Peer instruction questions to support expert-like thinking

Peer instructions questions that
drive expert-like thinking
1CSULA 30 May 2014
Peter Newbury
Center for Teaching Development,
University of California, San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu @polarisdotca
ctd.ucsd.edu #peerinstructionCSULA

Who are you?
Which of these best describes your job?
A) instructor
B) administrator
C) instructional support
D) student
E) other
CSULA 30 May 2014 2

Who are you?
If you teach, what subject?
A) engineering
B) medicine / health
C) natural sciences
D) social sciences
E) arts & humanities
CSULA 30 May 2014 3

Who are you?
How familiar are you with peer instruction
and clickers?
A) I’ve heard about it but never used it
B) I’ve used it once or twice
C) I use it every time I teach
D) I can’t imagine teaching without clickers
E) I could be running this workshop
CSULA 30 May 2014 4

CSULA 30 May 2014
What the best college teachers do[1]
More than anything else, the best teachers try to
create a natural critical learning environment:
natural because students encounter skills, habits,
attitudes, and information they are trying to learn
embedded in questions and tasks they find fascinating
– authentic tasks that arouse curiosity and become
intrinsically interesting, critical because students
learn to think critically, to reason from evidence, to
examine the quality of their reasoning using a variety
of intellectual standards, to make improvements while
thinking, and to ask probing and insightful questions
about the thinking of other people. 5

What is expertise? [2]
To develop competence in an area of inquiry, student
must
(a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge
(b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a
conceptual framework, and
(c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval
and application
CSULA 30 May 2014 6

CSULA 30 May 2014 9
knowledge
framework

10
knowledge
framework
retrieval
CSULA 30 May 2014

Supporting expert-like thinking
CSULA 30 May 2014 11
Stop to let students
think and discuss
Pose a question for
students to think
about and discuss
Give choices to
direct the students’
conversations
2-min
pause
2-min
pause Pro
peer
instruction

2-minute pause
Every 15-20 minutes of your lecture, stop talking
and invite the students to take 2 minutes to:
 review their notes
 consult with neighbors to fill in missing points
 check with neighbors if anything is confusing
 formulate a question(s) that will clear up
confusion or fill in a gap
When conversations dies down (wait longer than
2 minutes, if necessary), lead a brief class-wide
discussion to answer questions, resolve confusion.

2-minute pause (Pro version)
Pause to let students think and provide a
question in case they
 don’t have anything to talk about
 don’t know how to have an expert-like
conversion
 summarize material just covered
“What do you think would have happened if they ran
the experiment with adults instead of children?”
 motivate upcoming material
“How do you think this will change when we apply it in
3 dimensions instead of 2?”

Peer instruction
Pause to let students think, provide a question for
them to think about, and provide prompts so
they have the conversation you want them
to have.

Introductory Biology class
The molecules making up the dry mass of wood
that forms during the growth of a tree largely
come from
A) sunlight.
B) the air.
C) the seed.
D) the soil.
(Question: Bill Wood)
(Image:Autumn? No Doubt! by blavandmaster on flickr CC)

In effective peer instruction
 students teach each other while
they may still hold or remember
their novice preconceptions
 students discuss the concepts
in their (novice) language
 each student finds out what s/he does(n’t) know
 the instructor finds out what the students
(don’t) know and reacts, building on their initial
understanding and preconceptions.
students learn
and practice
how to think,
communicate
like experts

t h e l e a r n i n g c y c l e
Peer instruction helps students learn...
BEFORE DURING AFTER
setting up
instruction
developing
knowledge
assessing
learning
Adapted from Rosie Piller, Ian Beatty, Stephanie Chasteen

BEFORE DURING AFTER
setting up
instruction
developing
knowledge
assessing
learning
The students have not
resolved concept X.
But they’re know X exists
and why X is interesting.

BEFORE DURING AFTER
setting up
instruction
developing
knowledge
assessing
learning
Students have had
opportunities to
try, fail, receive feedback and
try again without facing a
summative evaluation. [1]

BEFORE DURING AFTER
setting up
instruction
developing
knowledge
assessing
learning

Effective peer instruction requires
1. identifying key concepts, misconceptions
2. creating multiple-choice questions that
require deeper thinking and learning
3. facilitating peer instruction episodes that
spark and support student discussion
4. leading a class-wide discussion to clarify
the concept, resolve the misconception
5. reflecting on the question: note curious
things you overheard, how they voted, etc. so
next year’s peer instruction will be better
before
class
during
class
after
class
now
next
hour

What makes a good question?
clarity Students waste no effort trying to figure out
what’s being asked.
context Is this topic currently being covered in class?
learning
outcome
Does the question make students do the right
things to demonstrate they grasp the concept?
distractors What do the “wrong” answers tell you about
students’ thinking?
difficulty Is the question too easy? too hard?
stimulates
thoughtful
discussion
Will the question engage the students and
spark thoughtful discussions? Are there
openings for you to continue the discussion?
(Adapted from Stephanie Chasteen, CU Boulder)

Sample Questions
With a partner, look through the collection
of questions. Some are good, some are not.
Try to identify at least one characteristic
(clarity, context,…) that makes each
question good (or bad). Use the scorecard
to record your opinions.

Peer instruction helps you teach
BEFORE DURING AFTER
setting up
instruction
developing
knowledge
assessing
learning

BEFORE DURING AFTER
setting up
instruction
developing
knowledge
assessing
learning
Do they care about this?
Are they ready for the next topic?
What DO they care about, anyway?
What do they already know?

t h e l e a r n i n g c y c l eDid they notice key idea X?
Where are they in the activity?
BEFORE DURING AFTER
setting up
instruction
developing
knowledge
assessing
learning
Are they getting it?
Do I need to intervene?

t h e l e a r n i n g c y c l eHow did I do?
Did they get it?
BEFORE DURING AFTER
setting up
instruction
developing
knowledge
assessing
learning
Can I move to the next topic?
Did that activity work?

Resources
1. Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
2. National Research Council (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind,
Experience, and School: Expanded Edition. J.D. Bransford,A.L Brown &
R.R. Cocking (Eds.),Washington, DC:The National Academies Press.
3. Colvin, G. (2006, October 19).What it takes to be great. Fortune, 88-
96. Available at
money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/10/30/8391
794/index.htm
4. Peer instruction resources from the Carl Wieman Science Education
Initiative at the Univ. of British Columbia :
http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/clickers.htm
5. Videos by the Science Education Initiative at the Univ. of Colorado
(Boulder) provide excellent background for using clickers:
http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/SEI_video.html
6. Peer Instruction network blog.peerinstruction.net

Peer instruction questions to support expert-like thinking

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