PI active learning approach is an exclusive teaching method developed and introduced by eminent Harvard University researcher-cum-professor of physics, Eric Mazur, and is applied by many reputed universities worldwide. It involves students in their own learning during a lecture and focuses their attention on underlying concepts. Lectures are interspersed with conceptual questions, designed to expose common difficulties in understanding the material. The students should quickly formulate their own answers; they then spend two to three minutes discussing their answers in small groups, attempting to reach consensus on the correct answer. This process forces the students to think through the arguments, and enables them (as well as the instructor) to assess their understanding of the concepts even before they leave the classroom.

Valli Boobal Pillai-Batchelor, a PMU faculty member, has been applying this approach in her finance classes at the university’s female campus. She brought her classroom experiences to the attention of Professor Mazur — who offered to interact with her students at PMU to assess how Saudi women can adapt to active learning approaches.

After interaction with the students via Skype, the Harvard professor said: “It was clear that the active engagement fostered in Batchelor’s classroom helps students from PMU to develop a passion for learning. Saudi students do not learn any different from other parts of the world.”

Batchelor said, “Although the approach is unconventional, the improvement in learning has been enormous — as proven through Professor Mazur’s expert opinion and students’ personal reflections.”

Student Rasha Abdullah believes “this learning approach significantly helps students to understand the concepts which they can apply to solve problems in work force and in personal lives.”

Batchelor observed this approach by learning its insights as a student and as an expert at Australian universities — like Monash University — where PI is actively applied. She naturally used this approach in all her classes after joining PMU recently. This brings the university into the list of modern universities worldwide, which explore innovative approaches to learning.