| Sumario: | The effect of the implementation of student response systems (SRSs) in teaching on the critical thinking (CT) of young students was investigated. The study benefited from a quasi‐experimental design and a pretest/posttest set‐up. Subjects consisted of 156 K‐8 students in Tehran during 2016–2017, selected through a multistage cluster sampling, and randomly assigned to either the experimental group (EG) or the control group (CG). The regular curriculum of the students contained a weekly session of a course titled "Thinking and Lifestyle." Ten sessions of the course were conducted using SRS (aka clickers) for EG, whereas CG kept receiving the same content in the conventional form. The teaching period was followed by the posttest. ANCOVA showed that, in contrast with CG, EG scored significantly higher on CT test after the intervention. The effect was shown to be only significant for the students at the lower side of the performance spectrum. Thus, in this inaugural study of clickers in schools in Iran, it was empirically demonstrated that clickers, as a relatively new piece of technology, can be successfully utilized during early adolescence in the pedagogical strategies in general and for the improvement of CT of students in particular. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: For improvement in the critical thinking of learners as an essential objective of education, different approaches have been previously taken.The performance of student response systems at the K–12 level has not been studied as extensively as the collegiate level.What this paper adds: Success of clickers at the core of a question‐driven instructional set‐up for teaching critical thinking to K–8 students is empirically demonstrated.The reported results further enrich the body of literature on the pedagogy of critical thinking and the use of clicker technology for learners in their early teen years.Implications for practice and/or policy: The findings of this work encourage both practitioners and policy makers to take further steps towards more extensive incorporation of student response systems in the instructional strategies/designs for teaching of complex skills and tasks to adolescent learners.
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