Howard Johnson
Aug 9, 2017 · 1 min read

I came across this from Carlos Perez this morning, call the Feynman technique, and wondered if it might be a helpful pedagogical design for your purpose.

1. Pick a topic you want to understand and start studying it. Write down everything you know about the topic on a notebook page, and add to that page every time you learn something new about it.

2. Pretend to teach your topic to a classroom. Make sure you’re able to explain the topic in simple terms.

3. Go back to the books when you get stuck. The gaps in your knowledge should be obvious. Revisit problem areas until you can explain the topic fully.

4. Simplify and use analogies. Repeat the process while simplifying your language and connecting facts with analogies to help strengthen your understanding.

Feynman said that if you couldn’t explain it in Freshman terms (and this seems at least close to freshman levels) than either you or maybe the entire field really don’t understand it yet.

PS It’s my personal belief that common test questions aren’t the best way to assess understanding in this fashion, but as long as testing is a requirement, a substantial time must also be devoted to test prep.

    Howard Johnson

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    Pragmatist, Ed Psychologist, Win the future of Ed