Gauging What Students Understand -- In Class

Presentation Date: 

Monday, January 5, 1998

Location: 

American Association of Physics Teachers Winter Meeting (New Orleans, LA)
In Peer Instruction, the instructor of a large lecture class periodically poses questions to the students; the students think about these questions individually and then discuss them in small groups. A student described this method as ""turning a large lecture into a seminar."" For Peer Instruction to be successful, the instructor needs a way to gauge the students' understanding of a particular question. Instructors around the country have used a show of hands, flash cards, and electronic techniques to learn students¹ answers. We will present our latest findings on the implementation of Peer Instruction and discuss the merits of the various feedback techniques.