An assessment of peer instruction in large first year mathematics courses

Abstract

Many recent studies have expounded the benefits of active learning in tertiary education. It can be challenging to implement these techniques at large scale (for example in first year mathematics courses). A common method for actively engaging students in large classes is through online quizzes, which may include peer instruction. In this paper, we investigate the effect of having students answer quiz-style questions during class both with and without discussion in a first year mathematics course. We also investigate the short- and long-term effects of each protocol. We find that peer instruction improves student learning in mathematics in the following ways: First, when the responses to questions was measured before and after peer instruction the proportion of questions answered correctly increased by 0.2; second, when correct responses were compared to similar questions the following week the proportion correct increased by 0.34 (compared to 0.07 for the control); finally, when measured at the end of the semester the proportion of questions answered correctly increased by 0.42 (compared to 0.2 for the control).