How to use the protégé effect to learn by teaching others
One of the most powerful ways to learn something is to teach it. This phenomenon, known as the protégé effect, explains how explaining concepts to others increases our own understanding and retention. Basically, when teaching others, it is natural to structure and organize information in a way that is easy to convey to help the other person understand. By doing so, you will also deepen your understanding of yourself.
Those embarking on an L&D journey can significantly improve learning outcomes by learning with the intent to teach rather than passively consuming content. This article will show you exactly how.
What is the protégé effect?
Humans have always enjoyed the communal aspect of the dissemination of knowledge. For thousands of years, we have been sharing information, innovation, and practical know-how with our communities as teachers, writers, guides, and mentors. The disciple effect reflects that age-old practice.
Let’s see how it works. Basically, before you can explain a concept to others, you must first understand it well yourself. By preparing to teach and actively teaching others, you will gain a deeper understanding of the material. Therefore, you can learn more effectively and help others learn along with you. 2014 survey [1] It was shown that students who expected to teach performed better on later tests than those who expected to test.
Specifically, before examining a passage of text, participants were divided into two groups. One group was informed that they were studying for an upcoming test. The other group was told that they were preparing to teach the content to other students. Researchers observed that students who had been prepared to teach the content were better able to recall the main ideas of the text. The group also adopted more effective learning strategies, such as organizing and prioritizing information and considering how different concepts relate to each other. As a result, this approach increased the likelihood that the content would be transferred to long-term memory for future recall.
The disciple effect has been used in classrooms for decades. A notable example was in the early 1980s, when Jean-Pol Martin, a French teacher in Eichstedt, Germany, introduced the “learning by teaching” (Lernen durch Lehren) approach. [2] In the classroom, I enhance my students’ language learning experience by having them explore different curriculum topics and present them to their peers. This approach yielded excellent results in terms of learner motivation, self-efficacy, and communication skills, and quickly spread to other educational institutions across the country.
Cognitive and social mechanisms behind the effects
Deep cognitive processing and organization
When learners prepare to teach, they engage in generative cognitive processing that involves organizing, integrating, and paraphrasing information. These actions require learners to go beyond superficial understanding and translate content into a coherent explanation. In doing so, learners build richer mental models and identify gaps in knowledge.
Search and Refinement
Teaching forces you to search and refine repeatedly. To explain a concept, you must recall it accurately and relate it to examples. Each round of retrieval strengthens the memory trace by strengthening relevant neural pathways, and further associative links are formed through elaboration. This is a powerful combination that fosters knowledge that is durable and flexible, while also increasing its applicability in new situations.
Metacognition and self-regulation
Teaching strengthens metacognitive awareness, the ability to monitor one’s own understanding. When a learner realizes that they are unable to clearly explain a concept, this metacognitive signal prompts the initiation of targeted review. In L&D and other independent learning situations, this self-assessment supports improvement and accountability, both of which are essential to continuing the journey.
Empathy and perspective-taking
Teaching also promotes empathy and perspective-taking, requiring students to understand situations from another person’s perspective rather than from their own frame of reference. The disciple effect requires that before learners can effectively communicate or teach, they must first imagine how another person would understand the topic. Switching between someone else’s frame of reference and your own improves clarity of thought, cognitive flexibility, and conceptual application. This is an invaluable skill that can be applied across contexts.
Accountability and engagement
Knowing that you have to teach others also increases your responsibility. Learners expect social recognition from their peers, which makes them more attentive and persistent. Research shows that anticipatory teaching increases intrinsic motivation and task engagement, reduces passive learning behaviors, and makes the learning experience a more participatory process.
autonomy and independence
Teaching fosters a sense of ownership and autonomy in our own learning process. When you take on the responsibility of helping others understand a subject, you tend to be more motivated to learn. And, as mentioned above, this increased motivation leads to a more efficient learning process and enriches the overall experience.
Apply the protégé effect to achieve learning milestones
Peer teaching and discussion forum
L&D leaders, instructional designers, and e-learning professionals can incorporate structured peer teaching through discussion boards, peer reviews, and collaborative projects. If you’re an independent learner, you can start your own blog, publish guest posts on other people’s blogs, or teach others about your current area of interest. Even a short testimonial written in the framework of how you would explain this to a colleague can help you make an impact and reap the benefits.
educational simulation
Some digital tools allow users to record mini-lessons, create concept/mind maps, and simulate tutoring sessions. These designs reflect the cognitive processes of education and can be incorporated into professional training programs, online courses, or personal curricula for independent learners. Teachable agents have also proven to be very useful [3] Because it encourages learners to expend more effort. Learners work harder when they have to teach an agent than when learning on their own.
self-explanation prompt
If teaching others is not possible at the moment, self-explanation prompts can help you simulate the process of teaching internally. These prompts typically involve clarifying why and how a concept works and encouraging learners to connect it with prior knowledge and convey the information in their own language. This not only improves your problem-solving skills and deepens your understanding of the material, but through practice, this type of cognitive processing becomes instinctive over time.
informal mentoring
The best part is that the protégé effect doesn’t have to be limited to formal contexts to cause the cognitive benefits already mentioned. Informal mentoring views everyday interactions as meaningful learning experiences. In practice, this means prioritizing spontaneous conversations and encouraging self-reflection in yourself and your colleagues. This not only fosters strong personal connections, but it’s also very effective for personal growth as well as for yourself.
conclusion
The disciple effect suggests that sometimes the most effective way to learn is to teach. When you feel responsible for passing on knowledge to others, it changes how you apply it yourself. So, whether you’re an education and e-learning professional or a lifelong learner, you can harness this powerful cognitive effect in a way that suits your needs and helps you (or your learners) achieve your learning goals accurately and effectively.
References:
[1] Anticipation of teaching enhances learning and knowledge organization through free recall of text passages
[2] Lehren Durch Lehren (LdL) in theory and practice
[3] Teachable agents and the protégé effect: Increased learning effort.
