Tonight’s session from the Lilly Conference online 2021 was entitled “Peer teaching: Mastering Concepts Through Active Learning” and presented by Sherry Lin from Texas A & M University. Lin defined active learning as “a method of learning where students are involved in the learning process” and “engages students in their own learning by doing things and thinking about what they are doing.” Lin’s list of examples of active learning activities included brainstorming, think-pair-share, discussion groups, peer teaching, and role playing. Lin also defined peer teaching and its effectiveness citing McKeachie et al. 1986: “… peer teaching is extremely effective for a wide range of goals, content, and students of different levels and personalities.” Lin described peer teaching as students learning from each other in both formal and informal ways. In a series of points, Lin emphasized that peer teaching moves the teaching from the instructor to the students by having students connect, apply, and explain to each other… and even convince other students. I thought it was important that Lin mentioned that as peer students teaching each other, they evaluate peer students’ understanding of concepts.
Lin has incorporated peer teaching in a large upper-level undergraduate course with 160+ students. In sessions, students are randomly assigned to groups and they choose a specific concept from the textbook to teach to their peers. Peer teachers explain concepts to each other and online they recorded short videos to teach each other. Lin used a rubric to evaluate the presentations, slides, and peer teaching. Lin shared several strategies including the A.C.E. & Model Articles in which students use the:
- Argument: What is the text trying to convince me of?
- Claim: Why does the author think they are correct?
- Evidence: How do they prove it?
The instructor assigns foundational texts or important arguments to groups or individual students and peer teachers present the key concepts. The second strategy that Lin suggested was the Peer Taught Unit Recap, which is a modified jigsaw activity. Students use instructor support to turn their notes into summaries for their peers. Students are responsible for providing a concise summary in their own words from a list of subjects or units available. Final Gallery Walks are an approach Lin is considering to replace a final exam. Peer teachers are assigned to a topic or argument and tasked to develop a personal argument/summary to explain to the class. Lin warned that instructors must develop guidelines and rubrics before the assignment and be willing to release control to the students. Since students tend to focus more on their own session, it is important for instructors to evaluate and assess their understanding of other concepts. Lin ended by speaking about the importance of being transparent with students, flexible, and considering this a learning process. I learned about the A.C.E. and Peer Taught Unit Recap strategies form this session. I thought the online implementation was creative, with students sharing their videos with each other. I wonder how feasible that would be in, for example, and 8-week lab module.
