Learning by teaching
Encyclopedia
In professional education
, learning by teaching designates currently the method by Jean-Pol Martin
that allows pupils and students to prepare and to teach lesson
s, or parts of lessons. Learning by teaching should not be confused with presentations or lectures by students, as students not only convey a certain content, but also choose their own methods and didactic approaches in teaching classmates that subject. Neither should it be confused with tutor
ing, because the teacher has intensive control of, and gives support for, the learning process in learning by teaching as against other methods.
told in his letters to Lucilius
that we are learning if we teach (epistulae morales
I, 7, 8): docendo discimus
(lat.: "by teaching we are learning"). At all times in the history of schooling there have been phases where students were mobilized to teach their peers. Frequently, this was to reduce the number of teachers needed, so one teacher could instruct 200 students. However, since the end of the 19th century, a number of didactic-pedagogic reasons for student teaching have been put forward.
wrote a book about the mutual teaching method that he observed and used himself in Madras. The Londoner Joseph Lancaster
picked up this idea and implemented it in his schools. This method was introduced 1815 in France in the "écoles mutuelles", because of the increasing number of students who had to be trained and the lack of teachers. After the French revolution of 1830, 2,000 "écoles mutuelles" were registered in France. Due to a political change in the French administration, the number of écoles mutuelles shrank rapidly and these schools were marginalized. It is important to stress that the learning level in the Bell-Lancaster-schools was very low. In hindsight, the low level can probably be attributed to the fact that the teaching-process was delegated entirely to the tutors and that the teachers did not supervise and support the teaching process.
The first attempts using the learning by teaching method in order to improve learning were started at the end of the 19th century.
Selective descriptions and researches
Systematic research – though initially only descriptive – began in the middle of the 20th century. For instance Gartner 1971 in the US, in Germany Krüger 1975, Wolfgang Steining 1985, Udo Kettwig 1986, Theodor F. Klassen 1988, Ursula Drews 1997 and A. Renkl 1997
LdL as a comprehensive method
The method received broader recognition starting in the early eighties, when Jean-Pol Martin
developed the concept systematically for the teaching of French
as a foreign language
and gave it a theoretical background in numerous publications. 1987 he founded a network of more than a thousand teachers that employed learning by teaching (the specifical name: LdL = "Lernen durch Lehren") in many different subjects, documented its successes and approaches and presented their findings in various teacher training sessions.
From 2001 on LdL has gained more and more supporters as a result of educational reform movements started throughout Germany.
has understood their message/topic/grammar points and therefore use different means to do so (e.g. short phases of group or partner exercises, comprehension questions, quizzes etc.). An important effect from LdL is to develop the students' "websensibility," defined as "a cognitive and emotional sensibility for interdependence."
structure, especially the operating model from neural network
s – to classroom interactions. The activities conducted during the various lessons phases and their consequences are summarized in the following table:
Advantages:
Disadvantages
In didactics handbooks LdL has been described as an "extreme form of learner centred teaching"). On the university level, LdL has been disseminated by Joachim Grzega in Germany, Guido Oebel in Japan and Alina Rachimova in Russia.
s, since 1968, do not segregate students by age, so that students of any age are free to interact with students in other age groups. One effect of this age mixing is that a great deal of the teaching in the school is done by students. Here are some statements about Learning by teaching in the Sudbury Schools:
wrote extensively, in Russian, on the profound connection between language and cognition, and in particular oral language (speech) and learning. The implication of Vygotsky's observations for Learning by Teaching would appear to be direct and apt. "The one who does the talking, does the learning" may best summarize the point: students learn by teaching their peers.
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, learning by teaching designates currently the method by Jean-Pol Martin
Jean-Pol Martin
Jean-Pol Martin is a professor for foreign language teaching in Germany. He established the teaching method "Lernen durch Lehren" , a method for students to learn by teaching their peers...
that allows pupils and students to prepare and to teach lesson
Lesson
A lesson is a structured period of time where learning is intended to occur. It involves one or more students being taught by a teacher or instructor...
s, or parts of lessons. Learning by teaching should not be confused with presentations or lectures by students, as students not only convey a certain content, but also choose their own methods and didactic approaches in teaching classmates that subject. Neither should it be confused with tutor
Tutor
A tutor is a person employed in the education of others, either individually or in groups. To tutor is to perform the functions of a tutor.-Teaching assistance:...
ing, because the teacher has intensive control of, and gives support for, the learning process in learning by teaching as against other methods.
