Learning by teaching - an effective learning method in the language classroom

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The paper would like to introduce LBT as a way of innovation in education, increasing students’ learning motivation and contributing to improving educational quality.

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Nội dung Text: Learning by teaching - an effective learning method in the language classroom

LEARNING BY TEACHING - AN EFFECTIVE LEARNING METHOD IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM Ho Trinh Quynh Thu1 Abstract: Learning by teaching (LBT) is a positive method that is demonstrated to be effective in the process of learning and teaching, especially in the language classroom. Besides the knowledge students are required to achieve, the LBT approach helps students more in their competence development and soft skill improvement. The approach was also practically applied successfully in the English language classroom at Nguyen Duc Upper-secondary School, Quang Nam province. Therefore, the paper would like to introduce LBT as a way of innovation in education, increasing students’ learning motivation and contributing to improving educational quality. Keywords: learning-by-teaching, educational method, learning motivation, pedagogical renovation, positive education 1. Introduction Learning by teaching (LBT) is a pedagogical approach in which students play the role of the teacher. It was deemed a phenomenon attracting researchers’ interests since the late 1960s and of cially emerging as an educational method in the mid-1980s with con icting opinions (Duran, 2016). Several controversies have broken out surrounding the effectiveness of the LBT method when the traditional distinguished role of teachers in the classroom is replaced; however, many researchers show that students spending time teaching what they learned understand the knowledge better and remember it longer than those who spend the same time re-studying (Aslan, 2015; Duran, 2016). LBT is also described as an effective positive method of pedagogy that not only enhances students’ learning experience but also develops their skills of communication and collaboration among others. Besides the achievements of knowledge and competences, the LBT classroom is evidently demonstrated to make students encouraged, excited and eager to attend the lesson (Setiawan, 2019). In the context that traditional educational paradigms have still been dominating in Vietnam, in order to propose a motion of English learning and teaching innovation in the classroom, the paper would like to present the LBT approach, a pedagogical method that has been practically demonstrated to be effective in the process of learning and teaching English by myself at Nguyen Duc upper-secondary school, Quang Nam province, Vietnam. 2. Content 2.1. What is teaching? Teaching is the job of being a teacher, which is educationally treated as the concerted sharing of knowledge and experience within a discipline and as the provision of stimulus to personal psychological and intellectual growth (Impedovo & Iaquinta, 1. PhD., Department of Foreign Lnaguages, Quang Nam University 107
LEARNING BY TEACHING - AN EFFECTIVE LEARNING METHOD... 2012). So far there have been different views of teaching but the approaches to teaching are fundamentally classi ed into two schools of thought based on the roles of teachers and students in the process of teaching. They are teacher-centred and student-centred approaches where teaching is respectively understood as “knowledge transmission” and “assisted knowledge creation” (Starr-Glass, 2018). Focusing on the activities of teacher’s knowledge transmission, philosophical theories describe teaching as a combination of interrelated activities including explaining, questioning, illustrating and instructing designed by the teacher and based on students’ background so that it is proper for students to receive the taught knowledge (Sangoleye & Kolawole, 2016). According to this viewpoint, an activity of teaching must satisfy ve criteria; namely, (i) the teacher (who is performing the act consciously and deliberately), (ii) the student (who is being taught), (iii) the subject matter (what is being taught), (iv) the intention of teaching and learning and (v) moral and pedagogical methods or procedures. Besides, teaching is deemed to be the art and science whereby the knowledge is conveyed from a teacher to students via a variety of methods in a formal setting (Maboe, 2019). Sharing the same thought, Ho Trinh Quynh Thu and Doan Phan Anh Truc (2019) mentioned the term “traditional view of teaching” to express the teacher-led teaching approach in which professional knowledge, experiences, facts and