The most challenging method to learn

The wonderful Latin phrase — ‘Qui docet discit’ — ‘Who teaches learns’ — very elegantly expresses a powerful learning and teaching maxim, that:

A very good way to learn something is to teach it to someone else.

When we try to learn something ourselves, we usually try to understand and acquire the knowledge or skill in a simple direct way, typically using a single sense (reading, or listening).

This can be challenging, especially if the knowledge or skill is very new to us, and/or outside of our natural strengths and preferences. We also tend to try to replicate the knowledge — to copy it rather than interpret it — into our memory. We tend not to analyze what we are trying to learn any more than is absolutely necessary. We might use certain memorizing techniques also based on copying, such as verbal repetition, or writing it, to accelerate and reinforce the transfer of information into our own brains.

This type of learning can become boring and tedious. None of this helps us to be very aware of what and how we are learning, nor does it help us to assimilate the learning at a deep level.

When we are trying to learn something ourselves we tend to do it superficially, which means we are less likely to retain the knowledge/skills afterwards, unless we use and practice what we have learned.