History
Seneca the YoungerSeneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
told in his letters to Lucilius
Lucilius Junior
Lucilius Junior , was the Roman governor of Sicily during the reign of Nero, a friend and correspondent of Seneca, and the possible author of Aetna, a poem which survives in a corrupt state.-Life:...
that we are learning if we teach (epistulae morales
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
The Epistulae morales ad Lucilium is a bundle of 124 letters which were written by Seneca the Younger at the end of his life. These letters all start with the phrase "Seneca Lucilio suo salutem" and end with the word "Vale" . In these letters, Seneca gives Lucilius tips on how to become a more...
I, 7, 8): docendo discimus
Docendo discimus
Docendo discimus, . Seneca the Younger says in his letters to Lucilius Junior that we are learning if we teach...
(lat.: "by teaching we are learning"). At all times in the history of schooling there have been phases where students were mobilized to teach their peers. Frequently, this was to reduce the number of teachers needed, so one teacher could instruct 200 students. However, since the end of the 19th century, a number of didactic-pedagogic reasons for student teaching have been put forward.
Students as teachers in order to spare teachers
In 1795 the Scotsman Andrew BellAndrew Bell (educationalist)
Andrew Bell was a Scottish Anglican priest and educationalist who pioneered the Madras System of Education in schools and was the founder of Madras College, a secondary school in St. Andrews.-His life and work:Andrew Bell was born at St. Andrews, in Scotland on 27 March 1753 and attended St...
wrote a book about the mutual teaching method that he observed and used himself in Madras. The Londoner Joseph Lancaster
Joseph Lancaster
Joseph Lancaster was an English Quaker and public education innovator.-Life:Lancaster was born the son of a shopkeeper in Southwark, south London....
picked up this idea and implemented it in his schools. This method was introduced 1815 in France in the "écoles mutuelles", because of the increasing number of students who had to be trained and the lack of teachers. After the French revolution of 1830, 2,000 "écoles mutuelles" were registered in France. Due to a political change in the French administration, the number of écoles mutuelles shrank rapidly and these schools were marginalized. It is important to stress that the learning level in the Bell-Lancaster-schools was very low. In hindsight, the low level can probably be attributed to the fact that the teaching-process was delegated entirely to the tutors and that the teachers did not supervise and support the teaching process.
Students as teachers in order to improve the learning-process
Selective descriptions and researches
Systematic research – though initially only descriptive – began in the middle of the 20th century. For instance Gartner 1971 in the US, in Germany Krüger 1975, Wolfgang Steining 1985, Udo Kettwig 1986, Theodor F. Klassen 1988, Ursula Drews 1997 and A. Renkl 1997
LdL as a comprehensive method
The method received broader recognition starting in the early eighties, when Jean-Pol Martin
Jean-Pol Martin
Jean-Pol Martin is a professor for foreign language teaching in Germany. He established the teaching method "Lernen durch Lehren" , a method for students to learn by teaching their peers...
developed the concept systematically for the teaching of French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
as a foreign language
Foreign language
A foreign language is a language indigenous to another country. It is also a language not spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e. an English speaker living in Japan can say that Japanese is a foreign language to him or her...
and gave it a theoretical background in numerous publications. 1987 he founded a network of more than a thousand teachers that employed learning by teaching (the specifical name: LdL = "Lernen durch Lehren") in many different subjects, documented its successes and approaches and presented their findings in various teacher training sessions.
From 2001 on LdL has gained more and more supporters as a result of educational reform movements started throughout Germany.
Learning by teaching by Martin (LdL)
LdL by Martin consists of two components: a general anthropological one and a subject-related one.- The anthropological basis of LdL is related to the pyramid or hierarchy of needs introduced by Abraham MaslowAbraham MaslowAbraham Harold Maslow was an American professor of psychology at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research and Columbia University who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs...
, which consists, from base to peak, of 1) physiological needs, 2) safety/security, 3) social/love/belonging, 4) esteem/self-confidence and 5) being/growth through self-actualization and self-transcendenceTranscendence (philosophy)In philosophy, the adjective transcendental and the noun transcendence convey the basic ground concept from the word's literal meaning , of climbing or going beyond, albeit with varying connotations in its different historical and cultural stages...
. Personal growth moves upward through hierarchy, whereas regressive forces tend to push downward. The act of successful learning, preparation and teaching of others contributes to items 3 through 5 above. Facing the problems of our world today and in the future, it is essential to mobilize as many intellectual resources as possible, which happens in LdL lessons in a special way. Democratic skills are promoted through the communication and socialization necessary for this shared discovery and construction of knowledge.
- The subject related component (in foreign language teaching) of LdL aims to negate the alleged contradiction between the three main components: automatization of speech-related behavior, teaching of cognitively internalized contents and authentic interaction/communication.
