1. Slides about Research on Peer Instruction Dr. Stephanie V. Chasteen Physics Department & Science Ed. Initiative University of Colorado – Boulder http://STEMclickers.colorado.edu Stephanie.Chasteen@colorado.edu Co-presenters have included Steven Pollock, Jenny Knight, Trish Loeblein, and Kathy Perkins. Creative Commons – Attribution. Please attribute Stephanie Chasteen / Scince Education Initiative/ CU-Boulder

2. This presentation is copyrighted under the Creative Commons License Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike That means: Please watch it, share it, and use it in your presentations. Just give us credit, don’t make money from it, and use the same kind of license on the works that you create from it. More information about Creative Commons licenses here: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Credit should be given to: Stephanie Chasteen and the Science Education Initiative at the University of Colorado, http://colorado.edu/sei

3. About these slides We have created a variety of workshops on clickers and Peer Instruction for faculty and K12 teachers. These slides represent the presentations and activities that we have produced through this work. You are free to use this material with proper attribution (see previous slide). Not all slides or activities were used in every workshop. Activities are designated with a peach background to the slide You can find the full handouts and activity descriptions under Workshop Materials at http://STEMclickers.colora do.edu

4. Creative Commons – Attribution. Please attribute Stephanie Chasteen / Science Education Initiative/ CU-Boulder These meta-slides provide a little bit of information for you about our presenter and what we are trying to do with our professional development workshops. Overview

5. Introducing Me 5 Applying scientific principles to improve science education – What are students learning, and which instructional approaches improve learning? Science Education Initiative Physics Education Research Group One of largest PER groups in nation, studying technology, attitudes, classroom practice, & institutional change. http://colorado.edu/SEI http://PER.colorado.edu Blogger & Consultant http://sciencegeekgirl.com Creative Commons – Attribution. Please attribute Stephanie Chasteen / Science Education Initiative/ CU-Boulder

6. U. Colorado clicker resources… 6 Videos of effective use of clickers http://STEMclickers.colorado.edu Clicker resource page http://STEMvideos.colorado.edu 2-5 mins long Instructor’s Guide Question banks Workshops Literature / Articles Creative Commons – Attribution. Please attribute Stephanie Chasteen / Science Education Initiative/ CU-Boulder

7. “Clickers” are really just a focal point We aim to help instructors: Use student-centered, interactive teaching techniques By the use of a tool (clickers) which makes a transition to that pedagogy easier Our talks are “how people learn” talks in disguise. Bransford, Brown, Cocking (1999), How People Learn Creative Commons – Attribution. Please attribute Stephanie Chasteen / Science Education Initiative/ CU-Boulder 7

8. The typical pattern of professional development for faculty… (we) Tell them how to do it (they) Try it (they) Fail or fade (we) Repeat (louder!) In physics, half of faculty only use Peer Instruction for a single semester What’s missing? We need to help faculty anticipate challenges and difficulties with implementing peer instruction. Lose the rose-colored glasses! We also need to provide less prescriptive “do this, don’t do that” recommendations, which are hard to remember, and instead provide a pedagogical strategy which will naturally lead to those “best practices” These workshop materials are intended to help overcome some of the challenges to sustainable improvements in teaching, as based on the research on instructional change. Creative Commons – Attribution. Please attribute Stephanie Chasteen / Science Education Initiative/ CU-Boulder 8

9. How we try to accomplish goals: Give a clear introduction to peer instruction. What does it really look like? Give experience in peer instruction. How does it feel as a student? As an instructor? Provide disciplinary experience. Give examples from multiple disciplines; have instructors sit next to others who teach in their subject area Why does it work? The research. Respect their experience. Answer their questions/challenges, rather than being gung-ho salesman. Provide opportunity for practice and feedback. Especially in writing questions and facilitation. Practice what we preach. Do all this in a student-centered, interactive environment. Don’t lecture about how not to lecture. Creative Commons – Attribution. Please attribute Stephanie Chasteen / Science Education Initiative/ CU-Boulder 9

10. Following are a variety of slides highlighting key findings regarding the effectiveness of clickers. We like to highlight the research to show that we’re not “selling snake oil,” but at the same time we find that too much time on the research can be dull. Previous studies have found that instructors aren’t *convinced* to use a new technique based on research: rather, they are convinced because a technique seems like good teaching, or a colleague persuades them, and then they use the research to *justify* what they have chosen to do. Thus, it is good to show that there is research to back up the technique but not spend too much time on it. Links to key studies are at http://stemclickers.Colorado.Edu. Research about peer instruction

12. Peer instruction helps students learn Research shows that: Students can better answer a similar question after talking to their peers Peer discussion + instructor explanation of question works better than either one alone Students like peer instruction Peer instruction classes outperform traditional lectures on a common test 12 See http://STEMclickers.colorado.edu for various references

13. Clicker Question Honestly, I think that I’m most likely to modify this technique of peer instruction to suit me and my students. I know that there are at least ___ parts of the technique that I’ll be changing: A. None B. One C. Two-three D. Four or more

14. Is there a problem with modifications? I won’t tell you how to teach. You’re smart & you care about instruction. Be strategic about modifications. Know the research.

15. Some research on modifications 63.5% of faculty (in physics) say they are familiar with Peer Instruction 30% report that they use Peer Instruction 50% of those use Peer Instruction in the way described by developers Often dropped are:  Student discussion  Use of conceptual questions  Whole-class voting Dancy & Henderson, Pedagogical practices and instructional change of faculty, Am. J. Phys., 78(10), Oct 2010.Web survey of 722 physics faculty at various institutions, initial sample of 2000. Is this a problem? Probably. 15

16. Talking brings convergence 16 Eric Mazur - Harvard U. Before discussion B CA After discussion BCA Mazur, 1997 Why do you think this happens? (A) Students are getting answers from the ‘smart’ kids (B) They’re learning from their discussions (C) They just needed more time to think about it Why do you think this happens? (A) Students are getting answers from the ‘smart’ kids (B) They’re learning from their discussions (C) They just needed more time to think about it

17. The hypothesis: If students learn from peer discussion, they should show better performance on a similar question. Ask a second, similar question without any instructor input: Q2 Undergrad introductory genetics course. 16 Q1/Q2 pairs. Smith et al., Science. 2009, 323(5910):122. Research by Michelle Smith, Bill Wood, Wendy Adams, Carl Wieman, Jenny Knight, Nancy Guild, Tin Tin Su, MCDB.

18. n= 350 students Smith et al., Science. 2009, 323(5910):122. Are they learning from peers? Q2 Individual Q1 Individual Q1 AD After Discussion 20 40 60 80 100 0 Percent Then explain answers to Q1 and Q2 Students answer Q1 individually. 1) Students talk to neighbors and answer Q1 again (Q1 AD = Q1“After Discussion”). 2) Students answer Q2 individually. Q2 tests same concept as Q1. 3)

19. Easy (5 questions) Medium (7 questions) Difficult (4 questions) Percent correct 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 Can students answer difficult questions correctly after discussion? Q1 Q1 after discussion Q2 Very few students knew correct answer to Q1, but after discussion, many more answer correctly: students are constructing their own knowledge Smith et al., Science. 2009, 323(5910):122.