Evidence of Success

Since he began using the Just-in-Time Teaching and Peer Instruction techniques in his own classroom, Eric Mazur has been collecting data and assessing how well his students are learning.

Just-in-Time Teaching

JiTT has been student-tested for five semesters, with encouraging attitudinal and cognitive results. Working with the JiTT strategy has demonstrated that the Web, combined with live teachers in the classroom, can humanize instruction for all students and make a real difference to the non-traditional student.

JiTT was developed concurrently at three institutions: Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI), the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs, and Davidson College. The JiTT strategy was effective despite the numerous differences among these three institutions, suggesting that JiTT is applicable in many other settings. The generality of the JiTT approach is also shown by experiences at national JiTT workshops attended by faculty from a broad spectrum of institutions. For example, Daniel Kim-Shapiro, an Assistant Professor of Physics at Wake Forest University, a private four-year, liberal arts institution, successfully employed the JiTT strategy in his calculus-based introductory physics course taken by approximately 50 students. His students gave the use of the strategy an overall rating of 8/10 on an end-of-course survey. It is interesting to note that, in similar surveys at IUPUI, USAFA, and Davidson, students also gave the JiTT strategy a score of 8/10.

Peer Instruction

To assess students' learning in Harvard's Physics 11 (a one-year calculus-based introductory physics course for premedical and engineering students), two diagnostic tests have been used since 1990, the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and the Mechanics Baseline Test (MBT). The FCI is given twice during the semester, on the first day of class and then again after mechanics instruction is completed. Student learning is measured by comparing pretest and posttest scores. In 1991, when Peer Instruction was first used, students' post-test FCI scores improved dramatically over the 1990 post-test scores achieved after conventional instruction. Student post-test scores have continued to improve, though less dramatically, in subsequent years with the continued use of Peer Instruction. Many students' post-test FCI scores approach 100%.