The LdL approach
After intensive preparation by the teacher, students become responsible for their own learning and teaching. The new material is divided into small units and student groups of not more than three people are formed. Each group familiarizes itself with a strictly defined area of new material and gets the assignment to teach the whole group in this area. One important aspect is that LdL should not be confused with a student-as-teacher-centered method. The material should be worked on didactically and methodologically (impulses, social forms, summarizing phases etc.). The teaching students have to make sure their audienceAudience
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...
has understood their message/topic/grammar points and therefore use different means to do so (e.g. short phases of group or partner exercises, comprehension questions, quizzes etc.). An important effect from LdL is to develop the students' "websensibility," defined as "a cognitive and emotional sensibility for interdependence."
Building neural network: websensibility as target
Martin attempted to transfer the brainBrain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
structure, especially the operating model from neural network
Neural network
The term neural network was traditionally used to refer to a network or circuit of biological neurons. The modern usage of the term often refers to artificial neural networks, which are composed of artificial neurons or nodes...
s – to classroom interactions. The activities conducted during the various lessons phases and their consequences are summarized in the following table:
| Phases | Students' behavior | Teacher's behavior | Additional comments |
| Preparation at home | The students work intensively at home, because the quality of the classroom discussion (collective intelligence Collective intelligence Collective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making in bacteria, animals, humans and computer networks.... , emergence Emergence In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems.... ) depends closely on the students' ("the neuron Neuron A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrical and chemical signaling. Chemical signaling occurs via synapses, specialized connections with other cells. Neurons connect to each other to form networks. Neurons are the core components of the nervous... s") preparation. Students who are not prepared or who are often absent are not able to react to impulses or to "fire off" impulses themselves. |
The teacher ("the frontal cortex") has to perfectly master the content because he or she must be able to intervene at any time, completing or giving incentives in order to enhance the quality of classroom discussion | Using LdL means that lesson time will not be used in order to communicate new content but instead for interaction either in little groups or with the entire class (collective knowledge constructing). The homework should prepare the students to interact on a high level during the lesson |
| Interactions during the lesson | The students sit in a circle. Each student listens with concentration to the other students and asks questions if something in the explanations is not clear | The teacher looks for absolute quietness and concentration during the explanations by students, so that each student may explain their thoughts without being interrupted and so that other students may ask questions of the student giving the lesson | Using LdL means that during the presentations and interactions the students have to be absolutely quiet so that everybody is able to listen to the students' utterances. During the students' interactions, the teacher has to back off |
| Introduction: information gathering two by two: example "Dom Juan by Molière" | Using "human resources Human resources Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations... ": the students in charge of the course briefly present the new topic and let the other students discuss what is new about this topic (for example about Dom Juan by Molière) |
The teacher looks to see if the students really exchange their knowledge | Using LdL means that the students' already existing knowledge about the new topic will be "inventoried" in little groups |
| First deepening: Gathering information in class | The leading students inspire their classmates to interact (they are sitting in circle) as long as all the questions are asked and answered. The students interact like neurons in neural networks and thoughts "emerge". | The teacher makes sure that each student has the opportunity to participate, and asks questions if something is not clear and needs to be clarified by the class (until the "emergence" has reach the desired quality) | The previous knowledge from each student is interchanged within the full-classroom discussion and aligned, since the new content will be fed in. |
| Introducing the new content in the classroom (example: "Molière's humor in Dom Juan") | The teaching students introduce the new content in small portions to their peers (for example, relevant scenes from Dom Juan) and they repeatedly ask questions in order to check if everything is clear | The teacher observes the communication and intervenes if something is not clear. The teacher continues to let the students clarify what they have said if meaning or content are not completely clear | By LdL the new content is shared in small portions and communicated step-by-step in the classroom. |
| The second deepening: Playing scenes | Led by the teaching students, the relevant scenes will be played and memorized (for example the seduction of the peasant-maid by Don Juan) | The teacher gives input of new ideas, and makes sure that there is adequate and successful scene-playing by the students | In LdL the teacher is a director and is not afraid of interrupting if presentations in front of the other students are not expressive enough (workshop ambiance). |
| The third deepening: written homework (text task, interpretation of a place, for instance, Don Juan's discussion with his father) | All pupils work hard at home | The teacher collects all homework and carefully corrects it | In teaching younger grades the LdL tasks are prepared during the lessons themselves. For older grades, the preparation shifts more and more towards homework so that a bigger proportion of the teaching time is available for interactions (collective reflection) . |
Advantages and disadvantages
Most teachers using the method do not apply it in all their classes or all the time. They state the following advantages and disadvantages:Advantages:
- Student work is more motivated, efficient, active and intensive due to lowered inhibitions and an increased sense of purpose
- By eliminating the class division of authoritative teacher and passive audience, an emotive solidarity is obtained.
