What Is TILT?
TILT is currently an idea about improving the state of education through a scalable solution that does not require a significant increase in spending to accomplish.
The ideas behind TILT are based around a simple change: students as student-teachers.
It's not a new idea, but we feel that it is an idea that could be leveraged today more than ever and implemented more successfully with the help of modern technology.
TILT turns the student population in to an army of teachers, with older students teaching younger students (e.g. three 5th graders teaching nine 4th graders), and younger students teaching even younger students (e.g. three 4th graders teaching nine 3rd graders).
This simple concept provides a number of benefits that have the potential to change the dynamics of how we think about education and the value that the students receive from their education.
Teaching Is Learning Too
Teaching another person may be one of the best ways to turn learning into knowledge. In order to teach, you have to understand the material, not simply regurgitate the material. Teaching also teaches communication skills, empathy, teamwork, creativity, and many other skills that are essential in the real world.
TILT does not assume that student-teachers will have the necessary understanding to teach a subject matter effectively alone. Rather, we assume that a group of student-teachers can act as responsible leaders, leveraging available resources (the teacher, technology, etc), to help a group of younger students learn the material effectively. In doing so the student-teachers will reinforce their own learning of the subject matter.
Learning How To Learn
In order to teach one must take a step back and ask themselves how they themselves learn. It forces student-teachers to look for ways to optimize their own learning and explore creative new approaches to help themselves become better at learning new material so that they can transfer these skills to their students.
Students as student-teachers means that the students are now responsible for the success of their school as a whole. Many students never get the opportunity to become a trusted, responsible, contributing member of a large group. TILT makes this happen on a daily basis.
Older students may be able to develop unique insights on how best to teach students who are slightly younger, having recently been through the process of learning from older students themselves. On the flip side students can draw from their experiences as teachers to be better learners, more respectful of the challenges that teachers face.
Movement and Talking (Classroom Management)
In many classrooms students are expected to sit still and be quiet while maintaining a focus and engagement on learning. Children need to move and talk and have fun in order for efficient learning to occur, for the children to get excited about what they are being exposed to. One teacher can't easily allow the students to move around and talk more openly, as it becomes hard to manage the classroom and keep the students focused on the task at hand. Having a number of older students who are charged with ensuring that the students learn, but but encouraging them to explore and discuss the ideas they're learning provides a much greater opportunity for a more energized and exciting classroom.
With all students acting both as teachers as well as learners, there is a greater community feel, with greater opportunity for students to develop empathy for teachers. It even provides opportunities for learning to take place outside the classroom where the student-teachers have more contact with their students than teachers normally do.