{"id":6674232,"date":"2026-05-10T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/?p=6674232"},"modified":"2026-04-27T14:18:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T19:18:21","slug":"the-problem-with-students-teaching-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/the-problem-with-students-teaching-students\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problem with &#8220;Students Teaching Students&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Should our students teach their peers? The obvious answer to this question is: \u201c<em>yes, of course<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Experience shows that teaching leads to greater understanding for the person who did the teaching. After all, when I figure out how to explain \u201ctragedy\u201d to my sophomores, I end up knowing more about tragedy than I did before. No doubt my students would benefit from such experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this blog post, I\u2019m going to make a surprising pair of arguments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>We should ask students to <em>explain<\/em> ideas and topics, but<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We shouldn\u2019t ask students to <em>teach<\/em> those ideas and topics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Theory and Practice<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Educators regularly hear that we should ask our students to teach one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One often-discussed version of this approach: the \u201cjigsaw method.\u201d In this pedagogical strategy, the teacher divides a topic into several jigsaw pieces. For instance, if I\u2019m teaching the <em>digestive system<\/em>, I can divide it into several sub-topics: the stomach, the pancreas, the small intestine, and so forth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, I assign these jigsaw pieces to pairs of students. Once each pair has mastered their topic, they all circulate and teach the other pairs. In this way, all my students reassemble the jigsaw by teaching each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the years, teachers have offered me other examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>When parents asked \u201chow can I help my child study when I don&#8217;t understand the math they\u2019re doing,\u201d one teacher suggested: \u201chave your child teach the concept to you. She will understand the concept better because she did.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A middle-school biology teacher explained: \u201cI often begin class with a warm-up exercise: one student teaches a shoulder partner the concepts we studied yesterday.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A kindergarten teacher offered a fun example: \u201cfor one unit, my students each chose a community helper &#8212; a postal worker, a crossing guard, a firefighter &#8212; someone like that. They then taught the whole class about that community helper.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>No doubt you can think of many (many) other examples of students teaching students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Definitions Matter\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As I\u2019ve <a href=\"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/nerd-alert-focusing-on-definitions\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"8008\">written before<\/a>, our work often benefits when we stop and focus on precise definitions. Let me offer the most basic possible definition of the verb <em>to teach<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cTo teach is to cause someone else to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>In the examples above, we\u2019re inviting students to <em>explain<\/em> a topic to a second person: a parent, a shoulder partner, the whole class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are not \u2013 by the definition above \u2013 inviting students to <em>teach<\/em> a topic to a second person. In practice, we\u2019re not measuring their success by <em>someone else\u2019s learning<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>If the parent doesn\u2019t ultimately understand the math concept, that\u2019s okay. The goal was to help the <em>child<\/em> learn, not the parent.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If a kindergartener\u2019s classmates don\u2019t learn about postal workers or firefighters, no worries. The goal was to help each child learn about a specific community helper, not for everyone in the class to learn about all the community helpers. (I know because I asked.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We have lots of research showing that explaining a topic to another person helps people learn. In fact, I recently <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.3758\/s13421-014-0416-z\">read a study<\/a> (Nestojko 2014) showing that students who <em>thought<\/em> they were going to explain a topic to another person learned it better \u2013 even though they never did the explaining. Simply planning to explain produced modest learning benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019ve heard about <strong>generative learning<\/strong>, you know that this strategy fits neatly into that category. When students select, organize, and combine ideas, they learn those ideas better. Students might select, organize, and combine by<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Drawing a picture<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Creating a mind map<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Acting out a scene, or<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Presenting an idea to their classmates<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>When they do any of this generative mental work, students learn more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But \u2013 to be precise \u2013 the goal of that last option is that the student who is <em>presenting<\/em> learn more about the topic. If their classmates haven\u2019t learned, the presentation still counts as generative learning because the presenter learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>\u2026 and Learning Matters<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>From one perspective, this distinction might seem merely fussy. If students are <em>explaining<\/em> ideas to one another, what\u2019s the problem with calling that <em>teaching<\/em>? Explaining is close enough to teaching, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I myself don\u2019t think so. Simply put, <strong>explaining \u2013 by itself \u2013 isn\u2019t teaching<\/strong>. Simply hearing an explanation does not reliably lead to learning \u2013 and \u201ccausing someone else to learn\u201d is the definition of teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s consider the jigsaw example above. At the end of that class, all the students will have heard explanations about the digestive system\u2019s components: stomach, liver, large intestine. Those segmented explanations, however, will rarely add up to an understanding of digestion as a system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AdobeStock_1781334806-1024x683.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6674709\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AdobeStock_1781334806-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AdobeStock_1781334806-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AdobeStock_1781334806-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AdobeStock_1781334806-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AdobeStock_1781334806-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Understanding that system requires not simply an organ-by-organ review of facts: \u201chydrochloric acid in the stomach breaks down proteins and kills off bacteria.\u201d Instead, students need to see the connections among all those organs. Unless this lesson \u201ccauses students to learn\u201d how those organs and functions add up to accomplish the goal of digestion, they have not been taught. They have <em>heard explanations<\/em>, but those explanations weren\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To be clear: I can help students learn by asking them to explain. That generative work &#8212; selecting, organizing, and expressing ideas &#8212; has real cognitive benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But explaining isn\u2019t the same as teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The goal of explanation is that the <em>speaker<\/em> learns.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The goal of teaching is that <em>someone else<\/em> learns &#8212; and accomplishing that goal requires more than explanation alone.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>When I ask students to explain, I\u2019m giving them a powerful way to strengthen their own understanding. When I want their classmates to learn, however, that responsibility ultimately sits with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Nestojko, J. F., Bui, D. C., Kornell, N., &amp; Bjork, E. L. (2014). Expecting to teach enhances learning and organization of knowledge in free recall of text passages.&nbsp;<em>Memory &amp; cognition<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>42<\/em>(7), 1038-1048.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Should our students teach their peers? The obvious answer to this question is: \u201cyes, of course.\u201d Experience shows that teaching leads to greater understanding for the person who did the teaching. After all, when I figure out how to explain \u201ctragedy\u201d to my sophomores, I end up knowing more about tragedy than I did before. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6674709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6674232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6674232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6674232"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6674232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6674713,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6674232\/revisions\/6674713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6674709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6674232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6674232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6674232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}