- Students may perform many routine tasks, otherwise unnecessarily carried out by the instructor
- Next to subject-related knowledge students gain important key qualifications like
- teamworkTeamworkTeamwork is action performed by a team towards a common goal. A team consists of more than one person, each of whom typically has different responsibilities....
- planningPlanningPlanning in organizations and public policy is both the organizational process of creating and maintaining a plan; and the psychological process of thinking about the activities required to create a desired goal on some scale. As such, it is a fundamental property of intelligent behavior...
abilities - reliability
- presentation and moderation skills
- self-confidence
- teamwork
Disadvantages
- The introduction of the method requires a lot of time.
- Students and teachers have to work more than usual.
- There is a danger of simple duplication, repetition or monotony if the teacher does not provide periodic didactic impetus.
Reception of Martin's methods
Martin's work has been well received in teacher training and by practicing teachers: since 1985 more than 100 teacher students in all subjects wrote their ending thesis about LdL. Also the education administration received both the theory and the practice of LdL (vgl.Margret Ruep 1999).In didactics handbooks LdL has been described as an "extreme form of learner centred teaching"). On the university level, LdL has been disseminated by Joachim Grzega in Germany, Guido Oebel in Japan and Alina Rachimova in Russia.
Sudbury schools
Sudbury schoolSudbury school
A Sudbury school is a school that practices a form of democratic education in which students individually decide what to do with their time, and learn as a by-product of ordinary experience rather than adopting a descriptive educational syllabus or standardized instruction by classes following a...
s, since 1968, do not segregate students by age, so that students of any age are free to interact with students in other age groups. One effect of this age mixing is that a great deal of the teaching in the school is done by students. Here are some statements about Learning by teaching in the Sudbury Schools:
- "Kids love to learn from other kids. First of all, it's often easier. The child teacher is closer than the adult to the students' difficulties, having gone through them somewhat more recently. The explanations are usually simpler, better. There's less pressure, less judgment. And there's a huge incentive to learn fast and well, to catch up with the mentor.
- Kids also love to teach. It gives them a sense of value, of accomplishment. More important, it helps them get a better handle on the material as they teach; they have to sort it out, get it straight. So they struggle with the material until it's crystal clear in their own heads, until it's clear enough for their pupils to understand."
Pupil-Team Learning: The Durrell Studies
In the 1950s Dr. Donald D. Durrell and his colleagues at Boston University pursued similar methods which they named Pupil-Team Learning. A year-long efficacy study in the schools of Dedham, Massachusetts, was published in the Boston University Journal of Education, Vol. 142, December, 1959, entitled "Adapting Instruction to the Learning Needs of Children in the Intermediate Grades" in which one of the authors, Walter J. McHugh, reported significant learning gains from the use of pupil teams.Peer Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
Teaching and learning within a group or team context can be particularly effective in higher education. . This cooperative atmosphere mimics potential workplace scenarios that students would expect to find in there careers after college. The skills learned in this group atmosphere, such as the ability to listen and learn from their peers, is essential in many vocations. Marbach-Ad and Sokolove found that in this peer-to-peer cooperative learning and teaching atmosphere resulted in students questioning and being involved at a higher-level.The Vygotsky Connection
In the 1930s Lev VygotskyLev Vygotsky
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist, the founder of cultural-historical psychology, and the leader of the Vygotsky Circle.-Biography:...
wrote extensively, in Russian, on the profound connection between language and cognition, and in particular oral language (speech) and learning. The implication of Vygotsky's observations for Learning by Teaching would appear to be direct and apt. "The one who does the talking, does the learning" may best summarize the point: students learn by teaching their peers.
See also
- Bell-Lancaster methodBell-Lancaster methodThe Monitorial System was an education method that became popular on a global scale during the early 19th century. This method was also known as "mutual instruction" or the "Bell-Lancaster method" after the British educators Dr Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster who both independently developed it...
- Betty's BrainBetty's BrainBetty's Brain is a software environment created at Vanderbilt University by to help promote students' understanding of metacognitive skills and to reinforce river ecosystem knowledge as part of a science curriculum....
- a software environment - Learning theory (education)Learning theory (education)In psychology and education, learning is commonly defined as a process that brings together cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences and experiences for acquiring, enhancing, or making changes in one's knowledge, skills, values, and world views . Learning as a process focuses on what...