While peer instruction is not a new
concept (it is what happens whentwo friends study together), it is
rarely practiced in the classroom.
The problem lies with two questions
– how best to implement peer
instruction in class, and what kind of
role does it entail for the teacher?
There are also questions regarding
the quality of the instruction and the
resulting quality of learning that
takes place using this system.
Beyond that, there are the obvious
concerns regarding the organization
of the classroom itself and how peer
instruction may be disruptive, noisy
and chaotic within the confines of
small spaces.
Eric Mazur at Harvard has addressed
these concerns and has used a
method of peer instruction that can
work successfully even when it is
applied to groups as large as 250
students.
Mazur’s technique involves the
teacher posing a question to the
whole class. First, each student is
given a moment to think about the
question and formulate his or her
own answer. Then, the teacher asks
students to discuss their answers
with whoever is sitting next to them,
after which each student is asked to
give his or her answer to the
question once again. Invariably,
Mazur finds, a vast majority of
students are able to get the right
answer after only about a minute’s
discussion with another student even
if only a few of them had the correct
answer prior to the peer-to-peer
discussion. Another benefit of the
peer-teaching technique that Mazur
discovered is that it gives students a
greater sense of confidence in the
correctness of their responses after
discussing the topic with a peer than
they had when formulating
responses in their own minds.
Peer instruction in practice confirms
what many of us know intuitively.
That we sharpen our knowledge and
understanding of most subjects
when we get a chance to discuss
them with our colleagues and
friends.
While the exact form of peer
instruction may vary from class to
class, there seems little doubt that
when students talk to other students,
they do become engaged in ways
they never would have if they were
passively listening to a lecture.
While this is not an argument to do
away with the lecture format, it
certainly suggests that teachers
should supplement lectures with
opportunities for classroom
discussions between the students
themselves.