The best way I’ve ever learned something is by teaching it. When you teach something, you become the expert. You experience the subject at a deeper, more personal level. However, our traditional classroom is generally one teacher and twenty to thirty students. How can we as educators more deeply involve our students and create student-centered learning?

For nearly 9 years, I’ve run the Metamora Martial Arts program, a program for children and teens throughout the Metamora community. When a student becomes advanced in martial arts, especially prior to black belt testing, the student is expected to assist in basic level classes. The reason and result are simple: the advanced student becomes even more advanced when he or she has to teach the fundamentals of martial arts to lower level students.

I’ve often pondered methods of connecting this type of learning to the traditional academic classroom. This year, I’ve launched a program to attempt to do just that. Metamora requires all students to pass a basic communications class at the sophomore level. The high school further offers an advanced communications elective for juniors and seniors. In short, I told my advanced students that if they want to master the art of communications and public speaking, they will benefit from teaching the fundamentals they are trying to perfect, just as my martial arts students do.

With that idea in mind, my juniors and seniors are mentoring a sophomore in the basic communications class. The advanced student will meet with the sophomore multiple times prior to a major class presentation. Initially, the advanced student will guide the sophomore through the outlining and speech development process. Then the sophomore will practice the speech in front of the advanced student; the advanced student will then provide feedback on delivery and content. The hope is that the sophomores will benefit from a one on one interaction and that the advanced students will come closer to mastering the communication skills they enjoy!

I’m excited to see the results of the mentoring project, but this is just one project. For fellow educators, in what similar ways do you involve students? For everyone else, what activities in school, at home, or at work have you experienced in which you learned something better by teaching it? How can such activities be applied to the classroom learning experience?

My ultimate hope for this blog is that it becomes another forum for discussion, so please share your thoughts on student-centered learning. If we put students in charge of their learning, they not only become more responsible but also more skilled.

And if any of my students in the mentoring project are reading this post, what did you think of the project? What did you learn? What were the challenges? Was it meaningful?