Do you agree or disagree with the folloeing statement? People learn things better from those at their own level—such as fellow students or co-workers—than from those at higher level, such as teachers or supervisors. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Some people argue as if it is a general truth that people learn things better from those at their own level than from those at a higher level. But to be frank, I cannot agree with them. There are a few reasons why I hold no confidence on them.

The main problem with this argument is that it is ignorant of the basic fact that the people at a higher level such as teachers and supervisors are far more experienced in teaching than people at the same level. Taking the teachers as an example, they can always find the most efficient way to teach students in accordance with the students’ aptitude. Once two of my friends were weak in mathematics in high school and wanted to seek help from me. I was just able to list the important knowledge points for them and there was little effect. However, when they were encouraged to ask the Math teacher for advice, they improved a lot after some specific exercises because the teacher pointed out precisely that one of them was lacking in the ability to be logistic while another was bad in spatial thinking.

Another reason why I disagree with the statement is that I believe that some people thinking it better to learn from the fellows caused by their unwillingness to talk to the teachers. In other words, they are shy and shamed to show their weakness to the seemingly strict teachers. But in effect, the teachers will by no means laugh at their students. On the contrary, they will be very glad that the students are desired to improve themselves.

What’s more, there is a drawback when it comes to learning from the fellows compared to learning from the teachers. I mean, due to close relationship between the fellows, there will be no serious atmosphere during the period of teaching, which is bad for the efficiency. But it’s a default that listening and thinking carefully during the teacher’s lectures is a must.

In a word, I believe learning from teachers or supervisors is beneficial in the long term.