information, competences and skills, moral standards and social behaviours that are believed to be necessary for students are transmitted to them by their teachers. In this model, the teacher is given the authority and domination of the class whereas students are completely passive in receiving the knowledge. Unlike teacher-centred approach to teaching, student-centred activities of teaching are aimed at facilitating the active process of students’ knowledge acquisition. Because they are not spoon-fed, students are forced to think more, search for and get the information they need under the teacher’s guides and supports, which encourages students in their active and independent creation of new knowledge; hence teaching as assisted knowledge creation (Starr-Glass, 2018). This model of teaching gives prominence to the students’ cognitive integrity, which helps develop their habits of working with different viewpoints to reach the truth or best decisions. As such, teaching is not the teacher’s process of knowledge transmission or provision but the students’ acquisition of knowledge by themselves through teachers’ aids. 2.2. Learning by teaching approach 2.2.1. What is Learning by teaching? Learning by teaching (LBT) is a student-centred teaching activity which was developed by the French language teacher Jean-Pol Martin in German schools in the 1980s (Martin, 1985 cited in Stollhans, 2016). This educational approach does not let students run in the conventional way where they have the lesson presented by their teachers but it gives them chances to present the lesson. That is, the student plays the role 108
HO TRINH QUYNH THU of a teacher. To ful l this duty, the student is forced to make every effort to master the goals of the lesson carefully and to nd out proper methods and strategies for presenting the information to her/his peers effectively. In other words, the LBT approach focuses on training the student’s ability of building knowledge instead of that of just receiving it passively (Setiawan, 2019). Therefore, it can help promote students’ initiative. In the LBT model, the student takes over the teacher’s position in the classroom whereas the teacher is transferred to another position: a supervisor. In the novel role, the teacher is responsible for observing students’ performances, controlling their activities to make sure that all students in the classroom are involved in the learning process and that they are given equal chances to join learning activities (Heinrich, 2007). What’s more, the teacher has a duty to respond to students’ needs, providing them with materials necessary for the lesson, giving them guidance on their lesson plan, and intervening immediately in case of unclear or wrong explanations from the student-teacher so that all students can acquire full and accurate knowledge and information (ibid.). In short, the LBT approach centres on students’ activities of teaching in their learning process with the teacher’s aids. The knowledge that students need to acquire is prepared and presented by themselves. Thus, they are free to choose the methods, techniques and strategies for all the activities in the classroom, which can help develop their independence and creativity. 2.2.2. Bene ts of the learning by teaching approach Joining the LBT class, students directly undertake the duties of both teachers and students, which means that they must make a greater effort to learn what they will teach, to study materials carefully in order to master the knowledge and teach it effectively to their peers. Accordingly, it can be said that the LBT approach not only motivates students’ learning process but also creates conditions for students to deepen their knowledge of the topics. Concurrently, this model also develops students’ abilities to guide, teach and motivate others. Moreover, in the LBT approach students are frequently trained and practising how to plan out, organise and implement the lesson productively, which may also help them improve their collaborative, interactive and presentation skills, support students’ development of communication, raise their awareness of responsibilities, and increase their creativity and self-con dence (Aslan, 2015). In addition, Kinnebrew et al. (2013) con rmed the paradigm of LBT can help to develop students’ cognitive and metacognitive skills, making them more actively aware of learning process, encouraging them to seek out and apply effective learning strategies, through which students’ competence and autonomy are enhanced. Also, the distance between the teacher and students is absolutely erased in the LBT class, which stimulates students to raise questions and to open up discussions until the issues are solved and the ambiguity is removed. This process helps students understand more about the lesson, develop their skills of information processing and critical thinking whereby their self-con dence and 109
