Clickers: Performance and Attitudes in Principles of Microeconomics

Abstract

Educators continuously seek new ways to engage students in the classroom. Clickers are one tool available to instructors who want to move beyond the traditional “chalk and talk” teaching method. While there has been extensive research in the sciences studying the effectiveness of using clickers in the classroom, there has been very little within the economic discipline. This study analyzes the relationship between using clickers for participation only and using clickers for graded daily quizzes in Principles of Microeconomics. Student attitudes concerning clickers are also investigated. While no significant difference is found in final course grade, results show that students perform best on daily quizzes when they are taken with paper and pencil. Additionally, students overwhelmingly enjoy clickers in the classroom regardless of usage.

Keywords: clickers, student performance, economic education

JEL Classification: A20, A22