The concept of "learning by teaching" is not a new one. In the photo above, you can see a young student who appears to be teaching her classmates while her teacher supervises. I would venture to say that it is pretty well known that if you can teach something, you should ideally know the information inside and out. Thus, teaching can be an effective way for students to prove that they have mastered a skill or knowledge. “Learning by teaching is a mode of learning where students are expected to comprehend material and then prepare presentations or a lesson plan to teach their peers. This method is intended to help the presenter enhance their own understanding of the material” (tophat.com). 

This concept has been adapted to students of all ages, various subjects, and numerous educational topics. Intriguingly, this method has been further updated with the use of technology in an innovative educational software developed by Vanderbilt University's School of Engineering in 2005. The software, called Betty's Brain, "is a computer-based learning environment that utilizes the learning-by-teaching paradigm to engage students in learning about science topics. In Betty’s Brain, students are charged with teaching a computer agent named Betty by constructing a causal model of the systems or processes that make up that science topic (e.g., ecosystems, climate change, or thermoregulation). To do this well, the student must become a responsible learner and teacher” (vanderbilt.edu).

Here is how the software works: students create models that look somewhat like mind-maps to show their knowledge of a topic. Then, those are fed to Betty, who interprets them and feeds back what she has learned from them. Students are responsible for making sure that Betty is learning the information correctly, and they do so by giving her tests and quizzes. There is another AI helper, called Mr. Davis, who grade's Betty's test and quiz answers and also mentors students as they work on creating their "mind-map" model. This basically imitates the scenario of teaching one's peers in a classroom while a teacher supervises, but completely with AI software. Below is another image of Betty's Brain, this time with an example of a quiz.

From Biswa, et al.'s (2005) article, these were the main ways in which Betty's Brain helped students.The manner in which students have to present the information (the "mind-maps") "helps students develop structured networks of knowledge that have explanatory value;" the concept of freely creating the models "helps students take responsibility and make decisions about learning;" and the open-ended nature of having to figure out how to help Betty pass the quiz helps students' "reflection or meta-cognitive skills that include monitoring the quality of one’s knowledge and learning decisions" (Biswas, et al., 2005). 10 years later, Biswa, et al. (2015) state that they have had overall success with Betty's Brain and continue to use it in schools. To add to that, "our ability to understand the specific difficulties individual students face has increased significantly, and our focus has shifted to detecting students who struggle to succeed as they work in Betty’s Brain and providing them with relevant scaffolds to help them overcome their difficulties" (Biswa, et al., 2015).

This program represents an important aspect of online learning and is a valuable part of computer-based educational systems. Not only this, but, if widely implemented, this could be a very promising way to improve the science curriculum, which (at least in the US) tends toward memorization and lacks depth of understanding and application.Through learning by teaching, students will be able to achieve a deeper understanding and hopefully an increased interest in the subjects presented.

References: 

Betty's Brain. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2020, from https://wp0.vanderbilt.edu/oele/bettys-brain/

Biswas, G., Segedy, J. R., & Bunchongchit, K. (2015). From Design to Implementation to Practice a Learning by Teaching System: Betty’s Brain. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 26(1), 350-364. doi:10.1007/s40593-015-0057-9

Biswas, G., Leelawong, K., Schwartz, D., & Vye, N. (2005). Learning By Teaching: A New Agent Paradigm For Educational Software. Applied Artificial Intelligence, 19(3-4), 363-392. doi:10.1080/08839510590910200

Learning by Teaching Definition and Meaning. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2020, from https://tophat.com/glossary/l/learning-by-teaching/