Tom Tuohy

Reaching a TurningPoint

A form of classroom audience response software

2nd November 2009

(Joanne Hooker, the Deputy Director of the Business and Management pre-sessional English course
at the University of Birmingham, the UK, leads an end of course quiz using TurningPoint in September, 2009).

With so much educational technology in the classrooms these days, I decided this month to look at a form of classroom audience response software called TurningPoint which started its classroom life in America.

Einstein famously said that "the only thing interfering with my learning is my education". In other words, sometimes traditional forms of education don't work either because they can't cater for hidden geniuses, or because they simply fail to get all the students engaged in the dynamics of the lesson.

I'm sure that every teacher reading this will be able to think of at least one time when they looked over at their charges and felt a sense of unease, maybe even despair, at not being able to get through to them. I remember once when I was an undergraduate being in a seminar supposedly discussing a lecture on Dickens, and the room fell deadly silent only for the teacher to say that getting answers and comments from us was "like pulling teeth".

Well, now there's an answer of sorts to this dilemma - let's call it the "pulling teeth" syndrome because the new technology called TurningPoint has a much greater ability to get students talking and discussing aspects of the lesson content. In fact two American studies have shown that the interactive software can increase scores by as much as 15% between pre-testing and post-testing which is pretty impressive. Moreover, study after study has shown that the students themselves really enjoy TurningPoint classes and the feedback, often above 90%, has been that the vast majority of students were in agreement that if the clickers (explained below) were implemented in all classes, grades would improve. There are many other benefits, too, which I'll explain below.

How it works

TurningPoint is basically an extension of PowerPoint, so if you're already au fait and competent with one, the other is child's play in terms of getting used to its functions. Assuming all the equipment is available - a computer, the licensed software installed, one handheld wireless device per student called a "clicker", a large whiteboard or screen - you're ready to go. One point I want to stress right at the start is that the software works best with larger classes as it enables everyone to get involved and avoids the anonymity factor that inevitably comes about in larger groups.

Let's say you want to use it in a language class to review a grammar point e.g. the differences between present perfect and past simple. To begin with, you might want to review the form so could set a question like the following:

Which is the correct form of the present perfect?

1. Verb to be + verb 2

2. Verb to be + verb 3

3. Has/have + verb 2

4. Has/have + verb 3

Once you have polled this question, on your screen, and given the students a few seconds to select the correct answer using their clickers, you will see how many students have got it wrong or right as it is represented in graph or pie chart form on the whiteboard. (Incidentally, this is always useful for review purposes later e.g. for test preparation as you the teacher now know who has got the answer right or wrong!)

Next, you might decide to ask another question e.g. to ascertain the actual use:

When is the present perfect normally used?

1. To talk about actions happening now?

2. To talk about actions that happened in the past?

3. To talk about actions that will happen in the near future?

4. To talk about actions that happened in the past with a result in the present?

Of course, here we would only be concentrating on one usage and ignoring others e.g. present perfect for experiences, but another question can always be added to ascertain this. However, the real beauty of this software is that at every stage of the class, the students are engaged. As a follow up, and if you wanted to get a discussion going, you could present a question, poll the answers, and then easily split up the class into smaller groups, and give them 10 minutes to discuss the topic and answers in smaller groups. The groups could be formed in accordance with the answers given to an initial question, or using some other criteria. In fact, the list is endless as to what strategies a teacher could employ to use the software.

Straight from the horse's mouth

As I mentioned at the start, the academic studies that have been done on this are extremely positive, but the people who have to use it themselves, the teachers, are really the ones to listen to in order to get a reasonably fair assessment of its worth in the classroom. I first saw a demonstration of this at the University of Birmingham this summer by Paul Foxall who gives demonstrations to other departments in the University. Here's what he had to say:

"One of the limitations of the traditional method of presenting is attention span of the passive learner. Studies have shown that the attention span of students falls off remarkably quick, maybe as soon as after 7 minutes! TurningPoint transforms a class into an interactive learning experience; stimulating peer discussion and peer instruction. A lecturer may ask a question and get a response from the class; the academic could then get the students to discuss their initial response amongst themselves, then poll the students a second time and compare and discuss changes in the feedback."

(Pupils using TurningPoint in a primary school in Pimlico, London, called Churchill Gardens Primary)

Mitt Nathwani is also a practitioner of the software. I asked him whether he thought it could be used successfully to teach a language?

"Yes but as part of a wider strategy of teaching. Nothing beats conversation and other traditional methods for teaching a language but TurningPoint can be used for example to check pupil' understanding of the rules of grammar in any language."

Mitt tells me that there are a number of different purposes to which the kit can be put. For example, it allows children to decide on the outcome of a story by voting, This is only done after first getting the children to write the story collaboratively and finishing it in their own words. Shakespeare can also be taught by analysing scenes and characters after first asking questions about what the pupils think of e.g. the characters, their traits and oddities, what dramatic devices are used by Shakespeare to bring his stories to life, and many other applications.

Likewise Ben Walsh, a teacher and historical author, agrees and suggests that teaching has advanced from the old "chalk and talk" days to a more collaborative style of learning.

"TurningPoint is very easy to use. Students simply press the appropriate key on the handsets to vote on what they think is the correct answer to the question I have given them. Being able to ask questions during the Challenge Day presentation helps to keep students more engaged in the lesson, and with the instant feedback I receive from their votes I can determine which issues they've understood and which we need to go over again. The students really like seeing the results to the questions and it makes the class more motivated rather than the more traditional ways of marking of class work."

If the numbers are anything to go by, TurningPoint is fast becoming a hot item in the UK as it has been for over 10 years in the USA. It's not easy to measure it in terms of actual users, but there around 190,000 handsets currently in the UK. Typically, educational establishments (schools, universities, colleges et al) are buying around 32 handsets each so you could say that there are 5,938 users. However, people normally share kits, so you could have, for example, four or five departments in a school sharing a kit. This means the short answer is probably several thousand users.

Personally, I think this software would be perfect for Thai classrooms which are often upwards of 40 students, sometimes more. I was once offered a job in a teachers' training college near Pinklao and told that (a) there were no set course materials and no curriculum, which meant I'd have to design my own from scratch, (b) that there was no additional money available for this, and (c) the absolute killer - there was a minimum of 50+ students in each of the three classes I was required to teach! One class had 66 students. For me this software is a welcome boost for teachers who are faced with large classes and boy do I wish I had that software back then! I'd be interested to know if anyone is using TurningPoint in Thailand right now or whether they think it is a good idea. What do you think? Send your answers and comments to -

Tom Tuohy is a teacher and writer. His book - ‘Watching the Thais: From the Outside Looking in' - is published by Legend Press, the UK. Versions in both Thai and English will soon be published in Thailand. His blog is - http://ramblingsofanurbancrazyman.blogspot.com/

N.B. A more journalistic version of this article will appear in the December issue of the EL Gazette which will focus on Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) .

Tags: teaching methodology teacher roles classroom activities classroom dynamics teaching target language classroom technology classroom equipment computer assisted language learning turningpoint