Measuring the interplay of prior background with instructional method in a highly heterogeneous classroom: a case study (American Physical Society)

Vernita Gordon presented a paper at the 2021 March Meeting of the American Physical Society, an international-scope conference for physics scholars .... The paper was part of a session titled "Physics Education at All Stages,"

Find more information on the APS website, or read the session abstract below. 

Much physics education research has shown that peer instruction, wherein students discuss questions in small groups, results in better learning than does traditional lecture. However, peer instruction requires that students engage material before each class meeting; this is much easier for students with a strong prior background. In this case study, we examine the outcomes in introductory mechanics courses taught back-to-back by the same instructor and covering the same material, but using two different pedagogies – peer instruction and interactive lecture, in which the discussion was between the whole class and the instructor rather than within small groups of students. Students with incoming SAT scores below the median (disproportionately including low-income, under-represented minority, and first-generation students) performed worse in the peer instruction courses than in the interactive lecture courses. This may connect to the very high level of heterogeneity in prior background, which arises from an unusual university admissions policy and from the fact that these courses, while intended for physics and astronomy majors, contained more than 60% non-majors. We suggest that peer instruction might not always work well for highly heterogeneous populations.