LEARNING BY TEACHING - AN EFFECTIVE LEARNING METHOD... communicative abilities are improved. It is evident that LBT is a positive approach that brings many bene ts to students. It does not mean, however, that the method is without disadvantages. The ndings of a survey carried out by Aslan (2015) reveal ve weaknesses of LBT including (i) group work assessment as it is dif cult to reach a consensus among members in a group; (ii) misconceptions due to poor or insuf cient preparation; (iii) limited knowledge of the topic because students pay more attention to their topic than to others, which makes students uninterested in the lesson; (iv) students not taking the lesson seriously because they don’t respect the student-teacher conducting the lesson; (v) time limitation to prepare the lesson forcing students to rush, which results in weakness (ii). It is for these disadvantages that some controversies have broken out over the effectiveness of LBT which is presented right in the next session. 2.2.3. Effectiveness of the learning by teaching approach There have so far been some doubts about the effectiveness of the LBT approach, still several researchers (i.e. Aslan, 2015; Duran, 2016; Setiawan, 2019; Skinner, 1994) presented the evidence to con rm that it is a great method which gives overwhelmingly positive results in both academic and social performances. Academically, students who join the LBT classes become better test-takers than those who just prepare for test. Duran (2016) shed light on the statement based on the metal process and cognitive mechanism. According to this expert, LBT consists of two phases, learning for teaching and learning while teaching. Learning to teach others creates conditions for students to change their learning process, promoting them to make every effort to deepen materials and understand the content of the lesson as much as possible so that they can teach effectively. During the process of learning to teach and teaching, students repeatedly realise the core content and relevant elements which helps them consolidate their knowledge better. Besides, when teaching, students are forced to use the language exibly for description and explanation in order to support others’ understanding. As a result, their skills of using language and communication are developed over time, which coincides with Skinner’s (1994) conclusion. It is that LBT is especially effective in learning foreign languages because it creates chances for students to speak the target language more in the class. Meanwhile, Setiawan (2019) argued that learning through teaching promotes the needs of communication and socialisation in order to share and acquire the knowledge. As can be seen, the effects of LBT are really signi cant and practical if it is performed successfully. 2.3. Actual application of learning-by-teaching approach in English language classrooms 2.3.1. Process of application a. Participants: 40 students of grade 11 at Nguyen Duc Upper-secondary School. They were divided into small groups of 3 (two of them consisted of 2), drawing lots to 110
HO TRINH QUYNH THU prepare for the lessons. b. Textbook: English 11 (standard level) with 15 units (2 cuts). Each unit is composed of 5 parts, reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus. It takes teachers from 1 to 2 periods to teach each part based on the amount of knowledge. Reading and language focus are often performed within 2 periods. c. Procedure for applying LBT in English language classroom As mentioned in previous sessions of the paper, LBT is supposed to be one of the positive methods for teaching language; therefore, it was studied and experimentally applied to English teaching at Nguyen Duc High School (Quang Nam province, Vietnam). All the process of using LBT in my English language classroom included 5 steps as follows. Step 1- Choosing the lesson. At the beginning of each semester, the teacher asked students to draw lots to decide the lessons of each group but listening lessons were not included because, according to the students at that time, listening was dif cult and they were not self-con dent enough to perform the lesson. Moreover, in my subjective opinion then, applying LBT to listening lessons would not be successful because students’ listening skills were rather poor. And students had little experience to deal with challenges in listening situations. Step 2- Preparing for the lesson. Students read textbook and supporting materials at home, designing the lesson as they thought it was the best for their classmates. The contents of the