Learning by Teaching

There is nothing new about the practice of having students teach other students as they themselves are learning. It has been a common practice throughout history, employed for any number of reasons, including an occasional lack of formally qualified teachers.

Learning by teaching is a highly effective way to learn. The focus and effort required to explain a subject to another instills in us a deeper and broader understanding than any lecture or class in which we are passive. This hands-on approach means engaging different parts of our cognitive system and drawing together facets of our understanding as we convey what know, and also what we do not know. Also, social connection and interaction provides a highly motivating environment for the student-teacher.

In learning, even intense study and practice does not give us the perspective that teaching does. Answering questions – anticipating questions – requires us to explore and understand the subject far more deeply than does traditional study. Teaching is a powerful way to learn.

But at what cost? On the surface, it seems that students would not learn from each other as well as they would from an experienced teacher. Rather than being taught the correct path from the start by a competent practitioner or knowledgeable instructor, they might acquire bad habits and poor technique. They might stumble and make mistakes.

Is such stumbling while learning truly so costly? When we take paths that turn into dead ends, we can see for ourselves why some paths are more effective than others. Working around a subject, exploring its limits, even falling down and getting back up to see how gravity and our feet work together, is all very much part of walking. Yes, our goal is to stumble less and walk more, but the basis for walking and running and even jumping and flying is what we we learn when we fall down and then get back up.

There is a difference between learning to walk and learning a created art such as ballet. The key difference is feedback: gravity and the ground provide much of the necessary feedback for a toddler to learn to walk, but ballet must be learned from a knowledgeable practitioner. In both cases, the important part is the feedback to the student on how they are doing, not whether or not they make mistakes.

So the more useful question, then, is this: can one student provide another with useful feedback, even without being an expert in the subject matter? The answer varies from subject to subject and from student to student, but generally speaking, yes. There is too much focus in education on the correct way to do a thing, and not enough on the many other possible ways to approach that thing. Can students provide each other insight on the many ways a subject might be addressed? Yes, especially if we as teachers model this for them.

With some preparation, nearly all willing students can teach other students, both usefully and with insight. At the same time such student-teachers dramatically improve their own facility with the subject. Learning by teaching does require more work from teachers and schools, but it is a powerfully effective way to learn.