Tomorrow's Professor Msg. #149 PEER INSTRUCTION

Folks:

In 1989 Eric Mazur of Harvard University conducted a now famous experiment
which subsequently led him to abandon the formal lecture approach in his
basic undergraduate physics classes. He replaced the lecture with a
"teaching by questioning" approach that he calls "Peer Instruction." Below
is a memo he wrote describing the process. It appeared in Science Teaching
Reconsidered - A Handbook, Committee on Undergraduate Science Education,
National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1997, p. 22.

Have others of you tried this, or a related, approach in any of your classes?

Regards,
Rick Reis
Reis@stanford.edu

UP NEXT: Subscriber Update

------------------------- 483 words -----------------------

PEER INSTRUCTION

Introduction to Physics at Harvard University
Professor: Eric Mazur
Enrollment: Approximately 250 students

In 1989, I read an article in the American Journal of Physics that
contained a test to assess understanding of Newtonian mechanics. I gave
the test to my students at Harvard and was shocked by the results - the
students had merely memorized equations and problem-solving procedures and
were unable to answer the basic questions, indicating a substantial lack of
understanding of the material. I began to rethink how I was teaching and
realized that students were deriving little benefit from my lectures even
though they generally gave me high marks as a lecturer. So I decided to
stop preaching and instead of teaching by telling, I switched to teaching
by questioning using a teaching technique I have named "peer instruction."

My students now read the material before class. To get them to do the
reading, I begin each class with a short reading quiz. The lecture periods
are then broken down into a series of digestible snippets of 10 to 15
minutes. Rather than regurgitating the text, I concentrate on the basic
concepts and every 10 or 15 minutes I project a "Concept Test" on the
screen. These short conceptual questions generally require qualitative
rather than quantitative answers. The students get one minute to think and
choose an answer. They are also expected to record their confidence in
their answer. After they record their answers, I ask their students to
turn to their neighbors and to convince them of their logic. Chaos erupts
as students engage in lively and usually uninhibited discussion of the
question. I run up and down the aisles to participate in some of the
discussions - to find out how students explain the correct answer in their
own words and to find out what mistakes they make.

After one or two minutes, I call time and ask students to record a revised
answer and a revised confidence level. A show of hands then quickly
reveals the percentage of correct answers. After the discussion, the
number of correct answers and the confidence level typically rise
dramatically. If I am not satisfied, I repeat the cycle with another
question on the same subject. When the results indicate a mastery of the
concept, I move on to the next subject.

I have been lecturing like this now for more than four years. During this
time the students have taught me how best to teach them. As for the
students, nothing clarifies their ideas as much as explaining them to
others. As one student said in a recent interview,: "There is this ah-hah!
Kind of feeling. It's not that someone just told me; I actually figured it
out. And because I can figure it out now, that means I can figure it out
on the exam. And I can figure it out for the rest of my life."