I Hear You

Freelance project

The Context:
School is constantly evolving, and in the current world-climate more than ever. With restraints put on society as we combat this pandemic, more and more flaws in how things have been done come to light. It's time to take a fresh look at education and how it can be improved

The Challenge:
Pick one shortcoming in education and redesign it. What element can be improved upon so that students today can become more engaged, curious, stimulated, or how can we change learning in general to include more emotion, purpose, meaning, and feeling? How can education be changed to reduce inequality or Discrimination?

Core Idea

Let People Teach People

In addition to current testing-procedure I offer a new way of examination. Here, the student is tasked with planning and executing a lesson for their (younger) peers.

It has been tested and shown that this approach improves student engagement with the course material. In addition, this way of examination is a way to meet the increasing demand for digitalized education.

I Hear You

I Hear You is my proposed solution.

It is based on the concept of "While we teach, we learn" (also known as the Protégé Effect). This concept states that students enlisted to tutor others have been found to work harder, have improved knowledge retention, and apply it more effectively going forward.

The students will have the task of teaching someone else the subject at hand instead of filling out a test in a sterile environment.

This will show the students' knowledge of the subject; as well as build communication, social, and problem-solving skills.
It also opens the door for younger students, or other interested people, to learn more about the subject at hand.

The Players

There are 3 players in focus to make this idea work: The Student, the Protégé, And the Teacher
How they work together to benefit them all is the core of this concept.

The Student

The Student is the individual studying a set subject. They will have the option of planning and hosting a lesson for the Protégé on the subject instead of performing a regular written exam.
It is important that this method of examination is voluntary for the Student as an option to other standardized testing.

The Protégé

The Protégé is anyone who wishes to learn about the set subject, such as a younger student.
They sign up be taught by the student during one of these tests. This will create a more dynamic situation where each Protégé might have different questions or issues understanding different concepts.

The Teacher

The Teacher is the leader of the class. They will supervise the student in their teaching as a precaution so that the Student does not teach incorrect information.
A recording of the lecture will be made so that the teacher can return to it for the grading later.

How It Works

A Student is enrolled in a class and will have the option to sign up to hold a lesson for a voluntary Protégé on the subject. By preparing a lesson to guide the Protégé through the course material, the Student will develop a deeper understanding of the subject at hand.

To begin the lesson, the Student will connect with the Protégé through a video call. The Student will teach the subject to the Protégé who is encouraged to ask questions. The process is meant to be educational to both of the members. At the end of the lesson there is the option to have extra questions for both the Student and Protégé to handle together.

The Teacher will be supervising the lesson as well as record it for later grading. They will only step in if the Student is teaching the Protégé wrong things, to protect the Protégé from learning incorrect information.
The Teacher will later watch the recording and grade the Student based on their performance.

It is important that we offer this way of examination in parallel to existing methods. Some students learn the best by teaching others, while others learn the best by preparing and performing a conventional exam.

You would not judge a fish for how well it can climb a tree, any less than a monkey for how well they can breathe water.

Benefits

Increased Learning quality and Motivation

The Protégé effect is a psychological phenomenon where teaching, pretending to teach, or preparing to teach information to others helps a person learn that information.
This gives the student a purpose to learning the information, more than just to memorize it for a short moment to pass a test.
This in turn will also increase the students motivation when it comes to learning the subject. They will feel driven and inspired to learn enough to teach it.

Improvement to personal and social skills

Teaching others is something that requires more of your social and personal skills than writing answers on a sheet of paper. The student will have to consider how best to teach the contents and take the Protégés situation into consideration.

This will lead to more experience with communication, teaching, and leading, which has been shown to improve the student’s social skills, confidence, and overall performance.

Extra method of learning

Not only does this system work to help the Student learn a subject, but it also offers the Protégé a new method of learning something. Peer-teaching has been proven to be highly beneficial to the students being taught, since they often learn better and have an easier time to communicate when their teacher is closer in terms of social and cognitive distance.

Digital medium gives flexible options

Having this performed through a digital medium such as Video Calls opens the system up for use with many more users. Protégés can be anyone from other students to people in other countries. For example an adult in Sweden who is trying to learn Italian can sign up to be taught Italian by a student who has already studied the basics and is moving on to the advanced parts.

Everyone learns in different ways.
Why are we testing everyone with the same method?
Let people teach people and everyone will learn.