Friday, October 10, 2008

When You Teach, You Learn

I have been a firm believer of the idea that when you teach something, you actually learn it better than you would if you just learned it traditionally. I have an example for you. A student today was explaining to another student how to find an equation of a rational function and stopped in the middle and said, "I don't know why there is a 3 in the equation." She realized that she had found the answer, yet didn't know why she had done something. In the middle of "teaching" it, she had to learn more herself. I thought, that was excellent. She taught herself by teaching someone else. Is it accountability? Maybe it is the idea that you genuinely want to help someone else do something correctly. I'm not sure. But it works.
I have been trying to have my students teach each other. Lately, when a student gets done with a math problem, I tell them they must walk around and help others arrive at the solution. By the time I have 3-4 other "teachers" helping me, the whole class catches on to the idea of the problem.
Give it a try. Students love to help others. Give it a try.

No comments: