📢 Keynote Speaker: Dr. Eric Mazur 

Confessions of a Converted Lecturer

Session Description

Education is more than just transfer of information, yet in many classes, instructors mostly present material. Few students have the ability, motivation, and discipline to synthesize all the information presented. Yet synthesis is perhaps the most important—and most elusive—aspect of education. Dr. Mazur will show how shifting the focus in lectures from delivering information to synthesizing information greatly improves the learning that takes place in the classroom.

Biography

About Eric Mazur: Dr. Eric Mazur will serve as the inaugural Ilene Dresner Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Miami for 2024-2025. Dr. Mazur is the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics and Area Chair of Applied Physics at Harvard University, Member of the Faculty of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Past President of the Optical Society. An internationally recognized scientist and researcher, he leads a vigorous research program in optical physics in the Physics Department at Harvard University. Mazur founded several companies and plays an active role in industry.  In addition to his work in optical physics, Mazur has been very active in education. In 1990 he began developing Peer Instruction, a method for teaching large lecture classes interactively. He is the author of Peer Instruction: A User's Manual (Prentice Hall, 1997), a book that explains how to teach large lecture classes interactively. In 2006 he helped produce the award-winning DVD Interactive Teaching. Dr. Mazur's teaching method has developed a large following, both nationally and internationally, and has been adopted across many disciplines.  Dr. Mazur is author or co-author of 380 scientific publications, 52 patents, and several books, including the Principles and Practice of Physics (Pearson, 2015), a book that presents a groundbreaking new approach to teaching introductory calculus-based physics.