On the cognitive benefits of teaching.

Abstract

Peer-tutorial programs are increasingly being employed in American classrooms. There have been several reports that tutors benefit from these programs even more than tutees. Despite these findings, we know little about the cognitive effects of teaching. This study explored possible reasons for their occurrence. In Experiment 1, one group of undergraduates studied verbal material to learn it themselves while another group studied the material to teach it to another person (N = 42). Subjects who were preparing to teach scored reliably higher than control subjects on a subsequent retention test. Experiment 2 was concerned with the actual teacher-student interaction. For both a verbal and a problem-solving task, subjects (N = 121) either worked alone, verbalized their thoughts aloud, or taught another person the task while performing. There were no reliable performance differences between conditions on either task. It is tentatively concluded that cognitive benefits of teaching do exist and result from the teacher's utilization of a different method of study.Tutorial programs in which children teach their peers are coming into increasing and widespread use in American elementary school, high school, and college classrooms, with many being funded by local and federal government agencies. Although there are very little data to accompany the anecdotal reports, these programs have largely been successful. Both cognitive and social adjustment gains have been obtained for the participants (

Mathematical self-concept: How college reinforces the gender gap

“…Women who tutored other students during college showed higher than expected gains in mathematical self-confidence. Although we do not know specifically in which subjects these women were tutoring, this finding reflects the benefits that have been associated with being a peer tutor (Bargh and Schul, 1980). By contrast, the experience of feeling "overwhelmed" during college has a slight negative relationship with women's math self-confidence.…”

“…Perhaps the cognitive gains resulting from tutoring another student, as reported by Bargh and Schul (1980), also translate into increased self-concept. Alternatively, though, it may be that tutoring others results in self-confidence gains, which in turn enhance students' actual abilities.…”

Learning by Teaching SimStudent: Technical Accomplishments and an Initial Use with Students

“…Various forms of tutoring have been observed including reciprocal teaching [4] and collaborative passage learning [5]. The effect of tutor learning has been observed for all age groups including college [6], high school [7], middle school [8], and elementary school students [9].…”

Collaborative 3D learning games for future learning: teachers’ instructional practices to enhance shared knowledge construction among students

“…Additionally, previous literature has found providing explanations to be more powerful than other kinds of participation in collaboration activities (Bargh & Schul, 1980;King, 1992). In line with this notion, Webb and others (2008) argue that it is possible for the teacher to support high-level understanding by inviting students to explain and elaborate on their explanations.…”