Learning by teaching. Can teachers learn by teaching their students? What evidence of this exists?

Abstract

This article gathers evidence to build a preliminary approach to a framework capable of explaining the possibilities of learning by teaching for the person who teaches. Results show that the greater the complexity of teaching activity, the more opportunities there are to learn by teaching. Merely believing that we will teach others what we are learning (even if we do not finally come to teach it) offers more opportunities to learn than the process of learning on one’s own. Learning increases if contents are explained to others. Indeed, this is all the more so if such explanation is bidirectional and learners interact with the teacher, offering the latter opportunities to build reflective knowledge. This explanatory framework may help to develop a conception of teaching and learning that is more consistent with the knowledge society (in which everyone needs to learn and teach throughout their lives), as well as to foster the incorporation and extension of practices that provide opportunities for students to learn by teaching their peers, and to promote activities in order that teachers themselves may learn by teaching their students.
Keywords: Peer learning, peer tutoring, cooperative learning, knowledge society, teaching, innovation.