Peer instruction and why assessment is a killer of learning Eric Mazur, professor at Harvard — Transcript

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1. 0:08so I booked a classroom at night it's
2. 0:117:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. I went through
3. 0:14every single question I remember coming
4. 0:15to a question which in my mind was
5. 0:18totally obvious that would be in fact as
6. 0:20I was thinking how am I going to explain
7. 0:23to my students the answer I thought
8. 0:27that's just the way it is there's
9. 0:29nothing to explain about it that's how
10. 0:31clear it was in my in my mind so I
11. 0:34remember making a drawing on the board
12. 0:36and then saying you know it was
13. 0:39comparing two forces in the direction
14. 0:41pair I remember turning around and
15. 0:43saying by Newton's third law these two
16. 0:45forces are equal to me there was nothing
17. 0:48more to explain about it and I had about
18. 0:51100 and no I had about 250 students in
19. 0:54my class that year I remember turning
20. 0:56around was the drawing behind me looking
21. 1:00at the students and seeing from their
22. 1:02faces that they were confused so but I
23. 1:06could not imagine what was confusing
24. 1:08about it so I said is there a question
25. 1:12they were so confused I could not
26. 1:14articulate a question
27. 1:16they didn't date they couldn't bring it
28. 1:19in words you know when you're really
29. 1:21confused about something it's hard to
30. 1:22articulate that confusion so you know I
31. 1:26thought well maybe they're confused too
32. 1:28that the fourths are the same but the
33. 1:30affected it's different so anyway so I
34. 1:32raised the board I started over and in
35. 1:35the next 8 or so minutes I gave what I
36. 1:38thought was the most brilliant
37. 1:40explanation possible right so the whole
38. 1:43board was covered with drawings and
39. 1:44equations and was all there
40. 1:47you know the forces could be the same
41. 1:49but the effects would be different and I
42. 1:52turned around you know thinking this is
43. 1:54just great you know they looked even
44. 1:57more confused
45. 1:59and and I had no idea what to do I was
46. 2:05standing there thinking you know how can
47. 2:08this be and and they were asking
48. 2:10questions but I didn't even understand
49. 2:12what what what they were asking me right
50. 2:15because their vocabulary was different
51. 2:17from mine so anyway so so I didn't know
52. 2:20what to do but I knew one thing I knew
53. 2:22that half the students had actually
54. 2:25given the right answer on the test so in
55. 2:30a moment of despair I said to them why
56. 2:32don't you just discuss it with each
57. 2:34other and what happened was amazing
58. 2:38complete utter chaos okay I mean
59. 2:42everybody started talking they forgot
60. 2:45about me in front of the classroom and
61. 2:47what was even more surprised was that
62. 2:50was in two minutes they figured it out
63. 2:52you could actually see the students go
64. 2:54talk and then go oh oh yeah and for a
65. 3:00moment that surprised me I thought how
66. 3:02can that be
67. 3:03I the experts have tried it in two
68. 3:06different ways for about 10 minutes
69. 3:09unsuccessfully to explain to them and
70. 3:11they just talk for two minutes and again
71. 3:12it but let's imagine that you and I are
72. 3:15sitting next to each other we're
73. 3:17students right you have the right answer
74. 3:20because you understand it and I have the
75. 3:23wrong answer because I do not understand
76. 3:25it we talked to each other on average
77. 3:28you are more likely to convince me than
78. 3:31the other way around simply because you
79. 3:33have the right way of thinking but
80. 3:36that's not the important thing if one
81. 3:37thing is this you as a stew
82. 3:41and are more likely to convince me as a
83. 3:43student because professor Mazar in front
84. 3:46of the class has learned it such a long
85. 3:48time ago
86. 3:49to him it so incredibly clear that he
87. 3:53doesn't exactly right it's something my
88. 3:58colleague Steven Pinker calls the curse
89. 4:01of knowledge you tend to think that the
90. 4:05more of an expert you are the better
91. 4:07position you are to teach it false the
92. 4:12better you know it the more likely it is
93. 4:15that you've forgotten what the struggles
94. 4:18are of a beginning learner even if you