lesson had to be suf cient and appear in order of the steps they intended to present to their peers in the classroom. Step 3- Revision. The lesson plan students prepared had to be submitted to the teacher three days before it was presented in the classroom so that the teacher reviewed the contents of the lesson, approving of the plan or asking for revisions. All the teaching aids such as pictures, music, questions and expected answers were required to be included. A day before the lesson happened, students were forced to complete the lesson plan and submitted to the teacher again. If it was good enough to present to others, the lesson took place as it was expected. Step 4- Performance. The lesson prepared by students after being rati ed would be presented in the classroom. All members of the group took part in the presentation. Other students participated in the lesson as normally as it was taught by the teacher. They were also stimulated to raise questions and make discussions until the problems relating to the lesson were made clear. In cases the student-teachers could not answer the questions nor deal with the inquiries from their peers, the teacher would help them. Step 5- Assessment. The assessment often happened outside the classroom, lasting no more than 15 minutes because of time limitation. All the students in the class were encouraged to attend it, to give their opinions about the lesson performance and some 111
LEARNING BY TEACHING - AN EFFECTIVE LEARNING METHOD... suggestions if possible. Then they made their assessment by putting a tick in the proper boxes of the assessment sheet with ve criteria agreed between the teacher and students at the beginning of the semester. The criteria focused on (i) the activities and performances in the classroom, (ii) lesson charisma, (iii) performers’ manners, (iv) performers’ abilities to handle situations, (v) performers’ English pronunciation and uency. The assessment was nally synthesised, analysed and sent to the group of students who had performed the lesson, thereby they could effort more to better what they were not good at. 2.3.2. Results Testing, observation andinterviewwerethemethodsthat wereutilisedtomeasurethe results achieved when the LBT approach was applied in the language classroom. Testing was used to evaluate students’ academic results, namely the knowledge accumulated from the lessons and language skills. Observation and interview were employed to appreciate students’ attitudes towards the lessons, their skills of communication, dealing with situations, public speaking among others. Table 1. Students’ test results Scores =8.0 Tests No. % No. % No. % No. % Input test 9 22.5 18 45.0 11 27.5 02 5 1st semester test 04 10.0 15 37.5 17 42.5 03 7.5 2 semester test nd 0 0 17 42.5 16 40.0 07 17.5 Testing results were collected periodically according to schedule. At the beginning of the rst semester, students had to take a 45-minute test in order to check their input. The result of this test was compared to the results collected from the tests at the end of the rst and second semesters. The comparison showed that students studied well and LBT was academically effective though the improvement did not achieve a major breakthrough (see more in Figure 1). No students got bad marks (i.e. less than 5). Alarge number of them were in the 5.0-7.9 score band in the nal test (accounting for 82.5%). It is noteworthy that the number of students who achieved good and excellent marks increased to 57.5 percent from 32.5 percent (see more in Table 1). According to the result of observation and interview, most students (95 percent, equivalent to 38 students) were excited with the LBT model because they wanted to experience the job of a teacher. Thus, they were Figure 1. A comparison of students’ test results before very enthusiastic in spite of and after using LBT 112
HO TRINH QUYNH THU many dif culties. Then students found learning through teaching really interesting. They had chances to work with more materials and got more knowledge outside the textbook, which made them like it. Besides, as the teaching activities were done by students, the atmosphere of the classroom was always friendly and relaxed. 82.5 percent of students conceded that they felt almost free to communicate with their student-teacher without any worries about mistakes. As a result, their skills of communication and English speaking were bettered. Gradually, they became to like learning English. Moreover, my statistics showed that 32 students (accounting for 80 percent) found the LBT approach useful. It helped them practise the patience, develop the self-con dence and improve other soft skills such as group work, public speaking, presentation, critical thinking, and so on. Figure 2. Two- aspect re ection of LBT So far, it can be said that LBT is really an effective pedagogical approach that drives students to a comprehensive development although both students and teacher encountered a lot of challenges during the process of implementing the approach (see more in Figure 2). 3. Conclusion Despite controversies over the effectiveness of LBT, many researchers have con rmed the bene ts the approach brings to students. In the LBT approach, students 113
