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The best way to learn something? Teach it.

79 pointsby delwinabout 13 years ago

17 comments

capexabout 13 years ago
This tendency to learn by teaching has also given rise to a class of people who start teaching on their websites and blogs a little too early. They haven't yet got the right intuition, and still try to teach their audience, which leads to wrong assumptions or false answers/ conclusions. Sal is in complete contrast to this, coz he is so well prepared on the subject he is teaching. And he has a depth of knowledge of his subjects which anyone just learning it can't hope to have.
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abraxaszabout 13 years ago
I'm experiencing something similar.<p>Many universities have some kind of "teaching assistantship" or "teaching fellowship", that is, they pay students who've already taken the class (or a similar class) to teach and hold office hours for other students.<p>This was my first semester doing it, and I learned quite a lot on a subject I thought I already knew very well. The thing is, when you have to teach something to someone during a section (or recitation, or whatever you call it) or during office hours, you must be prepared to answer unexpected questions, or explain the difference between two concepts that are very close. Best of all, you must come up with different examples and mental representations of your subject, hoping that one of the approaches will resonate with some students.<p>Now some mentioned the fact that certain bloggers where going live way too early. Well, my guess is that they can do it because they don't receive real feedback. And no, a comment is not the same as a student telling you that you don't know what you're talking about. You don't want to become a TA to early, lest you make a fool of yourself, and trust me if students can burn you, they will (although most of them are really nice people, they tend to loose patience when confronted with incompetence, as most of us do).<p>But the process of writing down some kind of explanation in a clear way is still a good thing. Often, when I'm programming and come up with a neat way of doing something, I write a blog post about it, but I usually don't publish it for the same reason many of you mentioned. Publishing a post would require thinking more about the subject, trying different approaches, testing the code for edge cases, etc, etc.. all things I don't have time to do. But it doesn't matter, writing is enough to wrap my mind around the subject.
louischatriotabout 13 years ago
I couldn't agree more. I saw that in two situations:<p>- I started blogging recently, and found that having to actually write my thought in an organized way forces me to really learn and understand the topic<p>- When I was a student preparing for a competitive exam (one where your rank determines the school you go to and the other students in your class take it "against" you), some people refused to help others, thinking they would beat them in the exam. In fact, I found that helping other actually helps you even more, and overall, the "helping students" fared much better in the exam
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ericHosickabout 13 years ago
This is something I learned in my Grad. Cert. class when I started lecturing at a University (for a few years).<p>We retain:<p>5% from lecture.<p>10% from reading.<p>20% from audio-visual.<p>30% from demonstration.<p>50% from group discussion.<p>75% from practice.<p>90% from teaching.<p>(above copied from somewhere but there is a lot of information on this subject: John Biggs is a good source).<p>I would have students lecture classes for me (I would have them lecture to me the day before to make sure they had the lessons figured out).
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awyabout 13 years ago
This is why I'm a contributor on Stack Overflow.<p>The more I teach others, the more I learn myself.
creamyhorrorabout 13 years ago
This is a relatively well known technique already. In college, lecturers/professors often deploy it - we students would do the reading &#38; research, then present the topic to the class with interactive questions where possible. (We didn't ever worry about not quite getting it right, perhaps because the prof was there to correct us.) It works fairly well for the actual sub-area you're assigned to work on, but you don't learn so much about your teammates' sub-areas (expectedly). And you learn even less from other teams' presentations, unless you're an excellent learner anyway.<p>Still, it's a good reminder to take the teaching approach wherever practical.
K2habout 13 years ago
I totally agree that teaching a topic forces you to learn it much better than static consumption.<p>But... Probably the absolute best way to learn something is have a deadline where you have something to lose.<p>That's why I have moved to volunteering to teaching training courses whenever I can.. It forces me to learn it better than anyone, and the pressure of losing reputation if you get up and make a fool out of yourself is a great motivator to get it right. When you are done, you find you learned it faster than anyone, and are now the expert.
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pinaceaeabout 13 years ago
gives the phrase "those who can't, teach" a whole new meaning...
zbyabout 13 years ago
This might be good to way to weed out all the weak points in your thinking - but for a more beginner phase I recommend organizing panel discussions instead.
nickloewenabout 13 years ago
I wholeheartedly agree with this.<p>However, I think it's weak that the 'best example' is to 'hazard a guess' that Sal Khan learns more from teaching than just reading. There's no actual evidence in that statement, it's effectively just backing up 'I think' with 'I think.' I find it disappointing because I'm sure there are good arguments that could be made for his point.
frr149about 13 years ago
That's so true. I noticed this when I started teaching iOS development (both on my own and at The Big Nerd Ranch). Teaching a subject forces you to see it from many different perspectives, as many as students you have. It still astonishes me the completely different ways each person approaches a same subject.
ma2rtenabout 13 years ago
This is notabene part of the model that universities are build on: Students learn from those who know (arguably) the most about a subject matter; those who do research in that area. However that relationship is mutually beneficial.
easterisleabout 13 years ago
This is a point that I take to heart but I find it difficult to make that last step to show others what I've learned out of fear of being factually incorrect. How do you overcome this hurdle?
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sparknlaunch12about 13 years ago
There is a lot of truth in this article. Most things I remember are bits of information I have had to tell others about. Maybe schools should adopt this technique for helping kids learn?
iamtoby2003about 13 years ago
teaching is still a bit different than deeply understanding it. when i was in high school, i always tried to teach my younger sister what i have learned in class when i got home hoping it will help me remember stuff. but over time i found out rememebering is still different than understanding. to understand better, u might have to sit in front of desk alone and put alot of thoughts on what u learn quietly.
imcontroversialabout 13 years ago
Oh, definitely. That's how I learnt Japanese. Not sure my students got that much out of it, though.
lassecausenabout 13 years ago
I once heard about 3 levels of knowledge: 1. Understanding 2. Remembering 3. Being able to teach
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