Peer Instruction, Gender Differences, Classroom Demos, and Technology

Workshop, Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Eric Mazur, a Harvard Physics professor, is an internationally recognized scientist and researcher who also is widely known for his educational research on peer instruction, gender differences in learning physics, classroom demonstrations, and innovative uses of technology. Dr. Mazur spoke and conducted a teaching workshop at the University of Kentucky on October 24, 2007. Use the links below to view two of his presentations (descriptions provided by Dr. Mazur).

Education talk on Confessions of a Converted Lecturer (length: 1 hour, 15 minutes; requires Quicktime)
“I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has improved my students' performance significantly.”

Workshop on Peer Instruction (length: 36 minutes; requires Quicktime)
“The basic goals of Peer Instruction are to encourage and make use of student interaction during lectures, while focusing students' attention on underlying concepts and techniques. The method has been assessed in many studies using standardized, diagnostic tests and shown to be considerably more effective than the conventional lecture approach to teaching. Peer Instruction is now used in a wide range of science and math courses at the college and secondary level.”