Learn by teaching: the AI that only knows what you teach it

Why teaching something is the best way to learn it

Reading notes again feels productive, but it mostly builds familiarity. Explaining an idea to someone else forces you to organise it, put it in your own words and notice the parts you can't explain. Learning scientists call the benefit of preparing to teach the protégé effect, and the study method built on it is often called the Feynman technique: explain a concept simply, find where your explanation breaks down, then go back and fill the gap.

The hard part has always been finding someone to teach. Classmates are busy, parents may not know the topic, and explaining to an empty room gives you no feedback. Teach Echo gives every student a patient learner that asks real questions and shows them, precisely, what their explanation missed.

How Teach Echo works

A lesson with Echo takes about five to ten minutes and has three parts.

• Teach: pick a topic from your subjects, or type any topic you're studying, and explain it in your own words. You can type or explain out loud with the microphone.
• Answer Echo's questions: Echo says back what it understood and asks one question at a time, about a gap, a word you didn't explain or the reason behind a claim. If you teach it something wrong, it believes you and innocently follows it to a strange conclusion, so you spot the problem yourself.
• Test Echo: Echo sits a short quiz using only what you taught. Each answer has to quote your own words or it counts as a guess, so a wrong answer always points back to something your explanation missed.

A teaching report that shows exactly what to fix

After the quiz, the report shows what Echo now believes about each idea next to what the idea really means, which ideas it learned, half-learned, mixed up or never heard about, what you explained well and what to teach better next time. One button sends you back to teach Echo the gaps.

Because Echo can only use your words, the report measures your understanding rather than your ability to look things up. It is a revision tool you can't copy your way through.

Echo evolves as it learns from you

Every lesson earns XP for the ideas you taught well and the quiz answers Echo got right. As Echo levels up it evolves through four forms: Spark, Glow, Scholar and finally Professor. You also collect a sticker for each subject where you teach a topic well enough for Echo to score 75% or more.

Echo also forgets. A topic you taught starts to fade from Echo's memory after a week, and teaching it again refreshes it for both of you. That is spaced practice, the habit that makes knowledge last until exam day, built into a game.

Topics you can teach

Teach Echo includes ready-made topics for MYP Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Extended Mathematics, English Language and Literature, History, and Individuals and Societies, each with the key ideas Echo needs to learn and quiz questions with explanations. You can also type any other topic and Echo prepares its own checklist and quiz.

Teach Echo compared with other ways to revise

Different study methods suit different moments. Here is where learning by teaching fits.

For teachers

Teach Echo is part of Refyn, the learning platform built for IB MYP schools. It gives students a way to check understanding before a test without anyone writing their work for them, and it sits alongside Refyn's guided AI tutor, practice questions and teacher tools.

Meet the IB MYP AI tutor

Frequently asked questions

What is a learn-by-teaching app?

A study app where you learn a topic by explaining it to someone else, here an AI. Teaching forces you to organise ideas in your own words and reveals the gaps in your understanding. Teach Echo adds a quiz that the AI sits using only what you taught.

Is Teach Echo the Feynman technique?

It's built on the same idea: explain a concept simply, find where the explanation breaks down and fill the gap. Teach Echo supplies the curious listener, asks the follow-up questions and turns the gaps into a clear report.

Can Echo just look up the answers?

No. Echo only uses what you taught it in the lesson. Every quiz answer has to quote your own words; if it can't, the answer counts as a guess.

What happens if I teach Echo something wrong?

Echo believes you and follows the idea to its consequences, which often sounds odd enough for you to notice the mistake. On the quiz, the wrong idea leads to a wrong answer, and the report shows which idea was mixed up.

Can I explain out loud instead of typing?

Yes. Use the microphone button to explain out loud in browsers that support speech input, and Echo can read its replies aloud too.

Which topics can I teach Echo?

Ready-made topics cover MYP Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Extended Mathematics, English Language and Literature, History, and Individuals and Societies. You can also type any topic you're studying.

How do Echo's levels and stickers work?

Lessons earn XP for ideas taught well and quiz answers Echo gets right. Echo evolves at levels 3, 5 and 7, and you win a subject's sticker when Echo scores 75% or more on one of its topics.

Can I try Teach Echo without an account?

Yes. Open the live demo as a student and choose Teach Echo in the sidebar. It runs on sample data in your browser.

Keep exploring

• The IB MYP AI tutor: Guided hints instead of answers, built around MYP criteria.
• Try the live demo: Teach Echo yourself, no account needed.
• Help centre: How Teach Echo works, step by step.