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Peer Instruction for Active Learning - Eric Mazur — Transcript

by Serious Science · 2,127 words · 317 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:01[Music]
0:08I started teaching at Harvard in 1984 as
0:13a as an assistant professor of uh
0:17physics and when I started
0:20teaching I never asked myself how am I
0:23going to teach which kind of strange
0:26right because when you do something new
0:28in your life that should be the first
0:30thing you ask
0:31yourself it was completely clear in my
0:34mind what I was going to do I was going
0:38to lecture after all I had learned
0:42physics by listening to my professor's
0:44lecture so I assumed that I had learned
0:47by listening to lectures and therefore I
0:50thought I'm going to lecture for my
0:54students so I started teaching I was
0:58asked to teach a course
1:00that none of my colleagues here really
1:02wanted to teach it was physics for
1:05premedical students these were not
1:07students who wanted to learn physics
1:09they already hated physics before coming
1:11into my classroom but they they just had
1:13to to learn physics you know most of my
1:16colleagues when they used to teach that
1:19course they would feel very unhappy at
1:21the end of the semester because the
1:24students would give them very poor
1:25ratings you know preds are not very kind
1:27to physicist
1:30but that didn't happen for me I got very
1:33high ratings it's a fivepoint scale and
1:35I typically got 4.2 4.5 on on a
1:39fivepoint
1:40scale also even though these were not
1:43physicists but preds I could give them
1:46some really hard problems problems that
1:48you know I'm not sure I would do well on
1:50on an exam so the students gave me high
1:55ratings they did well on what I
1:57considered complicated exams
2:00I very quickly started to believe that I
2:02was the world's best physics teacher and
2:05that illusion because it turned out it
2:06was a complete
2:07illusion went on for many many
2:12years I would go through my classroom on
2:15a rocket
2:17propelled cart this was you know many
2:19years ago 30 years ago I would climb up
2:22to the ceiling I would have this big
2:25ball that would be on a pendulum make it
2:27swing from my nose to the other side of
2:29the classroom and i' come back and the
2:31whole class would gasp thinking the the
2:33ball would smash my nose and come back I
2:36mean it was like a Hollywood show and I
2:38had these high
2:39ratings and my students did well on
2:42exams I was a
2:45star but it was an illusion because
2:49after about 7 years I read an
2:54article that
2:56claimed that students learn nothing or
2:59next to nothing in their introductory
3:01physics
3:02courses and the article showed data from
3:06thousands of students in the southwest
3:08of United States Arizona New
3:11Mexico
3:13California and the data had been
3:15obtained by asking the students multiple
3:19choice
3:20questions using not typical typical
3:24textbook problems but using word-based
3:28problems a car and a Truck Collide
3:31head-on on the highway is the force
3:33exerted by the heavy truck on the light
3:35car larger than the force exerted by the
3:38Light G of truck are they equal is it
3:41the other way around and these
3:44researchers showed that it doesn't make
3:46any difference whether you ask the
3:47questions before the students have had
3:50their physics scores or after these were
3:53not physics Majors they were engineering
3:55Majors
3:57preds I read that article and I saw but
4:00not my students you know not hybrid
4:03students but I'm a scientist so one
4:07thing I've learned is you don't just
4:08make statements if you make a statement
4:10you better show data so I decided to
4:14give my student this
4:17test and I remember vividly what
4:21happened as soon as they started to take
4:24that test one student raised her
4:27hand and she said looking me right in
4:30the in the eyes she said Professor
4:33mazour how should I answer these
4:35questions according to what you taught
4:38me or according to the way I usually
4:40think about these things I
4:43went what's the difference shouldn't you
4:46think the way I teach you anyway by the
4:49time the test had been completed my life
4:52as an instructor was changed
4:56forever because it turned out that my
4:59students Maybe did a little bit better
5:00than the students in Arizona and and but
5:02that's simply because Harvard is a very
5:04selective institution but some did
5:08barely better than a gorilla hitting
5:11random keys on the keyboard that
5:13shattered my illusion and all of a
5:16sudden I thought how can that be I was
5:18in the N I thought there must be
5:19something wrong with this test and I did
5:22some more research I did in the second
5:24semester when you get to
5:25electromagnetism I compare students
5:27performance on a word basis problems
5:30with the textbook problems and I
5:31discovered that they could do the
5:32textbook problem but they could not
5:35answer the much simpler word-based
5:37problem and the reason is that my
5:39students were simply
5:41approaching the
5:43physics as recipes which they were
5:47memorizing it was not a matter of
5:49understanding the principles no it was a
5:52matter of tell me how to do the problems
5:56give me the recipe well for a while I
5:59you know you know I felt very unhappy
6:00and I didn't know what to do but then
6:02the solution presented itself
6:05serendipitously totally accidentally
6:08after the test had been completed my
6:11students were shocked because they had
6:13done so poorly and they were worried
6:15because the final exam was coming later
6:18so they asked me for a special session
6:20at night to go through every question of
6:22that test one by one and I remember
6:25coming to this question about the truck
6:27and the heavy car I took two minutes to
6:29explain it I made a drawing of the truck
6:31a drawing of the car I drew the forces
6:33and I said by Newton Third Law these two
6:35forces are equal what's more to explain
6:38about it and I turned I done that with
6:40my back to them on on on the board and I
6:42turned around and I could see at once
6:44from their faces that they were confused
6:46so I said is their question they were so
6:49confused they could not articulate a
6:51question so I thought this is serious so
6:54I thought I raised the board I started
6:55all over
6:57again and I thought you know maybe I