95. 4:21had those struggles yourself way back
96. 4:23when and you know to some degree we know
97. 4:27that right we know that when we go to a
98. 4:31colloquium or seminar in our own
99. 4:32discipline and we listen yes we can
100. 4:35better get excited but then if we're
101. 4:37asked to reproduce whatever was said we
102. 4:39can we also know that often people who
103. 4:43are in age closer to the people are
104. 4:45being taught are more effective at
105. 4:48teaching than the older professor
106. 4:50graduate students to teach the
107. 4:52discussion section are often closer to
108. 4:55the students and therefore better able
109. 4:56to explain it so why not tap the
110. 4:59students themselves and that that's so
111. 5:02that's how the idea of P instruction was
112. 5:04was was born right I said when I saw
113. 5:07that interaction I thought wow that's
114. 5:10what I should do
115. 5:14now in order so the cycle let me
116. 5:18describe it so I come into class I
117. 5:20taught maybe a few minutes I ask a
118. 5:22question
119. 5:22I give them one minute to think about
120. 5:25that I have them vote first we simply
121. 5:29used hands on the chest with fingers
122. 5:32indicating the choice after that game
123. 5:35the clicker which was developed a part
124. 5:37of my classroom and then people adopted
125. 5:40the clicker without thinking about the
126. 5:42pedagogy but forget about it about the
127. 5:47technology students have to commit to an
128. 5:49answer they could do it on paper and
129. 5:51after they've committed they have to
130. 5:54find a neighbor was a different answer
131. 5:55so I turned to you ask you what answer
132. 5:58did you have oh I had the same answer so
133. 6:00thank you and I turn to mom the other
134. 6:03neighbor and I tried to find a person
135. 6:06around me was a different answer we
136. 6:07start to argue and chances are that one
137. 6:10of us will go oh yes you're right and
138. 6:13change our our mind typically if
139. 6:18initially between 30 and 70 percent have
140. 6:21the desired answer then after a few
141. 6:25minutes of discussion that 30 to 70
142. 6:27percent can increase to close to 100%
143. 6:29and there are many students who would
144. 6:31have gone oh yes and then you know I
145. 6:36wrap up with the discussion and I start
146. 6:39the next cycle and then the next cycle
147. 6:41and so on until class time is up
148. 6:47so I came across a technique called
149. 6:49just-in-time teaching which are used for
150. 6:51many years it is essentially it offers
151. 6:54the students a carrot and a stick it's
152. 6:57only really in the last five years that
153. 6:59have been able to nail this problem and
154. 7:03the way I nailed it is actually so
155. 7:06obvious in retrospect you see I've
156. 7:10worked hard on making the classroom a
157. 7:12social interaction with students talking
158. 7:16to each other and helping each other I
159. 7:18never thought about making the out of
160. 7:19class component or social interaction I
161. 7:21mean again if you have a student reading
162. 7:24a book it's an isolated lonely
163. 7:27experience right you're reading the book
164. 7:30alone what if we could somehow use
165. 7:34technology to bring students together so
166. 7:37we developed a a social learning
167. 7:40platform called perusal worse and we now
168. 7:44have agreements with most publishers in
169. 7:47fact I think nearly all publishers that
170. 7:49people have requested and and what
171. 7:54happens is that students read the
172. 7:56textbook or the notes or whatever the
173. 7:58instructor makes available and if they
174. 8:00have a question that can highlight the
175. 8:02part where they have a question and open
176. 8:04a chat window and pull other people in
177. 8:07it can you it's it's actually linked to
178. 8:10social media like Twitter Facebook or or
179. 8:12whatever the students happen to use and
180. 8:15and then the student uses machine
181. 8:18learning and artificial intelligence to
182. 8:22analyze students engagement give
183. 8:24feedback to the instructor on the
184. 8:26students engagement on the platform but
185. 8:30also users nudging to get students to
186. 8:36participate in this reading and using a
187. 8:38platform I found that I for the first
188. 8:40time I can now really design new courses
189. 8:44where provided I have a good text I can
