A multi-institutional study of peer instruction in introductory computing

Abstract

Peer Instruction (PI) is a student-centric pedagogy in which students move from the role of passive listeners to active participants in the classroom. Over the past five years, there have been a number of research articles regarding the value of PI in computer science. The present work adds to this body of knowledge by examining outcomes from seven introductory programming instructors: three novices to PI and four with a range of PI experience. Through common measurements of student perceptions, we provide evidence that introductory computing instructors can successfully implement PI in their classrooms. We find encouraging minimum (74%) and average (92%) levels of success as measured through student valuation of PI for their learning. This work also documents and hypothesizes reasons for comparatively poor survey results in one course, highlighting the importance of the choice of grading policy (participation vs. correctness) for new PI adopters.

Student satisfaction with R vs. Excel in Data Mining and Business Analytics: A Herzberg's motivation‐hygiene theory perspective

“…In future research, it would also be useful to conduct a marker analysis by collecting data at different time points, as this would improve the robustness of our findings for other student populations. There are also other potential independent factors that we did not consider; for example: student ability (Alturki, 2016), engagement (Kanaparan et al, 2013), teaching and study methods (Morehead et al, 2016), skill in code reading/writing/debugging (Bumbacher et al, 2013), and pedagogy (Porter et al, 2016).…”

WIP: Teaching a Knowledge Engineering Course Using Active Learning, Gamification, and Scaffolding

“…Active learning techniques such as Think-Pair-Share exercises 22 , pair programming 23 , peer instruction 24 , and flipped classrooms 25 have been demonstrated to increase student engagement. Many of these interventions are used at the introductory level, primarily to address broadening participation in large classes 26 .…”

Evaluation of Peer Instruction for Cybersecurity Education

“…e survey instrument is provided by Beth Simon and Leo Porter of UC San Diego, and Cynthia Lee of Stanford University. Results from this survey instrument have been published for numerous peer instruction courses, providing useful comparisons for our evaluation of peer instruction for cybersecurity (e.g., [17] [19] [20]). e survey gathers information on prior usage of clickers, course preparation, peer discussion, clicker usage, and lecture pacing.…”