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This episode we’re speaking to Eric Mazur. Eric is an incredibly experienced and influential educator and physicist who has worked at Harvard University in both the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Graduate School of Education, for many years.
A professor of physics, one of Eric’s recent publications is titled, ‘Intracellular Cargo Delivery Induced by Irradiating Polymer Substrates with Nanosecond-Pulsed Lasers’, but luckily, that is not the topic of today’s podcast. No, today we’re talking about the instructional method that Eric has pioneered called, Peer Instruction. A much more comprehensible title. Eric is a respected educator around the world and his book on this topic, Peer Instruction: A User’s Manual, has been incredibly influential and provides a practical introduction into how to take a concept-focussed approach to instruction. Particularly in the physics classroom, but also in other subjects too.
I loved this discussion and this is because Eric is the kind of educator that I strive to be. That is, he has brought a continual curiosity to his teaching and continually asked, over his several decades in the classroom, ‘What’s working for my students, what isn’t, and how can I improve my methods?’ What has resulted is an ever refined approach that just keeps on getting better.
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Links/resources mentioned in the show
- Recommended Books
- Perusall: Eric's Product that helps motivate students to do their readings before class
- Also see Ollie's book: Cognitive Load Theory in Action
- Australia: Get a signed copy here
- UK – John Catt Publishing UK
- US – John Catt US
- Or from anywhere on Amazon
This episode of the ERRR Podcast is brought to you by John Catt Educational. Use this link along with the code provided within the podcast to get 30% off all books from John Catt Educational! https://www.johncattbookshop.com/books/errr
This episode of the ERRR podcast is brought to you by Catalyst. Catalyst transforms students' lives through learning by developing excellent teachers and Leaders through evidence-based professional learning programs. Find out more at https://catalyst.cg.catholic.edu.au/
Listen to all past episodes of the ERRR podcast here.