Learning by teaching arts. How to convert the scarcity of resources in learning opportunities

Abstract

This article testifies a learning experience that originated because of the formative needs for Plastic arts department at Centro de Educación Artística “Miguel Cabrera” (artistic education center) at Oaxaca (México). From a workshop proposal offered by a local institution, but in which only half of the students can take part. A peer tutoring project was proposed, where half of the students participate in the workshop mentioned above, acquiring the contents, so that the students who were not able to attend the workshop (tutees) get the information and knowledge from their classmates. The experience provides the opportunity to consider that if the necessary conditions are given for students to develop their mediation capabilities (teaching their classmates), educational institutions can transform the classrooms into communities of learners where the students not only learn from the teacher, but also from the mutual pedagogical support provided. Also the rigorous implementation of peer tutoring, as described, can be used on a sustained basis, exploiting the environment resources, in this case the local institution that will provide in the future limited places in their workshops, where the students who could not attend on this occasion will be the next tutors.