The Implementation of Peer Instruction in Mathematics and Physics Lectures

Abstract

Peer Instruction (PI) is getting much more attention as one of the interactive teaching-learning methods. There are many practical reports of PI in physics, but in mathematics, there are a few. Multiple-choice conceptual question, ``concept test'' is a key part of PI. As a trial, we made over one hundred concept tests of mathematics, and implemented PI lectures in mathematics as well as in physics at the university. The subjects are calculus I, calculus II, linear algebra I, linear algebra II, probability statistics, and introductory physics. From first semester in the  2016 academic year to first semester in the 2017 academic year, total number of PI lectures in mathematics is 29 and that in physics is 4. We conducted the quantitative survey for the students before and after PI lectures. For example, the favorable rating of the students for physics increased from 49 % to 69 % and that for mathematics increased from 49 % to 61 % in PI lecture of physics. After the lecture, the unfavorable rating of the students for physics decreased to 12 % and that for mathematics decreased to 8 %. Histogram of clickers’ responses for concept tests helps the teacher to grasp the level of students’ understanding. We collected the data of clickers before and after peer discussion. It is important to analyze which unit or concept the students are good at or not, and the data give us the information to improve our lectures and the concept tests.



Author Information
Tomoshige Kudo, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
Hidetaka Yamaoka, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
Tetsuya Taniguchi, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
Makoto Nishi, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
Akiomi Mishima, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan

Paper Information
Conference: ACEID2018
Stream: Higher education

This paper is part of the ACEID2018 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon