In times of crisis, teaching students how to teach can have a powerful and lasting impact

Schools are facing an array of crises: a rise in student mental health issues, declining test scores, budgetary constraints and ideological attacks, to name a few. And that’s not to mention the economic and social crises beyond the school walls that affect everyone. 

In her recent journal article, “Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn: Educating for Self-Realization, Social Inquiry, and Civic Contribution in Times of Crisis,” Professor Emerita Ruthanne Kurth-Schai lays out a comprehensive argument for why an innovative pedagogical shift could have a society-altering impact at a time when we need it most.

Q: What is Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn?

A: Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn is a two-phrase concept. Learning to Teach refers to mobilizing teachers, educational support staff, and trained volunteers to teach school-age youth to do what all good teachers do: develop learning goals, master content, and understand learner characteristics. They use active learning techniques, review feedback, and reflect on ways to improve their teaching. 

Teaching to Learn is a call to support school-age youth in experiencing what all good teachers know: The most effective way to learn anything is to teach it to diverse learners. By teaching, not only will students enhance their understanding of the subject matter, but also gain understanding of the process of learning in all its complexity, mystery and wonder, as well as of themselves and others as learners. 

Q: What’s an example of how this might look in the classroom? 

A: At the classroom-level, it would vary by age. For pre-K and kindergarten students, they might learn to teach siblings or peers how to care for a pet. For upper elementary, they might learn to teach basic math or reading skills to younger students, or perhaps assist a limited English-speaking family member with translation. On the secondary level, it would probably take the form of civic engagement projects. Students could be supported in conducting a community-needs assessment and then designing educational materials to share, perhaps through a public-service social media campaign, community teach-in, or even appearing before a school board. 

Of course it would be ideal to implement Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn on a state or district level to ensure that all students have opportunities to participate throughout their school experience. Here, you would routinely require (for example, once in an academic year) that all school-age youth, from early childhood to late adolescence, be supported in learning to teach a specific concept or skill to support others in need. 

Q: Why is this pedagogical approach needed right now especially, as you argue in your article? 

A: Decades of research reaffirms that, in spite of our efforts to protect them, school-age youth are well aware of heightened struggle and uncertainty. The research further suggests that, unintentionally, we may be failing our students in response. By underestimating or overlooking their ability to make important contributions to their family and friends, and to our schools and society, we may deepen their feelings of helplessness and hopelessness in the face of serious real-world challenges. This must change. 

In the face of current threats to our democracy, civil rights and civil society, now more than ever, we need to support our schools in preparing all young people to act as open-minded, critically aware, empathetic and compassionate learners throughout their lifetimes. In the midst of an intensifying youth mental health crisis, now more than ever, we need to support our schools in working to empower all young people to make significant social contributions. 

Q: Education reform is linked to social reform. You examined moments of crisis across history and cultures to look for education reforms that emerged. What did you notice they had in common?  

A: Even though most reformers were social activists, philosophers or spiritual leaders – not educators – their shared response to deep crises was to teach people to find meaning, to act with integrity, and, therefore, to experience genuine hope.

To do so, they worked to prepare all people to cope, not only with the challenges of personal life, but also with systemic change arising from social and environmental crises. They devoted special attention to the education of children and youth, because they understood that thoughtful participation in social reform and renewal could only be sustained over the course of one’s lifetime. 

I was surprised to find that they shared an understanding of, and commitment to, the importance of nurturing a spiritual dimension of learning and life. Here, spirit is not defined in terms of religious beliefs or practices, but instead as a search for one’s highest purpose in life and a commitment to act on that purpose in challenging real-world settings. 

Q: In the paper, you write about this concept called “gift exchange.” How is it different from what most education systems are doing now? 

A: Teaching and learning as gift exchange is an alternative learning process. It is to be engaged alongside traditional learning paths which emphasize competitive, standardized, individual academic achievement. Gift exchange allows students to also experience a more creative and cooperative approach to learning.

Rather than celebrating individual knowledge-acquisition as the end goal, gift exchange begins there and then progresses toward empathetic sharing. Knowledge is received and then enhanced as learners work first to deepen their personal understanding, and then to share what they’ve learned with others in respectful and meaningful ways.  

Q: How does the Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn approach get us closer to these ideals? 

A: Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn supports students in moving through the gift exchange process while developing five critical life skills that are essential in times of deep crisis. 

Students must first determine who and what to teach. To do that, they move through the earliest stages of gift exchange while developing two critical life-skills: clarity and communion. 

Clarity is the capacity to seek and examine shared truth that can guide collective action. Here, truth-seeking is aimed at identifying someone with a genuine need that could be addressed by learning something new. 

Communion is the ability to seek common ground and to expand our shared understanding of who we are and who, together, we might become beyond our differences. The student seeks to understand and to honor the recipient’s needs and aspirations. 

Students then progress through the middle stages of gift exchange focused on developing creativity. Creativity is defined as the capacity to respond to new situations and overcome obstacles in a genuine, innovative, and harmonious manner.

During the final stage, empathetic sharing, students encounter the final two critical life skills, compassion and courage. Compassion is the capacity for ethical response, not only to like-minded others, but also to those whose lives differ significantly from our own. Courage is the capacity to act on our ethical ideals with integrity – to engage in principled risk-taking with and for vulnerable others. 

By moving through the gift exchange learning process, school-age youth could experience the sense of purpose and self-esteem that come from using their knowledge and skills, their hopes and their dreams, to help others. 

Overall, the value of Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn lies in its capacity to empower our youth, to revitalize schooling, to enliven civic participation, and to reclaim genuine hope in deeply challenging times.