An article in today's (April 11, 2012) Chronicle reports on a study testing whether or not peer instruction is actually helping students learn vs. just pressuring those less sure of themselves into conforming. An excerpt:
"The questions were given in pairs of “isomorphic” questions, having different contexts and “cover stories” but assessing the same core concepts. First, a question was asked using the usual vote-discuss-revote model. Then the second, isomorphic question was asked with only individual voting taking place.
If the peer discussion was merely creating an environment of peer pressure to vote the same as the knowledgeable students, then what you’d expect is that the percentage of students answering correctly would be relatively low on the first vote on Question 1, then high on the revote, then back to low again on Question 2. But that’s not what the study found! On the first vote, an average of about 50% of students were voting correctly. On the revote of the first question, that average went up to just shy of 70%. On the first vote of the second question — testing the same concept but in a new context — the percent voting correctly was above 70%."
The study cited is: , , , , , , and
Science 2 January 2009: 323 (5910), 122-124. [DOI:10.1126/science.1165919]
"The questions were given in pairs of “isomorphic” questions, having different contexts and “cover stories” but assessing the same core concepts. First, a question was asked using the usual vote-discuss-revote model. Then the second, isomorphic question was asked with only individual voting taking place.
If the peer discussion was merely creating an environment of peer pressure to vote the same as the knowledgeable students, then what you’d expect is that the percentage of students answering correctly would be relatively low on the first vote on Question 1, then high on the revote, then back to low again on Question 2. But that’s not what the study found! On the first vote, an average of about 50% of students were voting correctly. On the revote of the first question, that average went up to just shy of 70%. On the first vote of the second question — testing the same concept but in a new context — the percent voting correctly was above 70%."
The study cited is: , , , , , , and
Science 2 January 2009: 323 (5910), 122-124. [DOI:10.1126/science.1165919]
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