Summer 2006

Innovation in education

Kids teaching kids

Arron Wood and Richard Wood introduce an exciting initiative that builds students who are more resilient and optimistic, have a sense of place, belief in a bright and compelling future, are capable public speakers and can communicate ideas in many different forms.

Musical performance, celebrities, politicians and 2600 past students and teachers from Kensington to Katherine under the big top, beside the once mighty Murray River, have created an environmental extravaganza entitled ‘The Murray–Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) Young People’s International River Health Conference’. Pretty heady stuff. The conference, staged every two years since 1999, is the culmination of a process involving primary and secondary students working with expert mentors and committed teachers to produce student-initiated workshops on local environmental issues.

All this excitement, hard work and creativity rests on the concept of student responsibility and control for learning or as coined by two year 6 students in 1999, ‘Kids teach kids’.

The conference vision is about promoting kids teaching kids as the highest form of learning and is firmly aimed at a cultural change in the way we all view, use and perceive our natural environment.

Like most ideas the conference experience had its origins in more mundane and pressing issues. Issues of student engagement, positive behaviour and meaningful and relevant curriculum are grist for the mill for both students and staff alike. Peer teaching is not a new concept but this approach was about to gain an extra twist in its association with our natural environment.

In the beginning

As a principal, I transferred into a larger school and did something I had not done before: I immediately suspended several students. The question was what was creating a difference of behaviour in these students in comparison with the behaviour in my previous school. I believed it was probably a lack of pride, purpose and sense of place. The culture of the school had to change; it was a question of survival—my own.

Through a chance observation, the environment, a natural motivator of young people, was chosen as the catalyst for reinstating the three Ps of pride, purpose and place at the new school.

As a first step, in order to move the responsibility for learning and behaviour back to students, a series of environmental workshops were planned, researched, managed and presented by students on issues surrounding their patch. These were not complex presentations but were laden with simple environmental messages and calls to action to fellow students.

What was observed in the workshops was a mystery; one activity that bordered on the mundane had student’s rapt attention. Something powerful was happening; something the school needed more information about. We knew that part of the fascination of the students was seeing themselves or their peers in control of the class. We pressed for more answers and found some satisfaction in the resilient child literature. It emphasises that schools that provide their students with the skills and confidence to take control and responsibility for their own learning produce students who possess the necessary strength to face the complexities and pitfalls of modern life. The promotion of resilience became an important factor in the change of culture in the school and was an obvious manifestation in the conduct of the student presentations.

We also found additional information in the work of multiple intelligences and learning styles. Students in the kids teaching kids workshops were automatically adapting material to their strength of learning and the team approach allowed for a variety of learning styles to work together. We found poetry, songs, analytical thinking, debate, problem-solving and the like, flowing from these early attempts and we encouraged them through cooperative learning experiences and refined them through the work of De Bono.

Implications for the curriculum

The research into learning styles also brought up the issue that many of the student suspensions were due to the mismatch of teaching styles with learning types. A teaching and learning task force was formed by committed teachers in the school to address this issue.

From these earlier attempts at promoting student responsibility a powerful cocktail of education was being mixed—one that gave us an insight into the mystery of kids teaching kids and an approach to environmental education that appeared to be sustainable and lasting.

It was clear that in order to expand on these initial attempts students would need to be taught the skills to manage the kids teaching kids approach. Without teaching the necessary skills to handle this approach only anarchy would result.

We knew that when a student understands a topic well enough to explain it to others then the ultimate form of learning has been reached. Our aim was to immerse our students in the practice and understanding of learning and not just the theory. Underlining this was that a value of respect for their place was synonymous with a respect for self and others.

Students were allowed to exercise their power and responsibility in the learning process. The advantage is that if we can do this successfully, and this is the strength of kids teaching kids, we can keep aligned to the real agenda of students and also provide a deeper learning experience.

Partners in a learning journey

I then had the pleasure of linking with my son to take this to the next level. At the time he was working for the Mallee Catchment Management Authority and was struggling with how to engage the wider community in issues about the management of our natural environment. What we discovered together is that schools are very often the first and only entry point for the wider community to learn about important concepts and issue. The first River Health Conference grew from this behavioural base and quickly moved from a local to national, and then to an international, event.

For the International River Health Conference, students decide on a local pressing environment issue that interests them, decide on a format to learn about that issue and tailor their presentations for peers accordingly—this could be through drama, song, science experiments or a range of other formats that the kids decide work for them, and as such, are also likely to work for others. This is a natural form of the ‘integrated curriculum’ that has been shown through educational research over many years to be an essential ingredient for in-depth learning. Industry mentors are provided to the students to ensure all information presented is contemporary and leading edge. This mentor link also has the added benefit of giving renowned professionals a relationship with their local school. You’d be surprised by how many organisations find it extremely difficult to access the school system. These links are really what being a community is all about!

Successful outcomes

The conference model builds recognition for the participating child. It gives them a sense of place within their presentation group, class or school. It labels them competent to present to others and through DeBono techniques provides them with constructive and positive feedback on their performance—like a gifted program for children of all abilities and talents. My son and I believe that a feeling of a sense of place, whether it is in a group, class or school, will be a true mark of education and environmental achievement.

Fundamentally ‘Kids Teaching Kids’ works because it improves the education experience and outcomes for students by allowing them to feel in control of the learning process. When learning proceeds at their pace and through presentation of their learning to others, a self-belief and new found confidence is evident. The support by students for other students at these events is pretty special to witness.

The quality of presentations exhibit little difference from the exclusive private school to the most disadvantaged state school, each learns from the other. The beauty of the approach is that a conference can be as small as a class, faculty, whole school or as big as an international conference. The value is in the non-prescriptive process.

A belief in a bright and compelling future is essential for every young person in these days of uncertainty. To promote this we must provide students with the notion that taking responsibility for learning and action on the environment today will contribute to the form their future will take. We passionately believe kids teaching kids and the conference model is a small but important start in education for a sustainable future.

To find out more about ‘Kids Teaching Kids’ please visit: www.onelifeoneworldourfuture.com and www.fire-starter.com.au

Arron Wood is managing director of Firestarter Pty Ltd, an environmental communication and education consultancy business.

Richard Wood is education consultant for Firestarter Pty Ltd.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au