Learning through Teaching

Most people are familiar with learning through books or in classes or from teachers and peers, but many overlook perhaps the most thorough learning experience – teaching. The best test of whether or not you really understand a concept is trying to teach it to someone else. You cannot just "kind of get it" or know it just well enough to get by on a test; teaching calls for complete understanding of the concept.

You cannot teach it because you do not really "know" it after all. When learning, we can fool ourselves into believing we have a complete grasp of an idea before we really understand it. If we can do a couple problems, we think we are set; however, we might have only seen such easy problems that we did not hit the boundary of our understanding. Teaching removes this possibility of self-deceit. More accurately, your would-be students will remove it. They will ask the questions, along with all sorts of "What ifs" you will not be able to handle without mastery of what you are teaching. It is being forced to grapple with these challenging questions, and figuring the answers out for yourself so you can explain them to others, that make teaching such a powerful tool for cementing your understanding of a subject. By teaching someone, we gain a greater appreciation and more profound understanding of something ourselves.

Teaching also forces you to communicate your thoughts clearly and precisely. As our society becomes ever more interlocked and interdependent, cooperation becomes more and more important. This cooperation requires communication; however, being heard is not enough. You must also be understood. Your ideas will never be more effective than your ability to make others comprehend them. Teaching helps you develop the extremely important skill of describing your ideas well enough for others to use them.