Closing the Missing Links and Opening the Relationships among the Factors: A Literature Review on the Use of Clicker Technology Using the 3P Model

Clicker technology is one of the most widely adopted communication systems in college classroom environments. Previous literature reviews on clicker technology have identified and thoroughly documented the advantages, disadvantages, and implications of the use of this technology; the current review is intended to synthesize those earlier findings and recast them in terms of the interrelationship between the “3 Ps” of the 3P model: Presage, Process, and Product factors. Using this guided framework enables the identification of the most up-to-date trends and issues in clicker studies published in peer-reviewed journals since 2009. The review shows that recent clicker studies have examined the effects of clickers in terms of student presage factors (cognitive, non-cognitive, background factors), instructor presage factors (instructor effects and the level of the course taught), process factors (delivery method, instructional activities, and assessment and feedback), and product factors (cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes). A heat-mapping approach is used to facilitate the interpretation of the results. The findings also discuss missing/unaddressed links and the untapped relationships among instructional factors in these studies. This study concludes that teaching and learning with the use of clicker technology is a complex and relational phenomenon; factors that are currently under-explored should be examined using more rigorous research methods to close gaps in the literature and to enhance understanding of the use of clickers in classroom learning environments.