Material Detail

Modern education is antiquated. The lecture model, in learning spaces inspired by the Greek amphitheater, still dominates schooling at all levels. Indeed, if you open the doors to most classrooms anywhere in the world you are likely to witness a common scene: the all-­knowing teacher towering over groups of students huddled at his feet, waiting for knowledge to scribble in their notebooks. While students can and do learn information through lecture, such learning is limited unless students assimilate that information in ways that facilitate meaning-making and the construction of understanding. Unfortunately the most widespread methods of teaching are also largely ineffective at promoting such understanding.

Education does not need to be this way. Peer Instruction (PI), developed by Eric Mazur at Harvard University, offers a demonstrated method for large-scale educational change. “Turn to your neighbor” is the classic catch-phrase of Peer Instruction methodology, whereby teachers encourage students to engage with each other to develop deep subject-matter understanding, rather than sitting passively in lecture.

In Turn to Your Neighbor: The Official Peer Instruction Blog, PI and flipped teaching expert and Peer Instruction Network Co-founder, Julie Schell and innovative educators from Ethiopia to New York City examine all facets of innovative teaching with a special focus on Peer Instruction.

This will delete the comment from the database. This operation is not reversible. Are you sure you want to do it?

Thank you for reporting a broken "Go to Material" link in MERLOT to help us maintain a collection of valuable learning materials.

If you feel this material is inappropriate for the MERLOT Collection, please click SEND REPORT, and the MERLOT Team will investigate. Thank you!

You are being taken to the material on another site. This will open a new window.

Do not show me this again