Mohammed
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Mujahid
A string is 3.00 m long with a mass of 5.00 g. The string is held taut with a tension of 500.00 N applied to the string. A pulse is sent down the string. How long does it take the pulse to travel the 3.00 m of the string?
yasuo Reply
Who can show me the full solution in this problem?
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Source:  OpenStax, Clicker resource guide. OpenStax CNX. Apr 11, 2010 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10724/1.2
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