Peer instruction: From Harvard to the two-year college

TLDR

The study compares the effectiveness of a first implementation of peer instruction in a two‑year college with its initial implementation at a top‑tier four‑year research institution. The authors implemented peer instruction in an introductory physics course at a two‑year college and compared student outcomes to those from the first peer instruction deployment at a four‑year institution. Peer instruction produced better conceptual learning and similar problem‑solving skills compared to traditional teaching, reduced attrition in introductory physics at both institution types, and enabled students with less background knowledge to achieve gains comparable to those with more background knowledge.

Abstract

We compare the effectiveness of a first implementation of peer instruction (PI) in a two-year college with the first PI implementation at a top-tier four-year research institution. We show how effective PI is for students with less background knowledge and what the impact of PI methodology is on student attrition in the course. Results concerning the effectiveness of PI in the college setting replicate earlier findings: PI-taught students demonstrate better conceptual learning and similar problem-solving abilities than traditionally taught students. However, not previously reported are the following two findings: First, although students with more background knowledge benefit most from either type of instruction, PI students with less background knowledge gain as much as students with more background knowledge in traditional instruction. Second, PI methodology is found to decrease student attrition in introductory physics courses at both four-year and two-year institutions.