Increased Structure and Active Learning Reduce the Achievement Gap in Introductory Biology

It’s yet another article in Science dealing with pedagogy, and if the note in this news brief under “Teaching to Achieve” is right, it looks like the second vindication of Peer Instruction in Science in the the space of two months. According to the brief: “A highly structured course design that included peer instruction and peer-graded practice exams, but no instructor lectures, generally yielded a better grasp of biology and higher grades for all students, relative to courses grounded in lectures and small-group exercises.” Note the contrast between small-group exercises and peer instruction here, which is where a lot of the interesting questions are. May have to head down to the library for this one.