People learn better from those at their own level-such as fellow students or co-workers-than from those at a higher level, such as teachers or supervisors.

Learning is a continuous process and we learn from multiple sources. Some lessons can be learned better from peers and some can be better understood from experienced persons. Whether we learn better from those at our same level or from one at higher level, is largely determined by type of learning. Learning requiring specialized knowledge be learned easily from experienced persons. Where learning such as social skills can be understood better by observing our friends.

In order to learn some specialized knowledge, we need to learn from person who is adapt at imparting knowledge about it. For instance, subject like math can only be learned from an experienced teacher. One needs to have in depth knowledge about the subject. In such case our friends won't be able to help us to learn such concepts. They will be at same level as us and so they can't help us to understand something new. Similarly if we want to learn some new skills, we can only seek help of someone who has used those skills. For instance, I wish to learn surf boarding. None of my friends know about it. So in such case I have no option but to learn from an trained person in using it. Thus I have to look for help from person who is at a higher level than me in that skill. Moreover when we take a new job we won't be accustomed to the new environment. It may be possible that most employees in our division are newly hired. In such scenario, we can't look up to them to help us settle in new environment. Here supervisor will be able to help us. As he would have got to this high post only after getting some experience in company, he will be able to help us with adjusting to new environment of company.

On the other hand, some things are such that we can't have special classes for them. They can only learned by observing people around us. For instance, if we go to a new country than we will have to observe traditions of that country. We can only learn about such skills by observing our friends or co-workers at work place. By gradually observing them we can fit into the new culture. As learning about cultures need us to be present in wide range of scenario, only friends can help us with that. To further illustrate the point, consider a scenario where we want to learn a new language. Here instructor can help by giving basic information about language, but he won't be able to cover the full depth. The actual use of language can only be learned if we interact with people using that language in daily life.

We can find many sources of inspiration from which we can learn new things and skills. Who can be considered best teacher can only be determined by type of skills we need to learn. Skills requiring specialized training can be learned better from an experienced person, but skills used in day to day life can be best learned from people around us who use them regularly.