Proving the Benefits of Peer Instruction

Another article that’s on my mind as I consider how to integrate group work into an unusually large literature class.

In an undergraduate genetics course, students were, on 16 occasions
during the course of a semester, asked a pair of “isomorphic”
questions, which have different facts but require students to apply the
same principles or concepts. Instructors asked students one of the
questions, had them “click” their answers, discuss the question with
their neighbors, and then revote. Then, they were asked to answer the
second question individually, via the clickers.
A significantly higher percentage of students answered the second
question correctly than did so on either the original question or the
first question when it was asked a second time (without revealing the
results from the first query). — Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed