In the field of

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

, learning by teaching (German: ''Lernen durch Lehren'', short LdL) is a method of

teaching Teaching is the practice implemented by a ''teacher'' aimed at transmitting skills (knowledge, know-how, and interpersonal skills) to a learner, a student, or any other audience in the context of an educational institution. Teaching is closely ...

in which students are made to learn material and prepare

lesson A lesson or class is a structured period of time where learning is intended to occur. It involves one or more students (also called pupils or learners in some circumstances) being taught by a teacher or instructor. A lesson may be either one ...

s to teach it to the other students. There is a strong emphasis on acquisition of

life skills Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable humans to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of life. This concept is also termed as psychosocial competency. The subject varies greatly depending on social nor ...

along with the subject matter. This method was originally defined by Jean-Pol Martin in the 1980s.

Background

The method of having students teach other students has been present since antiquity. Most often this was due to lack of resources. For example, the Monitorial System was an education method that became popular on a global scale during the early 19th century. It was developed in parallel by Scotsman Andrew Bell who had worked in Madras and Joseph Lancaster who worked in London; each attempted to educate masses of poor children with scant resources by having older children teach younger children what they had already learned. Systematic research into intentionally improving education, by having students learn by teaching began in the middle of the 20th century. In the early 1980s, Jean-Pol Martin systematically developed the concept of having students teach other in the context of learning French as a

foreign language A foreign language is a language that is not an official language of, nor typically spoken in, a given country, and that native speakers from that country must usually acquire through conscious learning - be this through language lessons at school ...

, and he gave it a theoretical background in numerous publications. The method was originally resisted, as the German educational system generally emphasized discipline and rote learning. However the method became widely used in Germany in secondary education, and in the 1990s it was further formalized and began to be used in universities as well. By 2008 Martin had retired, and although he remained active

Joachim Grzega Joachim Grzega (born 9 September 1971) is a German linguist. He studied English and French at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Paris-Sorbonne University and the University of Graz. He has tau ...

took the lead in developing and promulgating LdL.

LdL-Method

After 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. Students are then encouraged to experiment to find ways to teach the material to the others. Along with ensuring that students learn the material, another goal of the method, is to teach students

like respect for other people, planning, problem solving, taking chances in public, and communication skills. The teacher remains actively involved, stepping in to further explain or provide support if the teaching-students falter or the learning-students do not seem to understand the material. The method is distinct from

tutoring Tutoring is private academic support, usually provided by an expert teacher; someone with deep knowledge or defined expertise in a particular subject or set of subjects. A tutor, formally also called an academic tutor, is a person who provides ...

in that LdL is done in class, supported by the teacher, and distinct from student teaching, which is a part of

teacher education Teacher education or teacher training refers to programs, policies, procedures, and provision designed to equip (prospective) teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, approaches, methodologies and skills they require to perform their t ...

Plastic platypus learning

A related method is the plastic platypus learning or platypus learning technique. This technique is based on evidence that show that teaching an inanimate object improves understanding and knowledge retention of a subject. The advantage of this technique is that the learner does not need the presence of another person in order to teach the subject. The concept is similar to the

software engineering Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term '' ...

technique of

rubber duck debugging In software engineering, rubber duck debugging (or rubberducking) is a method of debugging code by articulating a problem in spoken or written natural language. The name is a reference to a story in the book '' The Pragmatic Programmer'' in which ...

, in which a programmer can find bugs in their code without the help of others, simply by explaining what the code does, line by line, to an inanimate object such as a rubber duck. Flowchart - Feynman Technique

A similar process is the Feynman technique, developed by physicist

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superfl ...

, in which a person attempts to write an explanation of some information in a way that a child could understand, developing original analogies where necessary. When the writer reaches an area which they are unable to comfortably explain, they go back and re-read or research the topic until they are able to do so.

Flipped learning + teaching

Traditional instructor teaching style classes can be mixed with or transformed to flipped teaching. Before and after each (traditional/flipped) lecture, anonymized evaluation items on the Likert scale can be recorded from the students for continuous monitoring/dashboarding. In planned flipped teaching lessons, the teacher hands out lesson teaching material one week before the lesson is scheduled for the students to prepare talks. Small student groups work on the lecture chapters instead of homework, and then give the lecture in front of their peers. The professional lecturer then discusses, complements and provides feedback at the end of the group talks. Here, the professional lecturer acts as a coach to help students preparation and live performance.

References

External links

Lernen durch Lehren website, archived 12/2018

Online course (Video): Learning by teaching, Nellie Deutsch, 2017
Learning by teaching, Nellie Deutsch, 2017
Online course (Video): Learning by teaching, Nellie Deutsch, 2017

Video: Protege effect: Learning by teaching, Ontario 2014

Video: Learning by teaching, Germany 2004

Video: Learning by teaching. Teaching Methodology, ELT under Cover, 2022

Jean-Pol Martin - English Language Teacher Interview #16, ELT Under The Covers Podcast, 2022
Applied learning Alternative education Progressivism Educational practices Learning methods Pedagogy