Chapter 6

Learning by Teaching as a Memory Technique

Teaching what you have learned makes it stays longer in your brain.

For many people, teaching others is a fulfilling activity. Apart from this, do you know teaching is also a way to learn? By teaching, you can learn better, deeper, and improve your ability to remember what you know, i.e., have a better memory. We can therefore say that teaching is a memory technique.

Let’s examine why this is so.

Learning by teaching is a concept known since antiquity. Indeed, the Roman philosopher, Seneca the Younger, once said. “While we teach, we learn.”^[1] In modern times, the concept has been reexamined by educationists, psychologists, writers, and other lovers of teaching and learning around the world. The more it is re-examined and tried, the more this method of learning gains new respect and followers.

Learning by teaching, now famously dubbed as the Protégé effect, has been defined as a “psychological phenomenon where teaching, pretending to teach, or preparing to teach information to others helps a person learn that information.”^[2]

What Seneca the Younger was describing was the same thing as this Protégé effect. This effect has been proven to exist throughout the ages.

The Protégé effect has surely existed before the study of psychology was ever born, or before anything like the psychology of teaching or learning was ever studied.

What makes the Protégé effect unique is that it now stands out among various other educational methods and theories as one that almost always works, especially among young learners.

Why Learning by Teaching Works so Well

Learning by teaching works well because of the following reasons:

1. Learning by teaching works because it gives learners the opportunity to become teachers of what they have learned. In addition, learning by teaching stimulates emotions in the person employing it, and these emotions encourage focus, concentration, and re-examination of a piece of information.

Furthermore, when these emotions are channeled to actions, learners learn with more vigor, and they are motivated to remember what they have learned, since they are aware they are going to teach it to others.

2. When learners know they are going to teach what they have learned to others, it leads them to develop unique teaching innovations that will suit their teaching situation. For example, learners might get their knowledge more organized by breaking it down into main points.

They might also be able to come up with better examples than what was initially taught to them. All these help them to understand what they learn more and remember it more.

3. When used along with other teaching methods like debates and tests, learning by teaching not only reinforces knowledge in the learners but also helps them understand why what they know is how it is.

This brings us to one important question on learning by teaching, which is…

Is Learning by Teaching Superior to Other Methods of Learning/Memory Techniques?

It is tempting to answer this question with a straightforward affirmation because most indications already point to the fact that learning by teaching is highly superior to many other methods of learning (though we will not say it is the best method). This is not only proven by classroom experience but also by a number of scientific studies.

Generally, the most obvious results of learning by teaching is observed by ordinary users within a short time. Even more noticeably, the flexibility and innovativeness it offers give it an advantage over several other methods of learning. We will shortly examine why this is so.

One of the advantages learning by teaching offers is the little or no barrier it presents to (unique) individual expression in teaching. This helps the learner understand and present the study material with his or her own unique knowledge “flavor”, and this can widen learners’ horizon and give them better understanding, retention, and a more personal attachment to the subject they are teaching.

Another way learning by teaching allows individual expression in teaching is through the use of technology.

Students can use the ease provided by their smartphones and other devices to create knowledge richer in media and add-ons. This permits greater individual expression since students can convert what they know into unique videos, slideshows, animations, blogs, and articles and use them in teaching others.

Like it was reflected in the definition we gave earlier for the Protégé effect, sometimes, students benefit greatly from the Protégé effect just by being told that they are going to teach others what they have learned, even if no such plan is ever carried out!

This is because the act of preparing to teach forces students to re-read and reexamine what they have learned: ideas are elaborated, and methods are retried, giving students another opportunity to relearn the subject matter, even without later teaching it to others. This is the big windfall from the Protégé effect.

In a study conducted by researchers at Stanford University, the retention of two groups of students was tested using a piece of software (a computer program) that has been trained to learn based on the information it is provided. ^[3]

A group of the students was told they are teaching the program (presumably via the information they provided to it), and the other group was told they would be using the software to teach themselves.

At the end of the study, the researchers found that the students who have been told they are teaching the program performed better on (retention) tests than the other group who use the program as a learning tool. ^[3]

The reason for the success of the teaching group is because they worked hard to make sure the program learned well from them, and in that process, they learned what they are teaching better and retain it better than the learning group.

In another research work, a Norwegian study published in 2007 asserts that first-born children are more intelligent than their younger siblings because they are compelled to teach their inexperienced younger siblings a lot from their own learning and experience, and this, therefore, leads to them gaining an increase in IQ in the long term. ^[6]

Lastly, learning by teaching has been and will continue to have more admirers because of the inherent tangible benefits it offers to the learner. Learning by teaching invites the Protégé effect for any learner simply because it is designed to encourage a revision of what a learner has learned. And when we revise what we learned, we understand it more, and it stays in our memory for a longer time.

Who Can Benefit from Learning by Teaching?

1. Memory Athletes

Memory athletes are people who compete at events dedicated to memorizing a great amount of information, often at a professional level.

Memory athletes, especially amateurs, can benefit from learning by teaching. This is because this method can be used as a memory technique at its most basic level.

2. Students (Young and Old)

Active students are the most well-known beneficiary of the Protégé Effect. This is because of the great opportunity provided in a school setting in applying the learning by teaching method.

Many schools encourage group studies among their students, and this is probably the best setting where the Protégé effect is experienced by students. To learn more on how group studies can facilitate the Protégé effect, read our article on various kinds of reading partners that can be found in schools and society.

3. Apprentices

Apprenticeship is another efficient way of learning different from a formal school. It is especially suited for learning practical skills.

