Clickers in Upper-Division Physics

A couple of weeks ago, Stephanie Chasteen of the University of Colorado-Boulder shared a series of blog posts on teaching with classroom response systems ("clickers") in upper-division physics courses: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.  I’m often asked if clickers work well in upper-division courses, yet I’ve not met many faculty members who use them in such courses.  So I was glad to see this series by Stephanie.  It’s adapted from a talk she gave at the American Association of Physics Teachers conference a few months ago, and it includes videos that feature interviews with faculty and students about teaching and learning with clickers.

I think Stephanie provides several reasons why clickers can work well in upper-division courses, including the observation that students in these courses tend to be more sophisticated learners than ones in lower-division courses and, as a result, take more advantage of opportunities to engage with course material and with each other during class.