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11 Teves 5762 - December 26, 2001 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
Learning From Your Talmid

by R' Zvi Zobin

"Said Rebbi: `I learned much from my Rebbeim, more from my colleagues, but most of all, I learned from my talmidim.' "

A recent study by a research team from the University of Florida has shown that students struggling with reading can improve their skills by tutoring younger students. The study found that over the seven month period of the research, the senior students improved their comprehension ability by an amount which would normally have taken them two years. Additionally, it would normally have taken them 16 months to improve their reading skills to the same extent as they did in those seven months. The researchers also reported that the students' vocabulary skills improved, as well as their overall attitude to reading.

Of course, we do not need a report like this to tell us what we have known for thousands of years. However, it is interesting to see that even when compared to the most modern systems of dealing with reading and learning problems, the old system of giving a talmid a weaker student to teach as a learning-partner, is still a valid option.

Often, a talmid will ask for a tutor of a senior talmid to help him with his learning. However, sometimes the best thing for such a student is for him to be given a weaker student so that he has to teach him. When he has to teach, he is faced with the challenge of imparting the knowledge he has in such a way as to enable the weaker student to understand it. This puts the senior student `on his mettle' and enables him to access abilities which, perhaps, he did not even know he possessed.

Often, helping the weaker student involves reviewing material many more times than he would otherwise have the patience to do. The continual re-explanation often helps the senior talmid attain new levels of clarity. And the necessity to impart his knowledge clearly improves the tutor's own communication and thought-processing skills.

 

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