Learning Labs Are An Innovative Learning Format

Core concept:

Learn and teach: Students learn a lesson from a more advanced student and then teach it to a more beginning student.
Curriculum: Peer-teachable mini-lessons
An app: Track your progress and pair up with other students

Example:

Alita walks into a salsa learning lab.
The instructor pairs Alita to learn the first lesson from Petra.
Petra shows Alita how to do the basic step.
Now that Alita knows it, she can teach it to Hector walking fresh into the door.
Alita checks her app and finds the next mentor to learn the second lesson from.

Stay up to date! Sign up for our newsletter!

Learning Lab vs. Group Class

Benefits For Students

#1 Go at your own pace. Start anytime.

All you need is a mentoring student. You pick the next lesson.

#2 Hands-on instruction, guidance, and feedback

Instructors in a group class have many students. You have the full attention of your mentoring student to be shown instruction hands-on, ask questions, and get feedback.

#3 Feel real progress

Classes can feel like you are endlessly showing up and make vague progress. With a learning lab, you see the curriculum ahead of you and can check off one mini-lesson after the next.

#4 Mastery through teaching

Being exposed to material is one thing. Teaching it to another student develops a much deeper understanding.

#5 Make friends

Form meaningful friendships through in-depth learning interactions with peers.

Benefits For Educators

#1 Higher student retention

because students form friendships when they teach each other

#2 Students learn many times faster

Hands-on instruction, individual pacing, and frequent feedback of mentors adds up to a lot.

#3 Focus on higher level teaching

Let peer mentors handle the easy stuff. Focus on where your teaching expertise is really needed.

#4 Design the full learning journey

With drop-in classes, you have to focus on making a class for whoever shows up that day. With learning labs, everyone starts at the first lesson and can continue where they left of whenver they come back. That let's you focus on the whole student journey.

#5 Rapid iteration and refinement

The unit of a learning lab is two students and a 15-minute lesson. It's so quick and easy that it lets you test out lessons on students, incorprate their feedback, and iterate quickly.

Common Concerns

#1 "Why would anyone teach for free?"

Students quickly realize how much they learn from teaching and love the self esteem boost of being able to contribute to another student's learning. Plus, it's the pay-it-forwad model of receiving mentoring in exchange for mentoring.

#2 How do I know a peer mentor is teaching correctly?

Everyone has access to the lesson notes and can check the mentor. Plus, lessons are designed around a task or outcome. Successfully accomplishing that lesson goal is verification itself.

#3 I want to learn from a real teacher!

1:1 from a real teacher is ideal, but affordable from everyone. Peer mentors, with a well-structured curriculum, provide more guidance and feedback than a teacher in front of a large classes.

#5 Won’t this put me out of a job as a teacher?

Your role shifts from lecturing to guiding, creating curriculum, and supporting students as they teach. You gain more time to focus on higher-level aspects and more holistic student development.

Key Concepts to Understand

Learning Edge

Traditional classes have a single topic and fixed pace, leaving many only mildly engaged. In a learning lab each student pair has their own topic and pace, keeping each student right at the edge of their learning.

Asymmetric Learning

Students learn faster when taught by someone with mastery over a skill, avoiding the pitfalls of “beginners teaching beginners.”

"A person right in front of you"

A peer mentor can easily pick up on a learner’s struggles or confusion and adjust in real-time—no falling through the cracks.

Pointability

A clear curriculum lets students easily identify lessons they need, eliminating the "What should we do next?" dilemma.

Elastic Lessons

Lessons are adaptable, allowing mentors to keep it easy for struggling learners and dive deeper for faster learners (and lesson repetitions).

How To Get Started As A Student

Step #1: Show up
Come to a learning lab (or find a mentor through the app).
Step #2: Learn
Learn your first lesson from a peer mentor.
Step #3: Progress
See your progress in the app.
Step #4: Teach
Teach your first lesson to another new student. (The app helps you with teaching points.)
Step #5: Repeat
Repeat step #2.

How To Get Started As An Educator

Step #1: Start with a small trial.
Start with a workshop or class segment in your existing class (a curriculum of 1-4 mini-lessons).
Step #2: Create a visual breakdown of the subject
Writing everything you want to teach on post-it notes and spreading them out on the floor is a great way to do that.
Step #3: Translate teaching topics into peer-mentoring friendly lessons.
Mentors are bad at and don't enjoy regurgitating talking points. Make the core of a lesson a skill, ability, or outcome. Bad examples: List ten market segmentation dimensions, explain the Versailles Treaty. Good examples: Analyze your last coffee purchase for market positioning, show how to start a car on a hill.
Step #4: Enter your curriculum into the app
(You don't have to do all up front. You can fill lessons in as the fastest student gets close.)
Step #5: Test and refine
Test lessons with students, refine based on feedback, and iterate them quickly.
Step #6: Run your classes as learning labs.
Pair students with the app. Track their progress in the app. Walk around the room to nurture your learning community.

How to design peer-mentor suitable mini-lessons

Less one-way lecture, more interactive
Unlike traditional teaching, peer mentors thrive on hands-on, task-based lessons. Center a lesson around an ability, outcome, or exercise.
Small, concrete lessons
Mentors are inspired when they have a small, concrete teaching task.
From information to abilities
Shift from transferring information to students to developing abilities in students (e.g. critical analysis of historic sources).
Test on students
It's hard to anticipate how students react to teaching lessons. Try them out, incorporate, and iterate. Expect to redo a lesson 2-3 times until it clicks with students.

Sample Curriculums

App Demo Videos

Student tour

Instructor tour

Learning Lab Onboarding

Invitation

The learning lab teaching format is very innovative and novel. If you are curious, reach out. We are actively looking for education partners to showcase and adopt the learning lab format. We are happy to help out with advice, curriculum design, and running learning labs. We are located in NYC.

Contact: thomas@learninglab.fans

Documents

Pitch deck