As we begin the 2017-2018 school year, we are creating more opportunities for students to teach what they are learning. For almost 10 years, South Orangetown has been working with Innovative Designs in Education (IDE) to create highly-engaging problem and project based learning units of study. These units include more student choice with opportunities to demonstrate learning by teaching rather than testing knowledge. The rubric used for students to assess their own learning is a four point rubric: Novice, Apprentice, Practitioner, and Expert. The indicators of success in the expert column (highest performance) typically call for students to demonstrate or explain their knowledge and thinking by teaching the content or concepts learned. This type of experience increases students confidence and self-efficacy over their own learning.
This type of learning increases students confidence and self-efficacy over their learning. Many researchers argue that self-efficacy or agency is a fundamental human desire (Bandura 1996; Bruner 1994). If children are to become lifetime learners, they must be able to assess themselves, set goals, develop and implement a plan of action, utilize resources, and assess progress (Sulla, Nancy Students Taking Charge: Inside the Learner Technology-Infused Classroom (LATI) 2011.
Check out this article and research that supports the notion students learn better when given the opportunity to teach each other.