Perhaps the greatest beneficiary in a master-apprentice skill setting is the master himself, because the more the master teaches successive batches of apprentices, the more the master himself gets better at the skill he is teaching. This is the Protégé effect at work.

However, this doesn’t leave out the apprentice too. The senior apprentice might be required to teach junior apprentices what he has learned, and this also makes him or her even better at the skill. This cycle continues repeating itself once another apprentice qualifies as a master.

To learn why apprenticeship can be a fantastic way to learn, read our article on it here.

4. Researchers

Sometimes, during a research work, researchers don’t have a clear idea of what their findings mean. The Eureka moment for many researchers comes when they are trying to explain their findings – especially the murky part – to their superiors and colleagues. Indeed, it is not unusual for a researcher to have a better insight into the implication of his or her study only when he is teaching or explaining it to others.

 5. Programmers

Programmers often have a very hard time finding bugs within the codes they have written. In the quest for a solution, some programmers adopt what is known as the “Rubber duck debugging” technique in finding their bugs. ^[4]

While this technique may not strictly qualify as a learning by teaching method, it still ensures the programmer benefits from some kind of Protégé effect that comes up through it.

In the technique, the programmer pretends he is explaining the code to a plastic duck. The plastic duck naturally can’t give feedback, and the programmer will be forced to laboriously explain everything regarding the code to it! It is believed that it will get to a point in his explanation where he will be able to find out the bug(s) in his code by himself.

When Should You Consider Adopting the Learning by Teaching Method?

1. When You Want to Understand a Subject Better

Like we have explained in several sections above, learning by teaching method is excellent if you want to have a better understanding of a subject. The method, when repeated over several years, makes the subject a natural part of you. This is probably why many of our grade school teachers, and even professors, can teach their subjects without a note. This is because they have been teaching this subject for years, and it has become a part of them.

2. When You are Short of Teachers

A kind of learning by teaching method was employed in Britain in the 19th century; it was called the Monitorial System. In the system, a number of older, abler students were taught so they can teach younger or less able students. ^[5]

Generally, in any situation where there is a high ratio of students compared to the number of available qualified teachers, it might be wise to teach some of the senior students some topics ahead so they can, in turn, teach the junior students. This way, the senior students also get to learn the topic or subject better.

3. When You Want to Memorize or Improve Your Memory

Yes! The learning by teaching method can be used as a memory technique. How it works is simple: the more you teach a particular knowledge, the more it becomes a part of you, and the less you are likely to forget it. To use the learning by teaching as a memory technique, simply teach someone else. If there is no one around to teach, then pretend to teach yourself.

4. When Other Learning Methods are Failing

When other learning methods fail, the learning by teaching method might seriously help. When a learner is told he or she will be required to teach what he or she has learned to others, the motivation to revise and relearn the piece of information becomes stronger for the learner. No teacher wants to be seen as incompetent in front of eager students.

How to Properly Learn by Teaching

Learning by teaching can be a very rewarding experience, especially when other learning methods have failed. Fortunately, it is not compulsory to practice this method of learning on those younger or less experienced. In fact, it can be practiced with friends, colleagues, and superiors like we have implied under several sections above. Learning by teaching is not difficult to practice if some certain situations are goaded to exist. Some of them are:

1. Creating a Teachable Moment

It can be frustrating for any teacher to have inattentive or uninterested students. Anybody who wants to learn by teaching must make sure they do so at a time when they will enjoy the maximum attention and interest of their students. This will make the teaching fruitful and thereby accelerate the learning/understanding of the teacher who wants to learn by this method.

2. The Teacher Must Have a Certain Familiarity with the Subject Matter

Learning by teaching might be an entirely fruitless effort if it is tried without having a prior familiarity with the subject matter.

The familiarity with the subject matter might be superficial or deep, but some level of familiarity with the subject matter is required before this method can be a success for the learner. Obviously, you can’t teach what you know nothing about!

3. Create Time

Success or failure in any endeavor is often determined by the amount of time devoted to it. This is not different when trying learning by teaching too.

The learner should create time to carefully prepare the teaching notes, get his or her thoughts organized, and study the teaching environment. These kinds of preparation can go a long way to make the attempt a success story.

Conclusion

Learning by teaching can certainly benefit human memory if done right. In fact, it can be very effective as a memory technique. The aim of all memory techniques is to ease the assimilation of information and boost our retention of it. Fortunately, learning by teaching fulfills all these criteria!

When we thoroughly understand a subject, it becomes a part of us, and form a long-term memory.

Barring accidents and special cases of mental disorders like dementia, the long term memory is not easily erased. Interestingly a smart way to get any skill or knowledge into our long-term memory might just be to teach it to other people repeatedly.

This is one of the greatest benefits of this excellent technique of learning – it is a way to build up a solid memory of your knowledge!

References:

1. The Protégé Effect – https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-be-brilliant/201206/the-prot-g-effect (Retrieved 1-5-2020)
2. The Protégé Effect: How You Can Learn by Teaching Others – https://effectiviology.com/protege-effect-learn-by-teaching/ (Retrieved 1-5-2020)
3. Life-Slc.Org, 2020, http://www.life-slc.org/nsf/linkd/files/Chase_etal_Teachableagents_2009.pdf. Accessed 8 May 2020.
4. Mastering the Protege Effect – https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/mastering-the-protege-effect-1a49c62f7be5 (Retrieved 1-5-2020)
5. Monitorial System – https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/monitorial-system (Retrieved 1-5-2020)

6. Intelligence test scores and birth order among young Norwegian men (conscripts) analyzed within and between families – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289607000062?via%3Dihub (Retrieved 1-5-2020)