Active student response (ASR) techniques are strategies to elicit observable responses from students in a classroom. They are grounded in the field of behavioralism and operate by increasing opportunities reinforcement during class time, typically in the form of instructor praise. Active student response techniques are designed so that student behavior, such as responding aloud to a question, is quickly followed by reinforcement if correct. Common form of active student response techniques are choral responding, response cards, guided notes, and clickers. While they are commonly used for disabled populations, these strategies can be applied at many different levels of education. Implementing active student response techniques has been shown to increase learning, but may require extra supplies or preparation by the instructor.
History
Active student response techniques are grounded in the field of behaviorism, a movement in psychology that believes behaviors are responses to stimuli and motivated by past reinforcement. The field has its origins in experiments of Edward Thorndike, who pioneered the Law of effect, which is now known as reinforcement and punishment. Thorndike explained that behaviors that produce a positive effect become more likely to reoccur, given the same scenario. Conversely, behaviors that produce a negative effect become less likely to reoccur.
Psychologist B.F. Skinner applied the principles of behaviorism to influence education. Skinner believed that students must be active in the classroom and that effective instruction is based on positive reinforcement. According to Skinner, teachers should avoid punishment, as it only teaches students to avoid punishment. Instead, lessons should be broken into small tasks with clear instruction and positive reinforcement. His beliefs led him to invent the teaching machine. Active student response techniques use Skinner's model to provide rapid reinforcement for desired responses. This increases the likelihood the responses will occur again. Also, these techniques may give instructors an opportunity to embrace technology in the classroom.
The foundation of active student response techniques is behaviorism's stimulus-response-reinforcement paradigm. A stimulus is any environmental change that may produce a response. In an academic setting, a stimulus is often a verbal cue. The response may be any change by the subject, such as an emotion or a behavior. Reinforcers are either positive or negative. In an academic setting, confirmation of a correct answer may be a positive reinforcer. So, active student response techniques aim to arrange the paradigm so the response is most correct. This includes separating instruction into small, achievable steps, providing clear and quick feedback, and including many repetitions. As a result, the correct response will have a strong relationship to the stimulus, creating more learning.
Methods
Choral responding
Choral responding is a low-tech, high-ASR strategy that paces instruction throughout a class. In this strategy, students are prompted to respond orally in unison to questions posed by an instructor. For choral responding to work, questions must be presented clearly, be able to answered briefly, and have one correct answer. Choral responding is useful for reviewing subject matter, solving problems, or spelling words. It may be used to review previously covered content or provide feedback throughout a class period. Choral responding is effective in both small- and whole-group instruction, for students from preschool through secondary grades, in both general education and special education, as measured by learning outcomes.
The instructional format for choral responding is the following:
Instructor poses a question (e.g. "What is 9x9?") Appropriate wait-time pause Instructor uses a clear signal (e.g. "Tell me.") Instructor provides feedback for the majority answer (e.g. Correct! 9x9 is 81.")
Response cards
Response cards are cards, signs, or other objects held up by students in unison in response to a question posed by an instructor. Write-on response cards, such as whiteboards, allow students to write their answers on the spot and erase between learning trials. Pre-printed response cards are pre-made and are often true/false or colors to indicate answers. Both types of response cards promote high-ASR by allowing all students to respond to all questions, instead of one student responding to each. Instructors can easily gauge learning using response cards.
The instructional format of response cards is similar to choral responding, as follows: