Certainly, we all have had moments where we explain something to someone. For a given Why...? or How come...? in a conversation, there is a natural reaction to answer that question (assuming one knows the answer), and this involves a teaching activity in a minor or mayor scale. Let's stop here for a moment. We have two main processes involved here: knowing and teaching.
It might be obvious for some people, but believe me, not for everyone. If you are going to teach something to someone, make sure you first know about the subject you are going to explain. Otherwise, you are about to propagate a wrong message/concept/idea to the people, and wrong ideas will be the perfect seed to wrong assumptions and further actions.
How to make sure we know about a certain topic? Contrast what we receive from different channels with original sources of information. A permanent contrast of information should be a mandatory activity in our life. Put that new information in practice, understanding the assumption used to build that explanations and what you can (and cannot) explain with that. (At this point, I'll keep in mind to write something about the important and holy act of understanding something in another post).
Then, and once again, assuming you understand a certain topic, it will come the moment of teaching it, maybe in a random conversation with friends, or at work, or to your grandma or son. Teaching is a fantastic activity because you share knowledge you have to one or multiple persons. It's a gift!, actually one of the wonderful gifts you can ever give/receive to/from another person. One doesn't need the typical elements a teacher has (blackboard, chalk, etc.) to teach something to someone, but I guess that's the classical picture one has in mind.
It might be obvious for some people, but believe me, not for everyone. If you are going to teach something to someone, make sure you first know about the subject you are going to explain. Otherwise, you are about to propagate a wrong message/concept/idea to the people, and wrong ideas will be the perfect seed to wrong assumptions and further actions.
How to make sure we know about a certain topic? Contrast what we receive from different channels with original sources of information. A permanent contrast of information should be a mandatory activity in our life. Put that new information in practice, understanding the assumption used to build that explanations and what you can (and cannot) explain with that. (At this point, I'll keep in mind to write something about the important and holy act of understanding something in another post).
Then, and once again, assuming you understand a certain topic, it will come the moment of teaching it, maybe in a random conversation with friends, or at work, or to your grandma or son. Teaching is a fantastic activity because you share knowledge you have to one or multiple persons. It's a gift!, actually one of the wonderful gifts you can ever give/receive to/from another person. One doesn't need the typical elements a teacher has (blackboard, chalk, etc.) to teach something to someone, but I guess that's the classical picture one has in mind.
Please keep in mind the following elements when teaching: Teach something just to yourself, aloud, and note the time it takes to make your point.
The previous step will give you the idea of the following:
- Pick the proper amount of phrases to explain something. Very few words are as bad as many words.
- Use several resources: your voice, pen and paper, body movements, examples (for example, graphs, pictures, clips, etc.).
- Verify with your audience that the message was understood. Otherwise, and this is so important, make sure you have another way (another example, other words, other resources) to explain the same topic. This, by the way, will make you to understand even more the topic you know.
The previous step will give you the idea of the following:
- Pick the proper amount of phrases to explain something. Very few words are as bad as many words.
- Use several resources: your voice, pen and paper, body movements, examples (for example, graphs, pictures, clips, etc.).
- Verify with your audience that the message was understood. Otherwise, and this is so important, make sure you have another way (another example, other words, other resources) to explain the same topic. This, by the way, will make you to understand even more the topic you know.
Richard Feynman, apart from a great physicist of the modern era, he was considered an extraordinary teacher who transmitted complex ideas in an extraordinary and clear way. His lecture books are very famous, and one can find recorded lectures and interviews in internet:
https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/
Richard has some remarkable phrases related to the act of teaching that I want to share with you:
"If you want to master something, teach it"
"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong."
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool".
"You do not know anything until you have practiced it".
See you around,
Jesús
https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/
Richard has some remarkable phrases related to the act of teaching that I want to share with you:
"If you want to master something, teach it"
"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong."
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool".
"You do not know anything until you have practiced it".
See you around,
Jesús