Do clickers open minds? Use of a questioning strategy in developmental mathematics

The purpose of this research was to determine if there were differences in academic performance between students who participated in a traditional mathematics class compared to a class which incorporated an explicit questioning strategy with audience polling devices, or "clickers." This study utilized a quantitative quasi-experimental design to determine the significance of differences in pre- and posttest performance between the students who participated over a college semester in 2009. There were 113 student participants ( n = 113) enrolled in a Pre-Algebra course at the research site who agreed to participate in this study. A total of 58 participants were assigned to the experimental group who participated in instruction incorporating an explicit questioning strategy with clickers along with traditional lecture methods. The other 55 students were assigned to the control group who participated in a traditional lecture. Both courses were taught by experienced professors who have qualifications at the master's level. Academically, the two groups were equivalent in terms of their academic achievement at the start of the study. After the study, the data indicated statistically significant differences (p < .05) in academic performance between students who were taught with an explicit questioning strategy using clickers students and those who participated in lectures without clickers. Overall, the experimental group scored higher on the posttest than the control group, and weak students in the experimental group made more improvement as measured by the posttest than similar ability students in the control group. The statistical analyses indicated no significantly different average academic performance in either group as delineated by ethnicity, gender or part-time/full-time status.