Students Teaching Teachers

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Across the country, there are a variety of programs that create opportunities for students teaching teachers. Emphasizing the knowledge they already have or letting them share new knowledge they want to share with teachers, these opportunities come in different forms.

Professional Development

Students can conduct professional development sessions focused on pedagogy and practical applications for teachers. With train-the-trainer learning from others, students can facilitate unique, dynamic and responsive learning activities for classroom teachers. Embodying the traits they want to see in classrooms, students can create profound professional development sessions for teachers.

Examples

• National Urban Alliance for Effective Education
• Vashon Island StudentLink

Teacher Tutoring

On a regular, scheduled basis students have a designated time and place within the classroom to actively consult teachers and other adults in the education system. Given as much input as possible, students must understand what is being requested of them, and must not be used as tokens in the decision-making process. Students should know the outcome from every teacher tutoring session.

Examples

• Best Practices Club

Related Content

• Student-led Teacher Training
• Students as Teachers
• Professional development and Meaningful Student Involvement
• Students as Evaluators

Elsewhere Online

• Newman, M. (April 16, 1992) “Students teaching teachers; Immigrants reverse lanuage-skill roles in Bronx school,” The New York Times.
• Weedston, L. (May 2) “Students teaching teachers about empathy.” Hwaairfan’s Blog.
• Boss, S. (February 26, 2015) “Should students have a role in professional development?” Edutopia.

Elsewhere In Print

• Students Teaching, Teachers Learning. Branscombe, A., Goswami, D., Schwartz, J. (1992). Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook. This book focuses on shared inquiry. The research projects detailed in these chapters show how classroom dynamics change and more active learning takes place for both teacher and student when collaboration is involved. The projects here range from elementary through graduate school in both rural and urban, public and private settings.

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