Learning Methods

I was reading a blog post by Keith Hamon today: http://sites.google.com/site/albanystateqep/qep-blog-1

The section "Turn Students into Expert Learners" caught my attention, making me realize how my personal methods of studying/learning have evolved over the years.  I may as well admit that through K-12, I was primarily a "studier" in most subjects.  Learn it for the test and forget it!   A sad percentage of that followed through to my college years.  Since my Bachelor's is in education, I did have to learn to "apply" some skills.

However, in my prior position to working here at ASU, my job required me to attend technical workshops to learn new software and hardware and come back to train my colleagues.  Because my coworkers where depending on me, I had to learn to shift from being a passive learner to being an engaged learner.   I paid more attention, took more detailed notes, asked more questions, and made sure I knew that software in and out before I trained my co-workers.  Knowing that I was going to be the local authority on that software made me a better student. 

What if instead of teaching my co-workers in small groups, I called in one person and told them in advance that they were going to be responsible for teaching the others.  At the end of her lesson, I call in another colleague, and the first trainee has to train the second?  Then, the second has to train the third, and so forth.  Finally, the last student would be required to demonstrate the lesson to me.  Would she be able to do it as well as the first person I trained?

I wonder how our students' attitudes would change if we told them before class that they would have to teach this lesson to their classmates (or others...)  Would they pay more attention?  Would the students have a better grasp than if they were just sitting passively by in my class??  I would hope so. 


This is an experiment I wouldn't mind pursuing one day to see how it works out.