This idea is called cognitive apprenticeship. A freind of mine will be getting her Ph.D. soon, based on research into this in the realm of physics education. Ap

This idea is called cognitive apprenticeship. A freind of mine will be getting her Ph.D. soon, based on research into this in the realm of physics education. Apparently over there it works very well. One of the big problems with teaching/learning in general is that "experts" (defined as those who know the subject matter well) don't know how to think like n00bs. Seriously -- once you know something fairly well it becomes "simple" because you've gone ahead and rewired your brain. It actually becomes difficult to understand why the n00b just doesn't get it. Cognitive apprenticeship solves this much like you are describing. The basic idea is that the sophmores will be able to better help the freshmen than the teacher will, because the sophmores are better able to remember their own struggles than the teacher is. Basically, the sophmores are in a state where they understand it the "good way" and also still understand the "wrong way". This puts them in a pretty good position to help.