I think all educators appreciate the personal knowledge benefits of teaching. As we educate others, we gain a more comprehensive understanding of our subject. This phenomenon has an accepted academic name: the “Protégé Effect.” Whenever we coach, mentor, or teach at any level the educator benefits from greater retention and fluidity with the subject matter. Actively educating also leads to deeper research and understanding – as we struggle to answer those sharp questions that learners provide. Not surprisingly, most excellent educators are also passionate learners. The Protégé Effect was succinctly summed up by the famous Stoic philosopher Seneca thousands of years ago: “While we teach, we learn.”
“Learning by teaching” is not only a benefit for the educator, but can also be an effective tool for a learner at any level. Use teaching to improve retention and performance on your oral evaluations. Leverage the protégé effect for greater capability and confidence. Just find a person who is less advanced in your subject area and deliver a lesson; verbalize and interact. You will immediately discover your weak areas and improve your delivery. Further Q&A interaction with any learner will uncover subject areas you probably never even considered and improve your ability to “think on your feet.” Just keep a careful record of your knowledge gaps and get to work improving in these areas. (a video is a simple, but ruthless, reveal).
Students enlisted to tutor others, these researchers have found, work harder to understand the material, recall it more accurately and apply it more effectively. In what scientists have dubbed “the protégé effect,” student teachers score higher on tests than pupils who are learning only for their own sake. Time
The most obvious, but underappreciated, deficiency demonstrated by most flight test applicants is their inability to verbalize what they thought was in their heads. Patient DPEs spend a lot of time trying to extract these precious factoids during an FAA test, but there is a limit obviously. This can be frustrating because the knowledge that seems to be available when you thought about it, disappears when you try to verbalize it; ouch! Get busy teaching for better performance on your evaluations.
In our modern accelerated flight training world, many new pilots will also soon be working on their CFI anyway; tune up your teaching! You can even earn a ground instructor certificate just by taking a couple FAA knowledge tests (a huge FAA loophole) Remarkably, you don’t even have to be a pilot. A ground instructor certificate will put you in a much better position when you are sitting for your initial flight instructor evaluation. You are *already* an instructor, just adding your flight privileges. Fly safely out there (and often)!
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