Harness the Power of
Learning-by-Teaching...
...without teaching!

by Alan Pritt

This article is a twist on the concept that we learn by teaching. The technique I will describe is something I have been using all my life without realising its power. I always thought I was a bit weird for doing this, but recently I realised the benefit it has been providing.

Once I realised I did it for a reason I felt less self conscious about it and told others. It turns out I'm not alone!

Before I get into the actual technique, I want to give some background so you can understand why it works. In fact this background can be used as a technique in itself... but we're going to be taking it a stage further.

Teaching to Learn

Why do people decide to teach? The obvious answer is the selfless one. They want to help people learn about a subject, improve that student's life, and raise the knowledge of their community.

I think that answer is probably true in a lot of cases. It does feel good to see other people benefiting from your knowledge.

But there is another answer:

They are passionate about their subject, and they like talking about it.

For the same reason we chat about our favourite movies, a cool new band we are listening to, or the latest celebrity gossip, we also like talking about our specialist subjects.

Teachers have a captive audience. Whether it is a student being held captive by the school system, or a businessman listening to a marketing seminar; the teacher has an audience that is listening attentively.

When someone decides to teach, they are looking for people that will listen to them talk about their favourite subject.

What benefit do they get from this?

When someone teaches a subject, they don't just pass on their knowledge; their knowledge actually improves.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. When you teach a subject you repeat what you have learnt to yourself. This repetition helps you memorise the information more deeply.
2. By verbalising the information, you awaken other parts of your brain which helps engrain the knowledge in different ways.
3. By teaching you reveal any gaps in your knowledge, or areas that you are unclear on. Once revealed, you can quickly fill these gaps.
4. In order to teach you must be able to organise the information in some coherent way. This forces you to organise that information clearly in your own mind.
5. The students act as a sounding board, while you explore the subject and make new insights.

What if nobody will listen to you?

Despite all the wonderful benefits, not everyone wants to become a professional teacher. Also: it's not always possible to find someone to listen to you.

Imagine you're at home studying your favourite subject: quantum physics. You've been reading for the past half hour and you suddenly decide you want to tap into the benefits of teaching the material.

So what do you do? Do you try to arrange an emergency tutoring session? Do you call up a friend and start explaining quantum physics to them? Do you start trying to teach your dog?

Actually the last one isn't too far off base.

As strange as it may seem, teaching your dog will produce most of the above benefits of teaching. Obviously the fact that it is your dog is not the benefit. The benefit comes because you are going through the motions of teaching.

All you need to do is imagine that you are teaching. Imagine you have an audience and you are giving a lecture on the subject you have just learnt. And play the role of the teacher. If you are alone you don't have to feel embarrassed. Just get up on your feet, move around, make hand gestures and speak aloud. Explain the subject to your reflection, your dog, or even your curtains! But for the best effects, imagine there is actually an audience there. If you don't imagine an audience you will act like you are talking to your furniture!

If you have done any kind of teaching (even if it is explaining to your dad how to program the video recorder), you have a basic grasp of what it takes to get a subject across. If not, you will certainly have had someone teach you something. This will give you a basic idea of what makes good or bad teaching. You can use this knowledge to your advantage. Think of your best teacher and do what they would do.

If you've never done this kind of thing before it will seem bizarre. You will likely feel foolish while you are doing it, and that embarrassment may hinder results. If this is the case, keep practicing until you get over 'the stupid factor'.

Give it a good test, and you will begin to see some results.

1. Obviously you will be repeating your new knowledge which will help you to remember it.
2. The fact that you are putting more energy into your memorisation, using all your body, and speaking aloud will further make that memory stronger.
3. You will be organising that information in your head, in a way that makes it useable in the future. Much of what we learn, we don't know how to use. This will make that knowledge powerful.
4. The fact that you are improvising over the subject means you will encounter new insights. When this happens, immediately stop teaching and quickly jot it down.
5. Frequently you will find that you don't know something as well as you thought you did. The teaching acts like a little test; but without the pressure or the need to plan questions.

You can even predict what kind of questions a student would ask, and answer them.

You can add further feedback by recording your performance and then listening or watching it over. Often this isn't worth the time and bother, but when you reach a good level of expertise it will help take you to another level.

Here are a couple of alternatives that you may also like to try:

1. Visualisation: do the exact same activity, but instead of getting up and teaching, just imagine you are doing it.
2. Write it down: When I write articles I often find I challenge my preconceptions and have to reorganise my understanding of the subject. Essay writing at university really does have many benefits, but it is useful to write for yourself as well.

Personally I use all three depending on the situation. I will for example, use visualisation if there are other people around. I'm not sure, for example, that the other passengers in my train carriage would appreciate a spontaneous lecture!

If anyone does give one of these spontaneous lectures, be sure to let me know how it went

|