Education

To improve learning — and therefore teaching — we need to pay attention to the human, social, cognitive, and aspirational sides of education.  A first, key step in the process of improving learning is to shift from teaching by telling to teaching by questioning. I wilI interactively demonstrate an easy-to-implement way of shifting the focus from the teacher to the learner and create a level of engagement that is difficult to accomplish in the more passive, traditional approach to education. 

Education is more than just transfer of information, yet that is what is mostly done in large introductory courses -- instructors present material (even though this material might be readily available in printed form) and for students the main purpose of lectures is to take down as many notes as they can. Few students have the ability, motivation, and discipline to synthesize all the information delivered to them. Yet synthesis is perhaps the most important -- and most elusive -- aspect of education. I will show how shifting the focus in lectures from delivering information to synthesizing... Read more about Peer Instruction

Learning is a social experience — it requires interactions and interactivity. The coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving some tasks to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. Eric Mazur will demonstrate how to move information transfer and sense-making online and make it interactive, promoting social interactions between students. In addition, he will discuss how the use of an online platform can promote intrinsic and extrinsic... Read more about Interactive Learning, online and in-person

The rapid transition to online teaching necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. What may have seemed like a challenge, is a great opportunity to improve the quality of education.

The rapid transition to online teaching necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. What may have seemed like a challenge, is a great opportunity to improve the quality of education.

The rapid transition to online teaching necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. What may have seemed like a challenge, is a great opportunity to improve the quality of education.

Why is it that stellar students sometimes fail in the workplace while dropouts succeed? One reason is that most, if not all, of our current assessment practices are inauthentic. Just as the lecture focuses on the delivery of information to students, so does assessment often focus on having students regurgitate that same information back to the instructor. Consequently, assessment fails to focus on the skills that are relevant in life in the 21st century. Assessment has been called the "hidden curriculum" as it is an important driver of students' study habits. Unless we rethink our approach to... Read more about Assessment for (not of) Learning

Learning is a social experience — it requires interactions and interactivity. Most students learn better by engaging with content and reflecting on it. Moving pre-class reading assignments to an asynchronous and self-paced environment improves completion rates. Through Perusall, we will demonstrate how to move information transfer and sense-making online and make it interactive, promoting social interactions between students. In addition, we will discuss how the platform promotes intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to improve student performance.

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Read more about Student-centered learning with Perusall

Traditionally education has been constrained by the walls of the physical classroom, requiring education to be synchronous and at a pace that is typically set by the instructor. The pandemic opened the door to learning without physical classroom, hinting at a future where students are engaged across time and space in a blended environment.

Learning is a social experience — it requires interactions and interactivity. Since I introduced Peer Instruction three decades ago, there has been a concerted push away from passive lecturing to active engagement in the classroom. A successful implementation of the so-called flipped classroom requires students to come to class prepared either by reading the textbook or watching a pre-recorded video. A variety approaches have been devised to get students to take responsibility for this information transfer but none manage to get all students to participate compromising the in-class activities... Read more about Peer Instruction

As teachers within the ENLIGHT network and beyond are driving an educational innovation in which diverse, interdisciplinary and international teams of students collaborate to solve complex, real-world problems, the reality of everyday teaching and learning within university walls pose certain challenges. While project- and team-based courses usually take place inside the classroom, ENLIGHT is creating blended opportunities in which students work together online and on...

Read more about Breaking down the classroom walls: Engaging student teams across time and space

Read more about Workshop on Peer Instruction

The rapid transition to online teaching necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. What may have seemed like a challenge, is a great opportunity to improve the quality of education.

Education is more than just transfer of information, yet that is what is mostly done in classrooms -- teachers present material (even though this material might be readily available in printed form) and for students the main purpose of classroom instruction is to take down as many notes as they can. Few students have the ability, motivation, and discipline to synthesize all the information delivered to them. Yet synthesis is perhaps the most important -- and most elusive -- aspect of education. I will show how shifting the focus in classroom learning from delivering information...

Read more about Flipping your class and never looking back

Learning is a social experience — it requires interactions and interactivity. The coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching. Moving some tasks to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be made asynchronous and self-paced. Through Perusall, Eric Mazur will demonstrate how to move information transfer and sense-making online and make it interactive, promoting social interactions between students. In addition, he will discuss how the platform promotes intrinsic and extrinsic... Read more about Transform your teaching with Perusall