Peer Instruction

Educating the Innovators of the 21st Century, at New York Major Gifts Committee Meeting, Harvard Club (New York, NY), Thursday, January 17, 2013:
Can we teach innovation? Innovation requires whole-brain thinking — left-brain thinking for creativity and imagination, and right-brain thinking for planning and execution. Our current approach to education in science and technology, focuses on the transfer of information, developing mostly right-brain thinking by stressing copying and reproducing existing ideas rather than generating new ones. I will show how shifting the focus in lectures from delivering information to team work and creative thinking greatly improves the learning that takes place in the classroom and promotes independent... Read more about Educating the Innovators of the 21st Century
Improving education through research, at Vanguardia Technológica 2011, World Trade Center of Mexico City (Mexico City, Mexico), Wednesday, March 16, 2011:
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 Improving education through research
Active lectures and interactive teaching, at AAPT New Faculty Workshop (College Park, MD), Friday, November 11, 2005:
I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has improved my students' performance significantly.
Assessment: The silent killer of learning, at ENIAC (São Paulo, Brazil), Wednesday, August 5, 2015:
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: The silent killer of learning
Confesiones de un profesor convertido, at Seminario Internacional: Metodologías Activas y Evaluación de Aprendizaje (Santiago, Chile), Monday, July 18, 2011:
Pensaba que era un buen profesor hasta que descubrí que mis estudiantes solo estaban memorizando información más que aprender a comprender el material. A quién debía culpar? A los estudiantes? Al material? Explicaré cómo llegué a la agonizante conclusión de que el culpable no era ninguno de estos. Era mi enseñanza la que causaba que los estudiantes fallaran! Mostraré como he ajustado mi método de enseñanza y cómo eso ha mejorado el desempeño de los estudiantes de manera significativa.
Memorization or understanding: are we teaching the right thing?, at Committee on University Resources Annual Symposium, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Saturday, March 17, 2007:
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 Memorization or understanding: are we teaching the right thing?
Confessions of a converted lecturer, at 1st Leiden University Conference on Educational Innovation, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden (Leiden, Netherlands), Monday, November 23, 2015:
I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has improved my students' performance significantly
Diversity and gender issues, at 4th International Exhibition and Conference on Higher Education, Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Center (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Wednesday, April 17, 2013:
With the globalization of the workplace comes a need to promote diversity and inclusion. The push for diversity and inclusion should start early and be reflected in our approach to education. In this talk I will show the results I have obtained using interactive teaching in the sciences. For example, I will show that an interactive approach in teaching not only helps improve the performance of all students, but also closes the performance gap for women and other underrepresented minorities. This approach therefore helps prepare a more balanced and diverse 21st century workforce that can... Read more about Diversity and gender issues
Confessions of a converted lecturer, at Collins Lecture, Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, MA), Monday, September 26, 2011:
I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has improved my students' performance significantly
Workshop on Peer Instruction, at Education Workshop, University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), Wednesday, October 24, 2007:
The basic goals of Peer Instruction are to encourage and make use of student interaction during lectures, while focusing students' attention on underlying concepts and techniques. The method has been assessed in many studies using standardized, diagnostic tests and shown to be considerably more effective than the conventional lecture approach to teaching. Peer Instruction is now used in a wide range of science and math courses at the college and secondary level. In this workshop, participants will learn about Peer Instruction, serve as the “class” in which Peer Instruction is demonstrated,... Read more about Workshop on Peer Instruction
Assessment: The silent killer of learning, at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Santiago, Chile), Friday, January 15, 2016:
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: The silent killer of learning

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