Why Students Should Help Students Learn to Code

I first experienced students teaching students in martial arts, where it is very common that the more advanced students have to teach the juniors.

At first, I used to think it was just a way for the instructor to have more time for tea. But what I soon discovered, was that being forced to teach got me to really think about what I was doing, and it motivated me to put in the extra work to better understand the techniques and concepts I was teaching.

… In short, teaching made me a much better martial artist.

When students teach other students, amazing things happen

As the student teaches another student, they are, in essence, mindfully reviewing and practicing to code. Students will start to feel responsible toward their pupil, and will put in extra effort they wouldn’t otherwise. It is not always the case, but I’ve seen it time and time again.

How to implement this strategy in a StudioWeb classroom

Since StudioWeb provides detailed progress tracking, you could simply assign the top students to coach the ones who need it. Just open up the classroom stats, to see how far into the course your students are, and what grades they are getting by the lesson.

…StudioWeb’s automated tracking and grading makes coordinating this easy.

Form teams to work on projects

I’ve included 40 projects (for beginners HTML, CSS and JavaScript) that can be assigned to individual students, or to small groups. This is another opportunity where you can pair more advanced students with others. By fall 2016, you will see many more projects added to the curriculum.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook
Studioweb.com