If you can't teach someone a subject in simple terms, you definitely don't understand it well yourself. We often don't understand things the way we think we do. How many times have you thought you learned something, but later you couldn't quite remember it or explain it to someone else? A simple and practical way to fill this knowledge gap is the Feynman technique.

What is the Feynman technique?

The Feynman Technique is a well-known learning method that can increase the brain's capacity to understand a challenging idea and create deep learning methods. With this method, new ideas can be quickly reached and knowledge gaps that may exist can be filled. This technique is named after Richard Feynman, an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize. He had a very rare talent that allowed him to convey different and quite complex things to others in words that were easier to understand. According to him, if you can't explain a complex concept in a simpler way, you probably don't understand it well yourself. In other words, teaching others can be the best way for you to learn. If you have useful ideas that you want to remember or you want to study in a faster and more efficient way, Feynman's learning technique can be effective, so it is better to include it in your study plan. One of the most important things to remember is that if you want to fully understand a subject, you should try to explain it in simple terms. When you try to explain something simply, then you can tell if you have a good understanding of it or not.

Richard Feynman claims that any concept can be learned with this relatively simple 4-step method. In simpler words, this technique is one of the best methods and solutions for learning.

 Choose your topic.

 Teach it to someone else.

 Review your description.

 Simplify your description.

This technique can be a useful tool for students who have difficulty understanding complex and specific topics. Since the most important point in this method is explaining the concept, it can be used in different ways; Including explaining to friends and family. However, people may not always be ready to hear what you have to say. Therefore, as a backup plan, you can use a notebook and a pen.

 First, write down the idea or concept you need to learn.

 Now you have to define the topic in your own language. Act as if you are going to teach it to someone. Be careful to explain everything simply and clearly. Try to do this with an example if necessary.

 Now double-check the description and look for things that you think need more clarification and simplification. Then read it completely to understand more and better.

 Make sure your explanations are in such a way that even people with little knowledge of the subject can understand it using simpler terms and words.

Is learning through the Feynman technique more effective?

It seems that Feynman's learning technique is one of the easiest ways to quickly and effectively understand and learn concepts that are difficult to learn. If you use this method correctly, the need for memorization is largely eliminated. Although memorization is essential to learning topics, it does not guarantee that you have fully grasped the concept. The requirement to improve knowledge is to describe the subject using appropriate analogies and simpler language.

How to learn material with the Feynman technique

From the teachers' point of view, this technique is almost similar to the process of preparing a speech. You think you know the topic of your speech, but when you think about what you're going to say, you realize there are details you need to go over, or that you recognize parts that students are asking about, but you don't know about. The best way to answer questions you're not entirely sure about.

When Richard Feynman came up with the idea, "If you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it," he was actually trying to prepare for a speech to freshmen. Since then, people have expanded on the idea, trying to explain something to "a five-year-old" or "a bright middle schooler." This technique does not target an audience of a certain age. But the younger the audience, the more you need to simplify. If you simplify the content so much that all the important details are missed, it can backfire. If you were to tell a two-year-old what a vaccine is, you would say, "The doctor is putting some medicine into your body so you don't get sick," but if you were to explain vaccines to a ten-year-old, you would have to talk about how the medicine can prevent illness. Take it, talk. Also, in the meantime, you may also want to discuss the effectiveness of the vaccine; Like vaccines are not a guarantee against disease.

If you wish, you can repeat the first and second steps of the Feynman technique many times. Explain the topic out loud or type in the notes section of your mobile phone, then review and repeat the difficult parts. The third and fourth steps are only necessary when you want to explain the matter to someone else. Organizing your notes is also important because you need to know where to start. The way we think about a subject is often in the form of a series of nested thoughts in which addressing one thought leads us to deeper thoughts, but in order to have a clear and transparent explanation, we must separate all those parts and Put it in a path that can be followed. Feynman's technique can be used to study almost anything, such as a new sport, historical events, or a foreign language. In the continuation of this article, we intend to study and teach the game of chess according to the advantages and limitations of Feynman's technique by using the formula mentioned above (that is, study, training, identification of knowledge gaps and simplification).

First step: study the topic

The first step to learning a new subject is to have a notebook or laptop, a pen or keyboard and a paper screen or monitor screen. First, we start by writing the information we already had about chess. No matter how trivial this information may seem. Knowing what we don't know at the very beginning is a good starting point for further study and research. It may be that the only knowledge we have about chess is knowing the number of pieces and how they move on the chessboard. However, Feynman's technique is not just about taking notes, thinking about facts, but rather about analyzing and classifying what we learn. This helps us structure our studies and prioritize some aspects over others.

