“Think-Pair-Share

and ABCD Voting Cards:

Simple but Powerful Tools to Improve Interaction

and Learning in Lectures”

Dr. Larry Lesser, DirectorCenter for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

cetal.utep.edu

TOOL: Think-Pair-Share

• goes back at least to Lyman (1981)• similar to 1-2-4-whole Liberating Structure

Think-Pair-Share question:Why do many (mainly) lecture?

My goals: 1) make large classes more interactive

2) assess understanding in real time

inspiration:Dr. Kien Lim’s clicker use and May 2010 thesis by our advisee Tami Dashley

resistance (to electronic clickers):• More dependence on tech. set up/access/support• $ cost to students

Breakthrough: CETaL workshop on voting cards

Ed Prather’s “no-tech” option for a 2-choice question:

On 1-2-3, have everyone point (“not like a T-rex”)

yes or no

Example: “Is this your 1st teaching workshop this year?”

Which radio wave is FM?

Lesser adaptation for a no-tech 5-choice assessment

(pretend you’re facing a protractor)

C D B

E A

moving from “no tech” to“almost no tech”….

TOOL: ABCD Voting Card

• sparked by CETaL’s 2010 Fall Instructor Retreat by Ed Prather (e.g., Prather & Brissenden, 2008)

• see TEACHING TOOLKIT at cetal.utep.edu

to go beyond 4 choices:

• For “E”, show full page (ABCD side)

• To show your mind is “blank” (i.e., you have no idea or don’t understand the question), show entire blank side

2 principles of card voting

• SIMULTANEOUSLY: prepare votes and hold them up only on the count of 1-2-3

• ANONYMOUSLY: hold just below neck

Use of Personal Response System (a/k/a audience response system, classroom response system)

A) I’ve used it a lotB) I’ve used it a littleC) haven’t used it, but am open to trying itD) haven’t used it, and doubt I will anytime soon

cetal.utep.edu

on that page of the Teaching Toolkit:

• my 11-minute 2012 video “ABCD Voting Cards” • Quick Reference Guide: “Using ABCD

Classroom Response Cards” (Meeuwsen)• actual ABCD card• my fall 2011 Texas Mathematics Teacher paper • primer on question writing

How to get the ABCD card

• INSTRUCTORS: CETaL Teaching Toolkit

• STUDENTS: my syllabus has URL for a pdf that can be printed in color (or in black & white and they color it)

Implementation

• Present question (on board, PPT, oral) and face it as you let students read it

• Announce the time they have to prepare their votes; have them vote

• If near unanimously correct, move on;• If not, have them “turn to your neighbor

and try to convince them you’re right” for 30 seconds, then revote

USES (I’ll show some I’ve done in my field, then it’s your turn!)

• Assess computational proficiency• Assess conceptual understanding• Real-world interpretation• Ask “what-if” questions • Check for misconceptions• Estimation/simulation• Classroom management questions

COMPUTATION; CONCEPTUAL

Find the mean of {1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 16}. A) 2 B) 3.5 C) 4 D) 5 E) none of these

What’s the most useful way to report annual average household income?

A) mean B) median C) mode D) maximum

60% chance of rain means…..(Sept. 2007 Math.Teacher media clips)

A) rain will occur 60% of the dayB) at a specific point in the forecast area, there

is a 60% chance of rainC) 60% chance that rain will occur somewhere

in the forecast area during the dayD) 60% of the forecast area will receive rain.

“what if” questions (which can be improvised on the spot)

If we delete the outlier, the correlation would:

A)increase B) decrease C) stay the same D) no idea

Checking for misconceptions(in this case,“representativeness heuristic”; Dashley, 2010)

Which outcome of 6 coin tosses is most likely?

A) H H H T T T B) T T H H T HC) H T T H H H D) A & B are equally likelyE) all of the above are equally likely

(to motivate “random sampling”)Estimate average area of the 100 rectangles:

A) < 6 B) 6-7 C) 8-9 D) 10-11 E) >11

Classroom Management

• Getting to know class: who has what majors, year in school, etc.

• Form “groups” spontaneously• Vote on best day to take a test or schedule

an extra office hour• Feedback on the length or difficulty of a

test or reading• Traffic light real-time feedback on lecture

USES (now it’s your turn!)write an ABCD card question of at least one type

• Assess computational proficiency• Assess conceptual understanding• Real-world interpretation• Ask “what-if” questions • Check for misconceptions• Estimation/simulation• Classroom management questions