Peer Instruction

Confessions of a converted lecturer, at IMPACT and Transformative Education Conference, Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN), Friday, April 10, 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
Memorization or understanding: are we teaching the right thing?, at Peer Instruction Event, Insper (São Paulo, Brazil), Friday, March 21, 2014:
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?
Memorization or understanding: are we teaching the right thing?, at Universidad de los Andes (Santiago, Chile), Wednesday, August 22, 2012:
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 5e Journée de l’enseignement, École Polytechnique de Montréal (Montreal, Canada), Thursday, May 20, 2010:
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
Why you can pass tests and still fail in the real world, at Portland Community College Sylvania (Portland, OR), Thursday, May 15, 2014:
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 Why you can pass tests and still fail in the real world
Educating the Innovators of the 21st Century, at Strategies for Innovation and Engineering Education in Brazil, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Tuesday, October 30, 2012:
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
Turning lectures into learning, at Turning Technologies User Conference, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Sunday, October 10, 2010:
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 Turning lectures into learning
Confessions of a converted lecturer, at 9th Teikyo-HSPH Symposium, Harvard School of Public Health (Boston, MA), Thursday, September 4, 2014:
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
Peer Instruction, at COPI 2012, Beijing Normal University (Beijing, China), Friday, December 14, 2012:
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 2-3 hour long workshop, participants will learn about Peer Instruction, serve as the "class" in which Peer Instruction is... Read more about Peer Instruction
Confesiones de un profesor convertido, at Universidad Diego Portales (Santiago, Chile), Thursday, January 13, 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.
Understanding or Memorization: Are we teaching the right thing?, at School of Arts and Sciences Teaching Excellence Lecture Series, University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA), Tuesday, April 6, 2004:
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. Students get frustrated because they are unable to grasp simple concepts. Instructors get... Read more about Understanding or Memorization: Are we teaching the right thing?

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