Peer Instruction

Why is it that stellar students sometimes fail in the workplace while dropouts succeed? Are current assessment practices authentic? How do you implement an assessment process that supports the new interactive teaching techniques and 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' learning and study. Unless we provide a holistic approach to assessment of teaching and learning, it is difficult to produce meaningful and sustainable educational change.

Instructors all over the globe are turning their students' worlds around by flipping their classrooms. In a flipped class, teachers typically move information coverage out of the lecture hall so that they can better leverage in-class time to address student difficulties and misconceptions. In this three hour workshop, Dr. Julie Schell will introduce the basic flipped classroom technique, review its history, and present two practical flipped teaching methods teachers can use to design learning environments that facilitate student engagement with mathematical subject-matter both in and outside... Read more about Flipping the Math classroom: How to turn your students' worlds right-side up 

Educación es mucho más que transferencia de información, sin embargo es lo que comúnmente se hace en cursos introductorios de gran tamaño – los profesores presentan material (a pesar de que ese material puede estar disponible en su versión impresa) y para los estudiantes el principal propósito de las clases magistrales es tomar la mayor cantidad de notas que puedan. Pocos estudiantes tienen la habilidad, motivación y disciplina para sintetizar toda la información que se les entrega. Sin embargo la síntesis es quizás el más importante -- y el más eludido – aspecto de la... Read more about Comprensión o Memorización: ¿Estamos haciendo lo correcto?

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 Confessions of a converted lecturer

This short-course introduces participants to the ideas of Peer Instruction (PI) and Just- in-Time-Teaching (JiTT), two research-based methods for engaging students, improving conceptual understanding, increasing retention in courses and programs, and enhancing academic performance. Participants will also learn about a new approach to instructional design. Finally, participants will apply the knowledge gained to a specific course module they are (or will be) teaching, by re-designing (or designing) the syllabus for this course module and developing a plan for implementing PI and JiTT.

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Read more about Creating the ultimate flipped classroom - A step by step guide for Peer Instruction

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: Part II

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?

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 Peer Instruction: Successes and challenges

The world is abuzz with talk about "clickers" or classroom response systems. Clicker are not just simple polling tools, but can be used to achieve significant learning gains. In this presentation we explore using clickers with Peer Instruction, a pedagogy that encourages students to interact and solve problems during class.

Simply putting lectures online is one way to flip a class, but it is not the best way. In this workshop, Dr. Julie Schell will introduce two research-based strategies teachers can use to design learning environments that boost student engagement with subject-matter both in and outside of class. Attendees will experience live demonstrations of one flipped class technique called Peer Instruction, developed at Harvard University and backed by 20 years of research, that can be used in any discipline and with any class size.

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

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