6:59should bring in Newton's Second Law and
7:01talk about acceleration so in the next 8
7:04minutes I managed to produce the most in
7:07my opinion brilliant explanation you
7:09could think of and after 8 minutes the
7:11whole board was covered with equations
7:13and drawings I turned
7:16around they looked even more confused
7:19and they could still not articulate the
7:21question when I said is there a question
7:22they were you know they could not
7:25articulate what it was that confused
7:27them I didn't know what to do
7:30but I knew one thing I knew that half of
7:32them had given the right answer so in a
7:35moment of Despair I said to them why
7:38don't you just discuss it with each
7:40other I had 250 students in the class
7:43and something happened that I'd never
7:45seen before all 250 students started
7:48talking it was complete
7:50chaos they forgot about me in front of
7:52the class I could have walked away they
7:54would not have
7:55noticed but what is really interesting
7:58was that in just 2 minutes
8:00they figured it out I taken 10 minutes
8:032+ 8 to explain it unsuccessfully and
8:06then 2 minutes explain to each other I
8:08first thought how can it be but imagine
8:10you have two students sitting next to
8:11each other John and Mary Mary has the
8:15right answer because she understands it
8:17John does not on average Mary is more
8:20likely to convince John than the other
8:21way around simply by the force of logic
8:24but here's the important Point Mary is
8:27more likely to explain it to on than
8:30professor mazour in front of the class
8:33why because she has only recently
8:35learned it she's still knows what the
8:38difficulties are that the beginning
8:40learner has whereas professor mazour in
8:43front of the class has learned it such a
8:44long time ago to him it is so obvious so
8:48simple that he no longer understand why
8:50somebody doesn't understand it it's what
8:53my colleague Steven Pinker in the
8:54psychology department calls the curse of
8:57knowledge once you understand something
9:00you forget the difficulties that are
9:02beginning learning and I have to admit
9:04when I was a student and I had a problem
9:08I would often not bother asking my
9:10professor I would go to a friend and say
9:11hey do you understand what Professor
9:13such and such said so soon after this
9:17serendipitous Discovery I changed my
9:20approach to teaching
9:22completely I stopped lecturing I stopped
9:27being the Hollywood performer in front
9:29of the students instead I gave them the
9:32book and my notes to read I asked them
9:35to read the book before coming to class
9:38not after class and in class I teach by
9:43questioning so I'll talk a few minutes
9:46I'll ask a question the student think
9:48about it and then I have them vote on
9:51the answer we actually use technology to
9:53do that so they commit to an answer and
9:56then I tell them find somebody with a
9:58different answer around you and try to
10:00convince that
10:01person complete chaos they all start
10:04talking and arguing and and then you see
10:06these students go oh yes and different
10:10students help each other understand the
10:13subject I have them vote again and
10:16usually many more students get a correct
10:18on the second try and then we wrap up
10:20with a discussion and I go to the next
10:24question I call this approach peer
10:27instruction because students teach teach
10:29each other at the same level rather than
10:32teacher student it's student student and
10:35I as the instructor facilitate it
10:38instead of being the sage on the stage
10:40delivering the wisdom which I now know I
10:43can't do I am their coach I'm the coach
10:47who guides them from the side I've shown
10:50with this method that you can triple the
10:53learning gains and books have appeared
10:56of P instruction in chemistry and
10:58astronomy and mathematics there are
11:00people using it in many different
11:03disciplines and many many different
11:04educational settings the key point is
11:07this though it's not about the
11:10instructor in front of the class it's
11:12about the student and the student's mind
11:16you don't learn by listening you learn
11:19by doing and in a sense this brings the
11:22doing back in the classroom this
11:25technique can really be applied to just
11:27about any field
11:30that involves critical thinking and I
11:33would say at a
11:36university everything involves critical
11:38thinking here's the reason why education
11:41in a sense is a two-step process one
11:45step is the transfer of
11:48information and we have many ways of
11:50transferring information one is books
11:52the other is video and of course in the
11:55University most transfer of information
11:57is done by lecturing the professor
12:00delivers information to the
12:02students however the crucial part of an
12:06education is for the student to make
12:08sense of that information to have the
12:11AHA moments oh I get it so that you can
12:15apply the knowledge embedded information
12:18in a new context unfortunately when you
12:21listen to a lecture there's no time for
12:23that aha moment there's no time the only
12:25thing you can do is take the information
12:28down if you try to think you lose track
12:32of what the person says because you
12:33cannot think and talk at the same time
12:38so where for most people I've asked
12:41myself often where did that happen for
12:42me these aha moments where did I make
12:44sense of the information well that
12:46happened outside of the classroom so in
12:48the standard approach to teaching the
12:50information transfer is in the classroom
12:53the sense making is out of the classroom
12:56if you ask yourself pragmatically which
12:57is the harder part I think we all agree
13:00it's a second part A sense making so why
13:03not flip this around and do the easy
13:06part outside of the classroom the
13:09transfer of information books video and
13:13then in class we think about it you can
13:16do this with art history you can do it
13:18with Biology you can do it with Quantum
13:20information you can do it with special
13:22relativity you can do it with finance
13:25and in fact believe it or not there are
13:29people in all of these fields at
13:30universities not my own but many who are
13:34using it from Finance to mathematics to
13:37French drama
13:40[Music]
13:47[Music]

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