09/04/2024
By Amanda Vozzo
Speaker: Eric Mazur, Ph.D., of Harvard University - Title: “Breaking down classroom walls and setting learning free”
Abstract: The rapid transition to online teaching necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink my approach to teaching. Moving online laid bare the restrictions imposed by both traditional classrooms and online teaching, and demonstrated that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be improved by making them asynchronous and self-paced in any teaching modality. What may have seemed like a challenge at first, turned out to be a great opportunity to improve the quality of education.
Bio: Eric Mazur is the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics and Academic Dean for Applied Sciences and Engineering at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering Applied Science at Harvard University, Member of the Faculty of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Chair of the Optica Foundation, and Past President of the Optica (formerly the Optical Society). Mazur is a prominent physicist known for his contributions in nanophotonics, an internationally recognized educational innovator, and a sought-after speaker. In education he is widely known for his work on Peer Instruction, an interactive teaching method aimed at engaging students in the classroom and beyond. In 2014 Mazur became the inaugural recipient of the Minerva Prize for Advancements in Higher Education. He has received many awards for his work in physics and in education, and has founded several successful companies. Mazur has widely published in peer-reviewed journals and holds numerous patents. He has also written extensively on education and is the author of Peer Instruction: A User's Manual (Prentice Hall, 1997), a book that explains how to teach large lecture classes interactively, and of the Principles and Practice of Physics (Pearson, 2015), a book that presents a groundbreaking new approach to teaching introductory calculus-based physics. Mazur is a leading speaker on optics and on education. His motivational lectures on interactive teaching, educational technology, and assessment have inspired people around the world to change their approach to teaching.