Halving fail rates using peer instruction: a study of four computer science courses

Peer Instruction (PI) is a teaching method that supports student-centric classrooms, where students construct their own understanding through a structured approach featuring questions with peer discussions. PI has been shown to increase learning in STEM disciplines such as physics and biology. In this report we look at another indicator of student success the rate at which students pass the course or, conversely, the rate at which they fail. Evaluating 10 years of instruction of 4 different courses spanning 16 PI course instances, we find that adoption of the PI methodology in the classroom reduces fail rates by a per-course average of 61% (20% reduced to 7%) compared to standard instruction (SI). Moreover, we also find statistically significant improvements within-instructor. For the same instructor teaching the same course, we find PI decreases the fail rate, on average, by 67% (from 23% to 8%) compared to SI. As an in-situ study, we discuss the various threats to the validity of this work and consider implications of wide-spread adoption of PI in computing programs.

[1]  Quintin I. Cutts,et al.  Computing as the 4th "R": a general education approach to computing education , 2011, ICER.

[2]  Quintin I. Cutts,et al.  Experience report: peer instruction in introductory computing , 2010, SIGCSE.

[3]  Pratibha Varma-Nelson,et al.  Pedagogies of engagement in science: A comparison of PBL, POGIL, and PLTL , 2008, Biochemistry and molecular biology education : a bimonthly publication of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

[4]  Scott Freeman,et al.  Prescribed active learning increases performance in introductory biology , 2007, CBE life sciences education.

[5]  Quintin I. Cutts,et al.  Experience report: a multi-classroom report on the value of peer instruction , 2011, ITiCSE '11.

[6]  N. Lasry,et al.  Peer instruction: From Harvard to the two-year college , 2008 .

[7]  William B Wood,et al.  Teaching more by lecturing less. , 2005, Cell biology education.

[8]  Jane E Caldwell,et al.  Clickers in the large classroom: current research and best-practice tips. , 2007, CBE life sciences education.

[9]  Daniel Zingaro,et al.  Experience Report: Peer Instruction in Remedial Computer Science , 2010 .

[10]  Beth Simon,et al.  Experience report: CS1 for majors with media computation , 2010, ITiCSE '10.

[11]  Beth Simon,et al.  Peer instruction: do students really learn from peer discussion in computing? , 2011, ICER.

[12]  Beth Simon,et al.  How we teach impacts student learning: peer instruction vs. lecture in CS0 , 2013, SIGCSE '13.

[13]  Pratibha Varma-Nelson,et al.  Pedagogies of Engagement in Science , 2008 .

[14]  E. Mazur,et al.  Peer Instruction: Ten years of experience and results , 2001 .

[15]  Roy P. Pargas,et al.  Things are clicking in computer science courses , 2006, SIGCSE '06.