Last week, I did something really cool: Bonni Stachowiak interviewed me about peer instruction for her Teaching in Higher Ed podcast. I was a bit nervous about talking on the phone, knowing I would be recorded, but Bonni is so knowledgeable and friendly, it turned into a great conversation between colleagues.
Visit Podcast #053 to listen to the podcast and read Bonni’s podcast notes full of resources.
How People Learn
Early in the interview, Bonni asked about one of my blog posts where I quote How People Learn about the characteristics of experts:
- experts have a deep foundation of factual knowledge
- experts understand those facts and concepts in a conceptual framework
- experts organize the knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application
Here’s how I picture that conceptual framework:
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It’s not enough just to teach the factual knowledge: you also have to help students build the conceptual framework and give them practice retrieving and applying the facts and concepts:
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As Bonni and I discussed in the rest of the interview, peer instruction is a powerful and versatile tool for giving your students opportunities to practice thinking like experts.
Great graphics, too
Bonni pulled out a bunch of quotations and turned them into great graphics. Here are a couple of my favorites. (Thanks, Bonni, for sharing these with me!)