LEARNING BY TEACHING - AN EFFECTIVE LEARNING METHOD... have to go through two phases of learning, one for teaching and one while teaching, which create favourable conditions for them to understand more about the lesson contents and to grasp the main points of the topic. Besides, LBT helps students consolidate and enrich knowledge, develop their competence and improve soft skills such as group work, public speaking, presentation, critical thinking, and so on. Although both the teacher and students faced many dif culties, the experience at Nguyen Duc Upper-secondary School proved the academic and social effectiveness of this method in the English language classroom. Not only were the students’ academic results bettered but LBT put students in a relaxing atmosphere of learning where they felt free to use English in communication, stimulating them to do more self-study so as to get more knowledge and information for their learning and teaching activities. These positive results encourage me to present it to those who are interested in LBT and pedagogical renovation. However, there are not any best methods of learning and teaching for all; a teacher should choose and develop an own personal methodology so that it can be proper to the lessons and help to achieve speci c objectives. REFERENCES [1] Aslan, S. (2015). “Is learning by teaching effective in gaining the 21st century skills? The view of preservice science teachers”. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 15(6), p.1441-1457. [2] Duran, D. (2016). “Learning-by-teaching. Evidence and implications as a pedagogical mechanism”. Innovations in Education and Teaching International. DOI: 10.1080/14703297.2016.1156011 [3] Heinrich, C. (2007). “Learning by teaching: The goal is independence”. Goethe- Institut. Available at http://www.goethe.de/ges/spa/prj/sog/mud/en3913352.htm [4] Hồ Trịnh Quỳnh Thư & Đoàn Phan Anh Trúc (2019). “Dạy học tiếng Anh theo hướng tích cực- nhân tố quan trọng để tạo nên lớp học hạnh phúc”. Tạp chí Khoa học- trường Đại học Quảng Nam, số15, tr. 110-116. [5] Impedovo, M.A. & Iaquinta, R. (2012). “From broadcasting to transforming: The social construction of knowledge for understanding lawfulness”. Handbook of research on didactic strategies and technologies for education: Incorporating advancements. p.298-306. [6] Kinnebrew, J.S., Biswas, G. & Sucer, B. (2013). “Investigating self-regulated learning in teachable agent environments”. In Azevedo & Aleven (Eds), International Handbook of Metacognition and Learning Technologies, p. 451-470. Springer. [7] Maboe, K.A. (2019). “Students’ support in an ODeL context: Students in ODeL. In Darinskaia”, Modern technologies for teaching and learning in socio-humanitarian disciplines, p.114-137. 114
HO TRINH QUYNH THU [8] Sangoleye, S.A. & Kolawole, C.O. (2016). “A critique of selected instructional strategies in Shigher Institutions in Nigeria”. Journal of education and practice, 7(7), p.78-84. [9] Setiawan, M. (2019). “The effectiveness of learning by teaching: A case of junior high school students studying tenses”. Humaniora, 10(1). Available at Doi: 10.21512/ humaniora.v10i1.5038 [10] Skinner, J. (1994). “Learning by Teaching”, Zielsprache Englisch, 2, p.38-39. [11] Starr-Glass, D. (2018). “Engagement, publishing, and the scholarship of teaching and learning: Reconsidering the reconsidered”. In Victor C.X. Wang, Scholarly publishing and research methods across disciplines, p.234-256. HỌC QUA DẠY - PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC HIỆU QUẢ TRONG LỚP HỌC TIẾNG HỒ TRỊNH QUỲNH THƯ Trường Đại học Quảng Nam Tóm tắt: Học qua dạy (LBT) là phương pháp dạy học tích cực được chứng minh có hiệu quả trong quá trình dạy học, đặc biệt trong các lớp học tiếng. LBT giúp sinh viên không chỉ đạt được kiến thức theo yêu cầu bài học mà còn cải thiện, phát triển năng lực và các kĩ năng mềm. Phương pháp dạy học này đã được áp dụng thành công vào thực tế dạy học môn tiếng Anh tại trường THPT Nguyễn Dục, tỉnh Quảng Nam. Vì vậy bài viết này muốn giới thiệu, chia sẻ LBT trong đổi mới phương pháp dạy học, tăng hứng thú học tập cho người học, góp phần cải thiện chất lượng giáo dục. Từ khóa: Học qua dạy, Phương pháp dạy học, Hứng thú học tập, Đổi mới phương pháp dạy học, Giáo dục tích cực. 115