Peer Instruction
= involves students in their own learning during lecture and focuses their attention on underlying concepts.
URL = http://mazur-www.harvard.edu/research/detailspage.php?ed=1&rowid=8
Definition
From the Wikipedia:
"Peer Instruction as a learning system involves students preparing to learn outside of class by doing pre-class readings and answering questions about those readings using another method, called Just-in-Time-Teaching. Then, in class, the instructor engages students by posing prepared conceptual questions or ConcepTests that are based on student difficulties." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_instruction)
Description
"One problem with conventional teaching lies in the presentation of the material. Frequently, it comes straight out of textbooks and/or lecture notes, giving students little incentive to attend class. That the traditional presentation is nearly always delivered as a monologue in front of a passive audience compounds the problem. Only exceptional lecturers are capable of holding students' attention for an entire lecture period. It is even more difficult to provide adequate opportunity for students to critically think through the arguments being developed. Consequently, lectures simply reinforce students' feelings that the most important step in mastering the material is memorizing a zoo of apparently unrelated examples.
In order to address these misconceptions about learning, we developed a method, Peer Instruction, which involves students in their own learning during lecture and focuses their attention on underlying concepts. Lectures are interspersed with conceptual questions, called ConcepTests, designed to expose common difficulties in understanding the material. The students are given one to two minutes to think about the question and formulate their own answers; they then spend two to three minutes discussing their answers in groups of three to four, attempting to reach consensus on the correct answer. This process forces the students to think through the arguments being developed, and enables them (as well as the instructor) to assess their understanding of the concepts even before they leave the classroom.
We have taught two different levels of introductory physics at Harvard using this strategy and have found that students make significant gains in conceptual understanding (as measured by standardized tests) as well as gaining problem solving skills comparable to those acquired in traditionally taught classes. Dozens of instructors at other institutions have implemented Peer Instruction with their own students and found similar results.
Peer Instruction is easy to implement in almost any subject and class. It doesn't require retooling of entire courses or curricula, or significant expenditures of time or money. All that is required is a collection of ConcepTests (available on Project Galileo) and a willingness to spend some of class time on student discussion." (http://mazur-www.harvard.edu/research/detailspage.php?ed=1&rowid=8)
History
'In 1991, Mazur began designing an instructional strategy for teaching called peer instruction. In 1997, he published a book called Peer Instruction: A User's Manual which provides details on this strategy." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Mazur#Peer_instruction)
More Information
- http://www.peerinstruction.net/
- Peer Instruction - Data : http://web.mit.edu/jbelcher/www/TEALref/Crouch_Mazur.pdf
- Video Lecture by Eric Mazur : http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WwslBPj8GgI#t=1299s