How to improve a learning by teaching session?

A bit of context: What is «Learning by teaching»?

Instead of having the teacher teach, students explore reading material and teach back to the whole class. Students are also asked to share their personal experiences and tips that are linked with the topic.

It’s pretty much what the nerds call the flipped classroom model. But instead of having the students do the reading and exploration at home, you make them do that live in the classroom.

It’s a way of working that worked pretty well for me. In fact, I’m writing books for that same exact reason. I’m writing to learn.

In my teaching, I’ve also noticed that adults really love that format.

As I’m using it more and more, I’m getting tips from the learners to improve this way of teaching.

Here are a few of these tips:

Share a professional story

Some learners would love to see a bit of a case study from my professional life showing how in practice what they’ve learned is used in real life.

Reveal the struggles and evolution

It takes years to master a skill. But what you see as a learner is the person who masters the skill in front of you, and the years of struggle are not shown. Some learners would love to hear more about not just the end but also the journey, the misssteps, the struggles.

I feel this can help learners overcome the challenges as they’ll think: it’s normal, this will take years.

Adapt the material for dyslexic people

Reading can be tough for people with dyslexia. So it’s smart to format the reading material with fonts adapted to dyslexia and to offer material which is in video or audio form too.

Afternoon tasks need more structure

After the lunch break, the energy level is lower. So the learners are happy with tasks that are more structured and need less mental energy.

Let people pass or share later

I have the belief that everybody has tips to share on most topics because they already have life experience that taught them things. That’s why I love to ask every student to share a tip.

Learners shared that I should add a bit more flexibility and therefore when doing the tips round every learner can choose between one of the three options:

1. Share: share a tip
2. Later: get more time to reflect and share at the end of the group
3. Pass: don’t share anything and feel okay to move to the next person.

Thanks to Johanna Pfeffer, Juliana Magalhães Cardoso, and Rola Rafla whose feedback inspired this tiny reflection.