190. 8:49completely eliminate the left
191. 8:52completely but it was was not easy even
192. 8:56though in retrospect I think it's kind
193. 8:58of obvious yes you have to make it
194. 9:00social because learning is a social
195. 9:02experience
196. 9:07messages such as the message that we've
197. 9:10been discussing at least gets listened
198. 9:13to more and more people think hmm maybe
199. 9:17I should be rethinking what I do in a
200. 9:20classroom in that respect I think that's
201. 9:23has done a really good job I'm not a
202. 9:26believer in EDX at all I don't I think
203. 9:28it does very little and it has done very
204. 9:31little for education with one exception
205. 9:36people faculty whose course is put on
206. 9:40EDX suddenly start to think after
207. 9:45they've put the course on EDX what's my
208. 9:48role
209. 9:49what's my role in the classroom so I
210. 9:53hope that 10 years from now more people
211. 9:55will start asking themselves more
212. 9:58faculty more instructors more teachers
213. 10:01or as themself what is my role in the
214. 10:03classroom and maybe I should not just be
215. 10:08lecturing and doing things that are
216. 10:11easily available on the internet and and
217. 10:13elsewhere that's my hope for the future
218. 10:19i-i have a star called assessment the
219. 10:22silent killer of learning because i
220. 10:27after implementing peer instruction i
221. 10:31realized yes i changed the approach to
222. 10:34teaching but from the student point of
223. 10:37view the really important part is the
224. 10:39assessment the examination right and if
225. 10:43i really want my students to learn then
226. 10:49i should adjust the assessment so that
227. 10:52it's promotes learning and it's in fact
228. 10:55a learning opportunity not a punishment
229. 10:57which unfortunately most assessment is i
230. 11:00mean if you don't how do i want to think
231. 11:03about exams i mean they see this a
232. 11:05stressful event and stressful events are
233. 11:10if not the best way to learn so iiii
234. 11:13think that not only do we to change our
235. 11:18approaches to teaching we must also
236. 11:21change our approaches to assessment
237. 11:25education is completely focused on the
238. 11:27individual students come to our
239. 11:30universities your students are the tech
240. 11:33my students and hybrid they go to
241. 11:35classes in many classes they're sitting
242. 11:38next to other students but you know the
243. 11:41classes are not interactive well i think
244. 11:43the tech is probably doing better than
245. 11:45many other institutions but certainly my
246. 11:48institution many many classes are still
247. 11:51lecture based classes so yes they're
248. 11:53sitting next to other students but not
249. 11:55talking to the other students so it's
250. 11:57alone they go home they study alone they
251. 12:01go to an exam they're separated from
252. 12:03each other they're not allowed to talk
253. 12:05to each other they're not allowed to
254. 12:07look up any information they're not
255. 12:10allowed to look anything on the internet
256. 12:13or nothing they just have a pen and a
257. 12:15piece of paper and that's how we
258. 12:20and then we give them a a grade and a
259. 12:24degree and we sent them to society and
260. 12:27what happens there of course they're
261. 12:30always working together and they always
262. 12:32have access to whatever information they
263. 12:34want so in a sense I think the
264. 12:37educational model that most universities
265. 12:39in the 21st century are still using is
266. 12:43simply not in line with the reality of
267. 12:46society which is collaborative and
268. 12:49constant access to changing information
269. 12:53so I give my students access to
270. 12:57information they can use the internet I
271. 12:59give students access to each other they
272. 13:02never take an exam alone
273. 13:04yes that's to be an individual an
274. 13:07individual responsibility but everything
275. 13:12is in teams and then the team evaluates
276. 13:15how everybody has contributed to the
277. 13:18team so that you know not everybody just
278. 13:20gets deep that the team that yeah that
279. 13:24right exactly but at least students have
280. 13:28to learn how to work together and how to
281. 13:31use information rather than putting the
282. 13:34information in there in their heads and
283. 13:36remembering
284. 13:40you