‘Even while they teach, men learn’

– Seneca

I can’t agree more with this quotation.

But I would like to extend and of course justify.

While they teach, men learn better!

The best lessons I’ve learned, I’ve learned from myself.

Wait, wait, wait, don’t go! I’m not a narcissist – I’m quite sure it applies to you too!

Many times when I write with the purpose of publishing, I end up so surprised with the final outcome. I just think ‘wow… where did this come from?!’

I didn’t know the guys in my head before I’ve written it down. I didn’t even know them when I started writing about Laziness Hacking! I met them when my brain send neural impulses to my hands and they started typing series of words that only made sense in that very moment.

‘Hi guys. Nice to meet you …even that you’ve been with me almost my entire life’

But I would have never seen things the way I do if I was writing in ‘my dear diary’. It only happened because I needed to interpret my thoughts for others to understand. That’s why my brain painted a perfectly logical picture for me. Hopefully for you too.

There isn’t any better teacher for you than you!

You’ve probably at least once faced an oral assessment in a form of a presentation. You might have hated it (I did), but please tell me if I’m wrong, if you see the slides now you would be able to explain those concepts and theories that you presented 2,3 or 5 years ago. Maybe not as good, maybe not as clear, but you’d know what it is all about.

But what about a written exam? Would you remember that essay you wrote? I wouldn’t…

Why though?!

Because with the oral presentation you were meant to TEACH SOMEONE ELSE. Because you were meant to PASS YOUR KNOWLEDGE TO OTHERS.

You might think that you were presenting with the only purpose of getting a good grade, but still consciously or unconsciously you were talking (or trying to talk) in a way that your audience would understand your point, digest your words and see the big picture. You might have even found yourself saying something very smart, your own discovery, your own contribution to the matter. It’s even more likely that you made a finding after your presentation was finished thinking ‘I should have said that, that’s brilliant’. You might have also put some extra effort, conducted additional research, presented an outstanding fact or just something simple but smart that would make THEM comprehend better.

And I believe it is less likely to open up your mind to this extend if you only learn it to rewrite it on the exam paper.

And in general, when we learn we usually trust the source we learn from and unless our goal is to expand on it, we don’t. We’re satisfied with one version of the truth. We don’t really search for more in our own brains and out.

Now sharing this with you makes me feel like contributing to the subject. Yes, it is an actual subject. As much as I wanted to be the inventor of this theory, I made my research and I found some interesting facts… It is called:

The Protégé Effect

21st century scientists brought up the Seneca’s ancient wisdom up to date and designed an innovative way to put this theory into practice.

The “teachable agent” (TA) — a computerised character that learns, tries, makes mistakes and asks questions just like a real-world pupil. (Chase, Chin, Oppezzo & Schwartz, 2009)

Researchers working at Stanford University wanted to study the effects of using “teachable agents” with 8th grade Biology students. In the study, some students were asked to learn Biological concepts so they could teach their TAs while another group of students were asked to develop an online concept map to demonstrate how they organised their understanding of the concepts.  In the study, the students who worked with the TAs spent more time engaged with the content and displayed more motivation to learn. On a subsequent test of their skills, the students who had observed agents using rules of reasoning to solve a problem “significantly outperformed” students who had only practiced applying the rules themselves. Put simply, students put forth greater effort to learn for their TAs than they did for themselves. (Dreon, O., 2017)

Above all, it’s the emotions elicited by teaching that make it such a powerful vehicle for learning.(Paul, A., 2017)

In a follow-up study, the researchers focused mainly on the emotional state of students engaged with TAs.  This time, one group of 5th grade students were asked to teach their TAs to participate in a simulated Game Show on selected material, and another group of 5th graders was asked to study the same material but to participate in a Game Show themselves.  Looking at the affective engagement of the two groups of students, the TA group was much more emotionally connected with the learning process than the control group was. When TAs missed questions in the Game Show, group one accepted responsibility for the TA’s failures and reflected on whether they fully understand the material and how they could have taught the concepts differently.  Group two, however, did not outwardly display the same ownership over their own learning, even though they were engaging independently with the content. Across the two studies, it is clear that the act of teaching someone else can motivate individual learners to take more ownership over their learning and to put forth greater effort to learn. (Dreon, O., 2017)

I am neither a success mentor, nor a life coach, but I intend to become fully equipped via learning and teaching, and I honestly believe it is the right way… and the best way too!

What it is that you really want to teach?

Love,

Maria