Multi-institutional assessment of Peer Instruction implementation and impacts using the FILL+ Framework

As research shifts away from asserting that active learning methods yield better results for student learning than traditional lecturing, it is essential to characterize and evaluate different instructors' implementations of active learning methods. Peer Instruction (PI) is one of the most commonly used active learning methods in undergraduate physics instruction. PI typically involves the use of classroom response systems (e.g. clickers), conceptual questions, individual student thinking, and group discussions. Since its introduction as an instructional strategy in 1997, research has identified that different instructors vary in the ways they implement Peer Instruction. These studies, typically, only take place at a single institution and do not link implementation of PI to student learning. In this study, we analyze variation in the implementation and impacts of PI using video and conceptual inventory data from 9 introductory physics instructors across different US institutions. We characterize implementation using the FILL+ framework, which classifies the interactions that occur in a PI classroom as interactive, vicarious interactive, or non-interactive. We investigate the type and duration of these interactions across the different classes and directly compare them with student learning gains measured from conceptual inventories.