In the case of our example, chess, such a structure could include the history of the game (such as when chess was invented and the most prominent players), the different types of chess (such as no-time chess vs. speed chess), its rules (how and when each piece moves) and, of course, strategic aspects (the best way to maintain the security of the king's piece).

If you follow these guidelines, it will not be difficult for you to learn new concepts.

The first stage of Feynman's technique is quite dynamic and intuitive. It requires you to record and organize knowledge and information as well as make connections with new material that becomes available to you. This technique is different from simply and passively memorizing facts. That being said, there is still room for improvement.

 The second stage of this technique involves teaching what you have learned, for this it is better to pay attention to these three principles:

 Define the initial scope of what you want to learn and learn. Prioritize the most important aspects and divide the categories into something like a syllabus. For example, you might prioritize the rules of chess and break them down into how individual pieces move. Try not to transfer educational materials to others in one meeting.

 Prepare training materials. Even if you're only going to give an hour-long lecture on the topic, think about what pictures, charts, graphs, etc. you can use. For example, bring the equipment you need for chess and think about how you want to use it for training.

 Set learning objectives for each lesson. After each session, what should students know that they didn't know before? For example, how the king and queen can move and trap other pieces. The more specific your goals are, the better you can tell if your efforts have been successful.

Second step: teaching the subject

Now you've reached the tricky part of Feynman's technique. The second step requires you to teach what you just learned. Teaching a real person is both more effective and more challenging than an imaginary person because it determines whether you really know what you're talking about. If you do it well, your experience will be interactive and your learning outcomes will be challenged. You are forced to more or less clarify and explain the details, answer questions, unpack technical terms and consider perspectives that you did not even think about. For this reason, this seems like a good time to ask yourself if your main goal is to learn the subject and your students are just a means to an end, or if you really want to teach them so that both of you benefit from the experience. become

Although the second approach has more advantages, either option is fine as long as everyone agrees. At best, teachers teach what they know, not because they want to learn it. Knowing how to teach is another difficult part of the job. So be aware of how you teach because you may not know how you teach chess to others.

Step 3: Identify knowledge gaps

No matter how prepared you are, students will always find a way to find gaps in your knowledge. Your job is to spot those gaps while you teach, and then go back to your desk to study them. Did you do everything right, or did you accidentally invent a new form of chess? Perhaps a smart student would have known that the king's piece can sometimes move two houses instead of one. Do you know the small castle and big castle tactic which is an important tactic to keep the king's piece safe? If not, you need to review important chess rules and strategies again. In fact, in the third stage, we face an additional challenge, and that is to identify the type of knowledge gap that you are facing. Ask yourself: What things and information about chess do you not know and what gaps arise from your lack of expertise in teaching? You may have a thorough understanding of the basic rules of chess, but lack a methodical approach to imparting your knowledge. As a result, this gives you a false sense of mastery over the game. In other words, you don't even know if Feynman's technique works for you.

Fourth step: further simplification

Up to this point, you've actually laid the groundwork by learning a subject from scratch. By teaching, you put your knowledge to the test and fill your knowledge gaps. Now is the time to have a general look at the subject again. Browse and see what you know about the game of chess. Notes, classifications, definitions, structure, explanations, illustrations and examples, do they all make sense to you, and most importantly, do you still know anything else related to them?

According to the Feynman technique, you now need to simplify everything you have learned. Often, in this regard, reference is made to teaching the subject to a young child. In the example of chess, this technique forces you to question all aspects and situations of the game, analyze all the terms of the game, and analyze everything based on basic principles. For example, a child at the lowest level of learning can identify and point to the piece known as the minister, move it according to the rules, and understand how and why placing the minister on the board is a threat to the opponent's king. Education is highly interactive and involves the ability to teach students to acquire knowledge and skills that they can apply in the real world.

Limitations of Feynman technique

Feynman's technique beautifully illustrates the interdependence between learning and teaching. While there is almost no limit to how far we can push this method, there are limits to how practical it can be. One of these limitations is interaction. Who really spends hours learning how to teach chess and following your footsteps so that you become proficient in playing chess?

However, Feynman's technique appears to be an effective learning method. It forces us to take responsibility not only for our own learning, but also for the learning of others. Because we are somehow involved in the story, we have to understand a subject in the simplest terms. The least achievement of the above technique is that it can be an ideal way to try to reach the goal.