Annotated Bibliography: Response Cards

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Response Cards in Classrooms
Response Cards (RC) have boomed as a teaching resource with classrooms throughout

Australia and internationally. Their aim is to limit the amount of avoidable disruption that occurs in the learning environment by helping to keep students engaged and on-task. Supporters of RC implementation in classrooms report heightened student participation, in turn, leading to improved academic achievement of students. Heward (1994) proclaims that ‘response cards are cards, signs or items that are held up simultaneously by all students to display their response to a question or problem presented by the teacher.’ This new form of “low-tech” learning technology can be used across many key learning areas as they provide
One student proclaimed it was an easier method of receiving information, and more interesting than reading it out of a book.
In order for RCs to be effective they must simultaneously engage and involve all members of the class, and disallow for any biases regarding individual differences in ability (Heward, 1994).
In the Classroom Experiment, William’s implementation of the “mini-whiteboards” is concurrent with this. RCs require all learners to provide a response, thereby eliminating the teacher’s challenge of engaging and including all students. Previous pedagogies, such as the “raise your hands” approach, promoted higher ability students to constantly offer their answers, disallowing the opportunity for lower ability students have their misconceptions realigned. This provided a difficult task for the teachers as they were unable to determine the cognitive ability, and learning of some srtudents. In the Classroom Experiment, William rationalises the use of RCs, such as “miniwhiteboards”, by purporting that they allow teachers to clearly identify who does and does not understand, so that no student is left behind. Further, this form of RC allowed the students
This is reflective of the outcomes in the “Student Welfare, Good Discipline and Effective Learning Policy” in which ‘Students will develop competencies which enhance the quality of their relationships with others…[and] students will feel valued as learners’ (New South Wales Department of School
Education, 1996, p.5). Other forms of formative assessment, such as checking workbooks as the lesson progresses are less productive than RCs. This method has none of the engaging capabilities of RCs and further disrupts the rhythm of the lesson, creating opportunities for distraction and misbehaviour. Thus, the implementation of RCs, such as the “mini-whiteboards” used in the
Classroom Experiment are effective in promoting the effective learning of students, in turn, promoting better results, and greater productive work.
There are many different techniques that can be employed by teachers, with the use of RCs, to effectively meet and exceed the goals of the “Student Welfare, Good Discipline and Effective
Learning Policy”. Using different teaching styles and methods, teachers can engage students of