Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T12:59:33.128Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

30 - A Case Study of Peer Instruction

From University of California, San Diego to the Computer Science Community

from Case Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2019

By
Leo Porter  and
Beth Simon
Edited by
Sally A. Fincher  and
Anthony V. Robins
Sally A. Fincher
Affiliation:
University of Kent, Canterbury
Anthony V. Robins
Affiliation:
University of Otago, New Zealand
Get access

Summary

This case study examines the adoption and study of Peer Instruction (PI) in computer science that began at UC San Diego in 2008. The faculty member who initially adopted PI had recently been a fellow at an interdisciplinary institute where she had already seen its effectiveness in physics and biology classrooms. That first adoption led in two major directions: (1) the careful study of the efficacy of PI in computer science - leading to PI becoming the best studied pedagogy in computing (at the time of writing), and (2) the adoption of PI by a number of faculty at a variety of institutions across the country. This chapter examines what factors led to the success of that initial adoption and what led to PI’s success in the field of computing.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research , pp. 861 - 874
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beach, A., & Henderson, C. (2018). Research on Instructional Change in Postsecondary Education. Retrieved from http://wmich.edu/changeresearchGoogle Scholar
Crouch, C. H., & Mazur, E. (2001). Peer instruction: Ten years of experience and results. American Journal of Physics, 69(9), 970–977.Google Scholar
Dancy, M., & Henderson, C. (2010). Pedagogical practices and instructional change of physics faculty. American Journal of Physics, 78(10), 1056–1063.Google Scholar
Froyd, J. E., Borrego, M., Cutler, S., Henderson, C., & Prince, M. J. (2013). Estimates of use of research-based instructional strategies in core electrical or computer engineering courses. IEEE Transactions on Education, 56(4), 393–399.Google Scholar
Guzdial, M. (2018). Computing Education Research Blog. Retrieved from https://computinged.wordpress.com (Various posts: search for “peer instruction.”)Google Scholar
Guzdial, M. (2015). Learner-centered design of computing education: Research on computing for everyone. Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics, 8(6), 1–165.Google Scholar
Guzdial, M., & Ericson, B. (2007). Introduction to Computing and Programming in Java: A Multimedia Approach. London, UK: Pearson.Google Scholar
Henderson, C. (2018a). Charles Henderson Publications. Retrieved from http://homepages.wmich.edu/~chenders/Publications/Publications.htmGoogle Scholar
Henderson, C. (2018b). Increase the Impact. Retrieved from www.increasetheimpact.comGoogle Scholar
Hestenes, D., Wells, M., & Swackhamer, G. (1992). Force concept inventory. The Physics Teacher, 30(3), 141–158.Google Scholar
Lee, C. B. (2013). Experience report: CS1 in MATLAB for non-majors, with media computation and peer instruction. In Proceedings of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 35–40). New York: ACM.Google Scholar
Lee, C. B., Porter, L., Zingaro, D., & Simon, B. (2018). Peer Instruction for CS. Retrieved from www.peerinstruction4cs.orgGoogle Scholar
Murphy, T. (2008). Success and failure of audience response systems in the classroom. In Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM SIGUCCS Fall Conference: Moving Mountains, Blazing Trails (pp. 33–38). New York: ACM.Google Scholar
Pargas, R. P., & Shah, D. M. (2006). Things are clicking in computer science courses. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 38(1), 474–478.Google Scholar
Porter, L., Guzdial, M., McDowell, C., & Simon, B. (2013a). Success in introductory programming: What works? Communications of the ACM, 56(8), 34–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, L., Lee, C. B., & Simon, B. (2013b). Halving fail rates using peer instruction: A study of four computer science courses. In Proceedings of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 177–182). New York: ACM.Google Scholar
Porter, L., Lee, C. B., Simon, B., & Zingaro, D. (2011). Peer instruction: Do students really learn from peer discussion in computing? In Proceedings of the Seventh International Workshop on Computing Education Research (pp. 45–52). New York: ACM.Google Scholar
Porter, L., & Simon, B. (2013). Retaining nearly one-third more majors with a trio of instructional best practices in CS1. In Proceedings of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 165–170). New York: ACM.Google Scholar
Prince, M., Borrego, M., Henderson, C., Cutler, S., & Froyd, J. (2013). Use of research-based instructional strategies in core chemical engineering courses. Chemical Engineering Education, 47(1), 27–37.Google Scholar
Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15, 4–14.Google Scholar
Simon, B., & Cutts, Q. (2012). Peer instruction: A teaching method to foster deep understanding. Communications of the ACM, 55(2), 27–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, B., Kohanfars, M., Lee, J., Tamayo, K., & Cutts, Q. (2010). Experience report: Peer instruction in introductory computing. In Proceedings of the 41st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 341–345). New York: ACM.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, B., Parris, J., & Spacco, J. (2013). How we teach impacts student learning: Peer instruction vs. lecture in CS0. In Proceedings of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 41–46). New York: ACM.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. K., Wood, W. B., Adams, W. K., Wieman, C., Knight, J. K., Guild, N., & Su, T. T. (2009). Why peer discussion improves student performance on in-class concept questions. Science, 323(5910), 122–124.Google Scholar
Wieman, C. (2018). The Carl Wieman Science Initiative. Retrieved from www.cwsei.ubc.caGoogle Scholar
Zingaro, D., Lee, C. B., & Porter, L. (2013). Peer instruction in computing: The role of reading quizzes. In Proceedings of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 47–52). New York: ACM.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×