The Best Way To Learn Something Is To Teach It

TheBestWayToLearnSomethingIsToTeachIt has been part of my experience during more than 30 years working as a University Lecturer. In the course of preparing, lecturing or explaining, I get sometimes to have an AhHa moment myself. I also find that when I am teaching students to use software, they find a lot of error messages I have never seen before, and we all learn together about the software.

Another way is to attempt to implement an idea as code. I am interested in the idea of SoftwarePatterns and have learned a lot here. I would like more discussion of the implementation of the patterns. -- JohnFletcher

I agree. To teaching something, we have to ensure that we really understood it. And everything becomes TrivialOnceUnderstood. Teaching also avoids the problems of a PrivateLanguage by bringing it into the open and letting others dissect it. -- GunnarZarncke

I do not suggest doing TheBestWayToLearnSomethingIsToTeachIt in a short time-constrained course like a 5-day training course though. If you don't know it well enough and you have broadcast it to people whom you cannot come back to correct later, you are doing more harm to other people than good. Moreover, a 5-day training course can be overpriced. If you don't really know your stuff, the learners are getting ripped off. But the learners' companies might have paid for the course, in which case the companies are getting ripped off, maybe without realizing it.

CategoryEducation CategoryLearningMethods