Learning by teaching

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In professional education learning by teaching designates a method which allows pupils and students to prepare and teach lessons or parts of lessons. Learning by teaching should not be confused with presentations or lectures by students, as students do not only convey a certain content, but choose their own methodological and didactical approach in teaching their classmates a certain area of the respective subject. It should neither be confused with Tutoring or peer-teaching, because of the intensive control and supporting of the learning-process through the teacher by learning by teaching in contrast to the other methods.

History

Already Seneca 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 school-history there have been phases where students were mobilize to teach their peers. The most time, it was in order to spare teachers. But since the end of the 19th century, the reasons are also didactic-pedagogic ones.

Students as teachers in order to spare teachers

1795 the Scotsman Andrew Bell Andrew Bell: Expériences sur l'éducation faite à l'école des garçons à Madras, 1798 wrote a book about the mutual teaching method that he had 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 lak of teachers. After the French revolution of 1830, 2.000 "écoles mutuelles" were registred in France. Due to a political change in the French administration, the number of écoles mutuelles shranks rapidly and this schools were marginalized. Its important to stress that the learning level in the Bell-Lancaster-schools was very low. From the today-view it is presumably that the low level can be attribute to the fact, that the teaching-process was delegated enterely to the tutors and that the teachers didn't supervise and support the teaching-process.

Students as teachers in order to improve the learning-process

The first attemps using the Learning by teaching method in order to improve learning were started at the end of the 19th century.
Selective descriptions and researches
Accurate researches are starting in the middle of the 20th century, however just as selective descriptions. For instance Gartner 1971Alan Gartner et al.: Children teach children. Learning by teaching. Harper & Row, New York 1971 in the US, in Germany Krüger 1975Rudolf Krüger: Projekt „Lernen durch Lehren“. Schüler als Tutoren von Mitschülern'.' Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbronn 1975, Wolfgang Steinig 1985 Wolfgang Steinig: Schüler machen Fremdsprachenunterricht. Tübingen: Narr.1985, Udo Kettwig 1986Udo Kettwig: Lernen durch Lehren, ein Plädoyer für lehrendes Lernen. In: Die deutsche Schule, Nr. 4 1986, 474-485 , Theodor F. Klassen 1988 Theodor F. Klassen: Lernen durch Lehren, das Beispiel der Jenaplanschule Ulmbach. Zeitschrift Pädagogik, Nr. 11 1988, (S. 26-29), Ursula Drews 1997Ursula Drews (Hrsg.): Themenheft: Schüler als Lehrende. PÄDAGOGIK. 11/49/1997. Beltz-Verlag, Weinheim and A.Renkl 1997Lernen durch Lehren. Zentrale Wirkmechanismen beim kooperativen Lernen. Deutscher Universitätsverlag: Wiesbaden, 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 Jean-Pol Martin:Zum Aufbau didaktischer Teilkompetenzen beim Schüler. Fremdsprachenunterricht auf der lerntheoretischen Basis des Informationsverarbeitungsansatzes. Dissertation. Tübingen: Narr. 1985; Jean-Pol Martin: Vorschlag eines anthropologisch fundierten Curriculums für den Fremdsprachenunterricht. Habilitation. Tübingen: Narr 1994. Jean-Pol Martin: Das Projekt „Lernen durch Lehren“ - eine vorläufige Bilanz. In: Henrici/Zöfgen (Hrsg.): Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen (FLuL). Themenschwerpunkt: Innovativ-alternative Methoden. 25. Jahrgang (1996). Tübingen: Narr, S. 70-86 ([PDF; 0,2 MB]), Jean-Pol Martin (2002a): Weltverbesserungskompetenz als Lernziel? In: Pädagogisches Handeln – Wissenschaft und Praxis im Dialog, 6. Jahrgang, 2002, Heft 1, S. 71-76 ([PDF]). 1987 he founded a network of more than 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 Jean-Pol Martin (1989): Kontaktnetz: ein Fortbildungskonzept, in: Eberhard Kleinschmidt,E.(Hrsg.), Fremdsprachenunterricht zwischen Fremdsprachenpolitik und Praxis: Festschrift für Herbert Christ zum 60. Geburtstag, Tübingen. 389-400, [(PDF 62 KB)]. 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 Maslow, 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-transcendence. 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 audience 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.)

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

- teamwork

- planning abilities

- reliability

- presentation and moderation skills

- self-confidence

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.

LdL in its different applications

The method LdL is applied in all types of schools and in all subjects. Most curricula recommend it as an open and pupil-centered option. As a method for further professional training it is for example used with the German "Bundesgrenzschutz" (the Federal Border Guard) or in the professional education of librarians. Furthermore there are experiences with special groups of students (highly gifted ones) and in different cultures. Learning by teaching has been researched on a scientific level by a group of researchers concerned with the workings of the brain since 2001.

