Peer Instruction for Student Engagement

Radford University, Radford VA

Investigators

Abstract

The Peer Instruction for Student Engagement project is placing peer instructors in selected introductory courses in STEM disciplines and measure the impact that their use has on student engagement with those courses. Departments have chosen courses (i) which students have historically found difficult and (ii) which are either required of majors or from which majors are normally recruited. To keep costs down, departments were asked to determine how peer instructors could be effectively used no more than three hours per week per class. The six different disciplines use four different models for peer instruction. Geology and Chemistry are following the Supplemental Instruction model, using peer instructors to provide voluntary problem-solving sessions. Computer Science and Biology are following a model already used by the Computer Science Department in one course, using peer instructors to assist with small-group learning in laboratories and to hold office hours. Physics is adapting a model, best known from the University of Washington's Physics Education Group, in which peer tutors help small groups of students to work, in mandatory laboratory sessions, through tutorials devised by faculty members. Mathematics is employing a modification of the Peer-Led Team Learning strategy, combining a web-based homework delivery system with mandatory problem-solving workshops based around problem sets written by the faculty. The project's two objectives are (1) to increase retention in STEM majors at Radford University by 15%, and (2) to measure the effect of peer instruction on student engagement in STEM disciplines. Five different assessment measures are used: retention rates, grades, competency exam scores, surveys and interviews of participants, and the National Survey of Student Engagement. Each department involved has a department coordinator for the project who manages recruitment and departmental training of peer instructors, and who meets with peer instructors as a group during the semester. Global training is provided by an experienced consultant. The project's co-Principal Investigators are visiting workshops and tutorial sessions, talking with faculty and students involved, and conducting extensive assessment of all aspects of the project. The project addresses the NSF merit review criteria. Intellectual Merit The primary intellectual merit of this project is the measurement of the impact of peer instruction on student engagement with introductory courses in STEM disciplines. Peer instruction, especially when combined with small-group work, is considered a prime strategy for increasing engagement; this project will determine, through a number of assessments, the extent to which this is true at Radford University. It will also look for differences in results among competing models for peer instruction. Broader Impact The project improves education using proven techniques while investigating the important question of why those techniques work. Its results, both the expected increase in retention rates and the measurements of student engagement associated with peer instruction, should be of interest to all who wish to increase student learning in STEM disciplines. Peer instructors can add diversity to instruction in fields dominated by white males, and all departments participating have indicated that they could hire significant numbers of female or minority students to serve in that capacity. The principal investigators will disseminate the project's results both through the web and through the usual outlets for publication and presentation.