How do I get buy-in from my colleagues for teaching interactively?

A recent survey has shown that the success of Peer Instruction lies in its adaptability to a broad range of institutions and a wide range of disciplines. To make it succeed at your institution be sure to set realistic goals for your students and adjust the level of the questions to their capability. Research done at a variety of institutions confirms that Peer Instruction is significantly more effective than the traditional lecture method. To convince yourself and your colleagues you may want to collect and compare data obtained before and after implementing Peer Instruction.

How do I get student buy-in for interactive teaching?

One important way to motivate students is to use Just-in-Time Teaching to use pre-class assignments to decide what the difficult or confusing areas you need to address in your lectures. If in class you make explicit reference to what students write on their pre-class assignments and demonstrate how you adjust your teaching in reaction to them, students will be motivated to take the assignments seriously and will find class time more useful.

Because these interactive techniques may be new to many students, it is important to motivate them to participate from the very beginning of the course. Encourage your students to participate in interactive learning by explaining the method at the beginning of the course, by using the feedback to the reading and other pre-class assignments to plan your lectures, and by making sure that your exams reflect the type of questions you ask in class.