The LdL-method in different educational institutions

In Germany LdL is used in different institutions with different target groups:

• University: Students experience the opportunity for the emergence of complex thinking toward group discovery and generation of knowledge. Research and teaching can be combined harmonically and thus constitute the ideal of university teaching. As required by today's working conditions, the initial limitation of detailed and exhaustive material to a core knowledge has proved to be successful. Later, students research subtopics according to team interests. According to J.Grzega 2005 Joachim Grzega (2005): Learning By Teaching: The Didactic Model LdL in University Classes [link], LdL can be used in each course and with every student group (a group of 15 to 35 participants has proven best).
• Grammar Schools: LdL was developed at grammar schools, therefore most practical experience with this method was gained in this type of school (the German Gymnasium is a secondary school, comprises classes five to twelve or thirteen and leads to an exam which enables students to go on to university). This demand is due to the fact that the focus in the education and training of these teachers was on theoretical knowledge of their respective subject matter as opposed to teaching skills and methods. So they have a high need for didactic concepts. Furthermore, LdL is seen as a more cognitive approach in contrast to others like, for example, learning circles or freely chosen work.

• German Realschule: (a secondary school from classes five to ten which leads to an exam that enables students to go on to professional training on a higher level). Education at this kind of school aims not only at theoretical and scientific knowledge, but wants to prepare students in a practical way for the working world. Using the method learning by teaching they acquire necessary key qualifications like independence, perseverance, flexibility, care, diligence and the skill to present themselves and their material. An advantage for teachers lies in the fact that the use of LdL can create and promote diversity and creativity in the classroom.

• German Hauptschule (a secondary school attended from age 10 to 16 which leads to a compulsory exam that enables students to go on doing an apprenticeship). The practical orientation of these schools and their students offers great opportunities for utilization of LdL throughout a complete "Hauptschul"-curriculum. The advantages of a student-activating approach are obvious as many of these students have faced educational failures and may therefore be reluctant to work in more traditionally structured classrooms. They can regain self confidence, pleasure in learning and obtain immediate feedback through independent presentations to peers.

The further development

This method is meant to promote communication skills and especially the skills required for scientific debate.

A change in paradigm - the society of knowledge

There is a remarkable parallel between the construction of knowledge during learning by teaching and the construction of an internet-encyclopedia. Schoolmates are stimulated into focused examination and contribution to the incomplete knowledge discovered and presented by their non-expert peers. In analogous fashion, internet-encyclopedia users may contribute critically, since they consider themselves as representative readers requiring further clarification, correction, or a more current representation of the knowledge base. The democratization of users makes it possible to continue the exponential growth of public domain knowledge in the encyclopedia. This new form of recording, discovery and construction of mankind's knowledge reflects the change from a society of experts who expand upon knowledge and pass it to dependent consumers or students, to a society of knowledge workers, where all of those wishing to participate are involved in collective construction and/or consumption, within their chosen fields of interest, within the ever-emerging knowledge base of the public domain. This follows the historical advances and gradual democratization trend of the production and consumption of knowledge, from the development of language, writing, the printing press, educational, scientific and other specialty group publications and communications, popular lay publications, telegraph, telephone, moving pictures, television, internet, etc.

New skills are expected of teachers

1. Because the class is structured like a neural network (sitting in a halfcircle or circle is a precondition) and the communication between pupils gets more and more intensive, the teacher has to get used to recognize the main facts of each contribution and to put them in relation to others. He becomes the organizer of collective reflection and has to steer the flow of thoughts carefully to the course‘s objective without intervening too much. Thus he has to focus on contents, but he has to intervene in the first place on the level of process, so that the communication between pupils (metaphorically: neurons) works fast and directly.

2. As the organizer of collective reflection the teacher has to be sure that it leads to a goal, which is the absorbation of new material by the whole class. Hence at he beginning of the lesson there might be an indefiniteness of contents (no linearity) and in the classroom clarity (linearity a posterion) should be created step by step by working together. A good preparation for the profession of a teacher would therefore be an activity like serving as host of a discussion board, which is about constructing knowledge step by step out of chaotically incoming information. The final point in a transformation of the class to a neural network should be a complex structure, which would be more capable of self-organization. According to this concept, successful communication will be the main attribute of problem solvers in the future – many researchers consider this the requirement to a 6th Kondratjeff - Jean-Pol Martin continues developing his concept.

Other forms of Learning by teaching

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Notes

External links

History

• [École mutuelle]

LdL

• [Videoclip LdL]
• [Learning by teaching - by Jody Skinner]
• [Learning By Teaching: The Didactic Model LdL in University Classes - by Joachim Grzega]

Other forms of Learning by teaching

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