The lecture has been the traditional modality that professors have used to impart their knowledge to students. However, the lecture based learning style may be an anachronistic method given the emerging paradigm of student-centric learning. While the lecture has undoubtedly been used to educate some of history's brilliant thinkers, there are several shortcomings with this method. The amount of information intake an individual has is limited. There is an inherent lack of feedback given the one-way nature of the lecture paradigm. Thus creating genuine dialog within the classroom setting is problematic. There is also the lack of integrating the material on the part of the student; the material is learned, yet the underlying concepts are not.
We, as educators, should be acutely aware of how individuals learn and the superlative methods that allow this action to take place. Central to this awareness is integrating the nature of human abilities and orientations into our teaching methods. Cognitive Scientists have shown that individuals have rather limited short-term memories. Therefore, dragooning students to learn factoids in a lecture may not be the best method for imparting information. Students have become apt at picking out the critical points in a lecture, and then regurgitating them for the papers or tests required. Unfortunately, they often fail to learn how to integrate such material into real-world situations and problems.
Eric Mazur, a Harvard Physics Professor, has noted that peer-to-peer instruction may be far more inductive to learning then the traditional lecture method.
In this manner, the student is required to defend their position, but also to listen to their peers' response. More engagement between divergent students is encourage. The professor then asks the students to come to a consensus and asks that they defend their conclusions and how they came to such conclusions. Thus, the students are actively engaging in the material with the professor acting as a guide through the minutia of the process, as opposed to a dictator demanding compliance.
The benefits from this peer-to-peer paradigm are that the instructors receive feedback, students receive feedback, the monotony of the lecture is broken, and the students learn the concepts behind the material. Additionally, the students are able, through defending their positions and learning from one another, to make real-world connections to the concepts taught. Instructors receive feedback as they know which student have read the material, which students have not, and witch students are not garnering the concepts. Students receive feedback from each other and defend their conclusions using critical thinking skills. The "lecture" becomes student-centric as the professors domineering role is eschewed, and practical applications are brought forth to legitimize the student's position. The concepts are no longer abstract academic theorems; rather they become tangible and applicable to real-world settings. Given that the driving force behind students seeking higher education has become less esoteric and more application based, drawing the students into the learning process will enhance the learning experience as well as the ability to utilize such knowledge in their day-to-day lives.
For further information about peer-to-peer instruction, please see the following website:
http://arts.monash.edu.au/philosophy/peer-instruction/index.php
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8 Comments
Eric:
I appreciate your work. It is compelling as a consideration. I faciltated these kinds of learning experiences in human relations education and training workshops from middle school to university students. It facilitates intentional engagement. Are you aware of this approach being engaged anywhere in the valley? I would be interested to observe. This is very interesting work.
Oscar Crawford
Hello Oscar:
Thank you for your edifying and useful feedback. Currently, I am not aware of this approach being used in Phoenix; I will keep my research tentacles open to see if I find anything. I am, however, glad to see this approach being used in a real-world setting, I have no doubt that your trainees are learning much from each other through the peer-to-peer paradigm.
Thanks,
Eric Nordin
Maybe a formal structured paradigm of peer to peer (P2P) instruction has not emerged as a 'valid' instructional strategy as yet, but students have always used P2P instruction in the less formal educational community. Social interaction, peer modeling, peer pressure, study centers, study groups, peer tutoring, and collabortive team efforts are all less formal, yet powerful learning tools students use everyday.
For the online learning environments, the use of discussion forums and collaborative learning projects utilize the P2P instructional approach. In fact, distance education leaders continue to advocate the use of team learning activities as a powerful learning tool for the online learner. I know that in online discussions, the power structure of the classroom is minimized and the role of the teacher becomes one of faciltator/co-learner. Online teachers usually do not respond to every comment and post to the discussion forum, so the student to student interaction included sharing of resources, perspectives, and applications is the core of the learning encounter.
One way to legitimize and maximize the Peer to Peer learning will be through the blending of the online and classroom encounters. Classroom teachers using online discussion forums to entend discussions that start in the classroom over the coming week, are using a P2P learning encounter. The blended learning environment is one P2P tool that has been successful in facilitating student-centered learning.
Charles
Hello, Eric. Engaging and thought-provoking post. I can see practical application in the online classroom, however, am having a hard time visualizing how to implement this. Have you had success with this in that modality? Can you share examples of how to operationalize this? Thanks!
~ Lisa
Eric,
Absolutely, there are benefits to P2P learning. Part of Vygotsky's theory is a knowledgeable other. There is no other criterion than being knowledgeable in the area of instruction.
This means P2P interaction is beneficial to our online students. I teach my students to ask questions of their classmates. I believe this is an opportunity in the participation area. The learning forum is the place for everyone to participation in depth about the concepts for the week.
P2P interactions during this process fosters camaraderie and exploration. Students will correct one another in the learning environment if the expectation is everyone is here to learn and this is part of the process.
As the instructor, I am able to help with guidance of information and conversations as the students are discussing, exploring, expounding and connecting the concepts of the week.
This has been a benefit for me in the learning environment. Students have helped maintain the positive tone in the learning environment because they have ownership of their learning. We set this expectation and tone in the learning environment.
T. Pearson
Hello Charles:
You bring forth some very salient points regarding the validity of peer-to-peer learning as well as its application in the discussion forum. Given the preponderance of the traditional lecture, the emergence of new modalities of instruction has been slow in coming. However, as you point out, regardless of whether instructors strive to make peer-to-peer learning part of their instructional paradigms, students have often relied on each other for further clarification of the material. I remember in traditional ground settings of being in study groups where we were more or less engaging in a type of peer-to-peer learning. Certainly in the online setting and with the rise of social media, students have a chance to engage a more diverse set of individuals, therefore gaining a more holistic understanding of the material as diverse viewpoint are included in the studying milieu.
The discussion forum also provides an excellent setting for the instructor to actively engage in the peer-to-peer learning process. Given our frequent involvement with the majority of the students on a weekly bases, we can use this knowledge to connect students with similar or divergent viewpoints to one another by adding to our discussion responses something akin to "you know so-and-so made some similar or interesting points in the response to the discussion question, you should take a look at it". Thus, we are able to connect student as we have an acute understand of who is posting what in the forum. Additionally, we can connect stronger academic students with weaker ones by encouraging our stronger students to be supportive of their classmates who are struggling with the material.
Thanks,
Eric
Hello Lisa:
I will admit, incorporating the peer-to-peer instructional method in the online setting can prove challenging as we are not communicating with our students in real-time. However, even in the asynchronies nature of the online environment the integration of peer-to-peer instruction is possible. The discussion forum is perhaps the best area within ANGELs' architecture to practice this method. Given the we generally have an idea of the material the majority of our students are posting, we can make connections between likeminded or disagreeing students by suggesting that certain students try and connect with one another. In this manner, we are able to actively promote dialog between students as opposed to strictly student-instructor communication. I think it is important to remember that our students are non-traditional students and therefore have a finite amount of time to spend in the discussion forum. Therefore, if we can serve as conversational directors within the forum, we can provide an environment where students engage with a more diverse set of individuals rather than responding to the same students each week.
Thanks,
Eric