Peer Instruction
I was reading a little last night on Peer Instruction (PI) and in particular PI and Classroom Response Systems. PI is a method created by Eric Mazur to make lessons more interactive and get students involved with what’s happening.
With PI, the teacher presents the class with a question (usually multiple choice). The students consider the question on their own and respond with their handsets. Students then discuss the question with other members of the class and vote again with the results being discussed and clarified.
The benefit of using interactive voting systems with PI is apparent. The teacher gets feedback on where the class are as a group; the students as well as being more entertained are actively engaged, not just in terms of participation but in getting involved. The discussion forces students to consider their answers and not rush though the questions in front of them.
I am keen to hear if any of you organise your lessons in this way and if it becomes more difficult as the class size increases?
One Comment on “Peer Instruction”
Derek Bruff says:
Peer instruction is useful in part because it scales up so well to larger classes. In just about every classroom setting, it’s possible to have students pair up for discussion. Groups of five, four, or even three can be difficult in some classrooms. Clickers plus PI works no matter how many students are in the room. I’ve heard of instructors using PI with more than 300 students at once.
March 16th, 2010 at 4:54 am |
Leave a Reply