Reserving 5-7 minutes for this, Avens encourages students to discuss their answer with those sitting around them before filling in a Scantron form. At times he will also ask students to write out their reasoning on the back side of the form and then sample these comments to better his own understanding of their thinking and learning. As a communicator, Dr. Wright faces the difficult challenge of trying to explain detailed scientific concepts to students who have a wide range of previous knowledge. In addition, it's difficult to personally address each student's problems with understanding the material. Dr. Wright has also pointed out that many people understand concepts better when their peers explain concepts to them.
Peers have a more familiar language and manner of explaining subjects to one another.
One problem the students in his class face is trying to overcome the class size. Dr. Wright assigned myself and a fellow classmate to the task of breaking down the class to smaller groups. These groups are assigned a weekly task relating directly to the lectures. These tasks usually represent a concept that the students have traditionally shown difficulty understanding. Most of the groups consist of 3 to 6 members.