It's a great way to get our students thinking deeply in the classroom. Today, Peter Newbury joins me to talk about peer instruction and using clickers in the higher ed classroom.

Podcast notes
Guest: Peter Newbury

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Peter works with graduate students, postdocs and faculty, teaching them about teaching and learning in higher education and helping them adopt evidence-based instructional practices, like peer instruction with clickers, into their classes.

Before joining UC San Diego in 2012, Peter was a Science Education Specialist with the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Prior to that, he taught College- and University-level math and astronomy.
Early experiences with clickers
The Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative
Achieving the most effective, evidence-based science education
(effective science education, backed by evidence)

The Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) is a multi-year project at The University of British Columbia aimed at dramatically improving undergraduate science education.

The CWSEI helps departments take a four-step, scientific approach to teaching:

Establish what students should learn
Scientifically measure what students are actually learning
Adapt instructional methods and curriculum and incorporate effective use of technology and pedagogical research to achieve desired learning outcomes
Disseminate and adopt what works

The Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative resources on general teaching, clickers, and peer instruction

Today's use of clickers and other audience response systems

iClicker 2 radio clickers
Colleagues use cards: A, B, C, D… Plickers…
Bonni has a set of Turning Technologies RF clickers

Whether we are using physical devices, such as clickers, or we are using more of a bring your own device / smart phone /tablet option, it's really just a tool.

“I certainly don’t want to say that in order to use peer instruction, you have to have this piece of technology. It’s not about the clicker.” #peerinstruction

“Peer instruction is not a shiny thing that comes with clickers. Clickers are one tool you can use to facilitate peer learning.”
Peer Instruction foundations
How People Learn (free ebook) states that experts must:

Have a deep foundation of factual knowledge
Understand those facts and concepts in a conceptual framework
Organize the knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application

More on peer instruction basics:

“If I’m not making your brains work, then I’m not teaching hard enough.”
“We need to schedule time into the class where students can stop and think, and start to learn.”
“Just stop talking for a while and let the students start to think.”

 
Effective Peer Instruction Questions

Peter's post on what makes for good peer instruction questions? And what makes bad ones?