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> i was musing about this the other day... split the day between teaching and learning (probably alternating by hour): teach the grade below you and learn from

> i was musing about this the other day... split the day between teaching and learning (probably alternating by hour): teach the grade below you and learn from the grade above you. teachers would mainly guide the teachers and set the agenda. the student teachers can grade papers, with adult teachers spot checking their grading. As a teacher, I think this is an interesting proposal. It definitely would help a lot, and the ones teaching would get a firmer grasp on the material without a doubt. I wonder if it could be integrated into something like Sal Kahn's model, however. Say, kids watch lectures at home, and then kids in the higher class help them work through problems, with teacher guidance to explain in more depth for curious students and to help work through problems. There's a few issues I see with this, however, the main one being timing. There's only so many hours in a day, and if kids are going to both learn and teach, we'll have to cut down on something in the high school curriculum. Sadly, I fear this would mostly be electives or humanities classes, two things which are still needed. The other issue would be what to do with final year students. Would they only teach, or would they still need learning too? Ideally, they could get an internship, but who knows how that would really work, especially in rural areas/areas without many job opportunities.

clairity 8y ago
it would basically split the learning across 2 years instead of 1, so hopefully it wouldn't require additional time. spend half the time each year; test rudimentary knowledge the 1st year, mastery in the 2nd year. but if necessary, maybe performing arts could be pushed to non-profits to administer outside of school (as is often the case already). and i'd suspect final year students would help teach each other in electives. maybe get freshmen from college majoring in the subject. in college, teaching assistants are often only a couple years ahead of you anyway. i was just imagining how one room schoolhouses of yore (like on little house on the prairie) would work. =)
- dorchadas 8y ago
  > it would basically split the learning across 2 years instead of 1, so hopefully it wouldn't require additional time. spend half the time each year; test rudimentary knowledge the 1st year, mastery in the 2nd year. Hmm, that could be interesting, especially if the mastery is tested in the second half of the year. That would allow you to do the concepts you learned in the first half and bring those into the stuff you learned the previous year...But it could also be a huge gap between actually learning the concepts and then putting them to use teaching someone else. Maybe have it alternating years, where, say, freshmen are teaching 8th graders the first half, then being taught the second half. And that class keeps their schedule of first half teaching, second half being taught as they progress, with the year before and after having the opposite one. > but if necessary, maybe performing arts could be pushed to non-profits to administer outside of school (as is often the case already). The issue with this is that many would never get exposure to them, then. And people need exposure to it (we need to be well-rounded, basically; STEM people need more humanities and humanities people need more STEM). Plus, with people pushing other extra curriculurs (sports!) that take up a lot of school time, it's hard to see many choosing these. Like, my hometown has an art guild, but few students do anything with it, sadly. It's quite a neat place. But they do a lot during school, and I'd hate to deprive that chance for those who are interested (and good). For some kids, it might be what keeps them coming to school and encourages them. Who knows? Plus, this would hurt rural areas quite a lot. But, I think the half-year plan mentioned above makes this point moot. >and i'd suspect final year students would help teach each other in electives. maybe get freshmen from college majoring in the subject. in college, teaching assistants are often only a couple years ahead of you anyway. That'd be an option...if you lived near a university.
- hopler 8y ago
  That's how they did work, most of the teaching was senior peer to younger peer
juliendorra 8y ago
As a teacher (college/university level) teaching is one the main way I learn new things and consolidate/update my previous learnings. So from my personal, anecdotal experience teaching is a great way to learn and might even accelerates the learning curve, not slows it.
dwd 8y ago
I think the assumption is that the learning will be accelerated so what previously took four weeks might take two and where they might return to a topic the next year and do a refresher, instead they teach.
hopler 8y ago
You just split your math time in two parts , between teaching and learning. You don't lose time bect teach time is review and practice time, and because having so many 1:1 tutors means learners learn faster than a teacher splitting time among 10-30 kids. This is how the pre industrial one_room schoolhouses worked.
wenc 8y ago
> we'll have to cut down on something in the high school curriculum. It's a trade-off between breadth and depth. Teaching increases depth and internalization, but it also can't be done when there's too many subject to cover. When I was growing up, high school students took 9 subjects on average. In contrast, a high school teacher only teaches 1-4 subjects.

clairity 8y ago

it would basically split the learning across 2 years instead of 1, so hopefully it wouldn't require additional time. spend half the time each year; test rudimentary knowledge the 1st year, mastery in the 2nd year. but if necessary, maybe performing arts could be pushed to non-profits to administer outside of school (as is often the case already). and i'd suspect final year students would help teach each other in electives. maybe get freshmen from college majoring in the subject. in college, teaching assistants are often only a couple years ahead of you anyway. i was just imagining how one room schoolhouses of yore (like on little house on the prairie) would work. =)

dorchadas 8y ago
> it would basically split the learning across 2 years instead of 1, so hopefully it wouldn't require additional time. spend half the time each year; test rudimentary knowledge the 1st year, mastery in the 2nd year. Hmm, that could be interesting, especially if the mastery is tested in the second half of the year. That would allow you to do the concepts you learned in the first half and bring those into the stuff you learned the previous year...But it could also be a huge gap between actually learning the concepts and then putting them to use teaching someone else. Maybe have it alternating years, where, say, freshmen are teaching 8th graders the first half, then being taught the second half. And that class keeps their schedule of first half teaching, second half being taught as they progress, with the year before and after having the opposite one. > but if necessary, maybe performing arts could be pushed to non-profits to administer outside of school (as is often the case already). The issue with this is that many would never get exposure to them, then. And people need exposure to it (we need to be well-rounded, basically; STEM people need more humanities and humanities people need more STEM). Plus, with people pushing other extra curriculurs (sports!) that take up a lot of school time, it's hard to see many choosing these. Like, my hometown has an art guild, but few students do anything with it, sadly. It's quite a neat place. But they do a lot during school, and I'd hate to deprive that chance for those who are interested (and good). For some kids, it might be what keeps them coming to school and encourages them. Who knows? Plus, this would hurt rural areas quite a lot. But, I think the half-year plan mentioned above makes this point moot. >and i'd suspect final year students would help teach each other in electives. maybe get freshmen from college majoring in the subject. in college, teaching assistants are often only a couple years ahead of you anyway. That'd be an option...if you lived near a university.
hopler 8y ago
That's how they did work, most of the teaching was senior peer to younger peer

juliendorra 8y ago

As a teacher (college/university level) teaching is one the main way I learn new things and consolidate/update my previous learnings. So from my personal, anecdotal experience teaching is a great way to learn and might even accelerates the learning curve, not slows it.

dwd 8y ago

I think the assumption is that the learning will be accelerated so what previously took four weeks might take two and where they might return to a topic the next year and do a refresher, instead they teach.

hopler 8y ago

You just split your math time in two parts , between teaching and learning. You don't lose time bect teach time is review and practice time, and because having so many 1:1 tutors means learners learn faster than a teacher splitting time among 10-30 kids. This is how the pre industrial one_room schoolhouses worked.

wenc 8y ago

> we'll have to cut down on something in the high school curriculum. It's a trade-off between breadth and depth. Teaching increases depth and internalization, but it also can't be done when there's too many subject to cover. When I was growing up, high school students took 9 subjects on average. In contrast, a high school teacher only teaches 1-4 subjects.