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Order To Really Understand Something Well, You Must Be Able To Explain or Teach It To A Child

The Feynman Technique is a 4-step process for learning any topic quickly by explaining it simply to others as if teaching a child. The steps are to identify a topic, write down existing knowledge, teach the topic simply to someone else, and refine the explanation until it is simple enough for a child to understand, going back to materials to address any gaps.

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Cheska Mae Magalong
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142 views2 pages

Order To Really Understand Something Well, You Must Be Able To Explain or Teach It To A Child

The Feynman Technique is a 4-step process for learning any topic quickly by explaining it simply to others as if teaching a child. The steps are to identify a topic, write down existing knowledge, teach the topic simply to someone else, and refine the explanation until it is simple enough for a child to understand, going back to materials to address any gaps.

Uploaded by

Cheska Mae Magalong
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The 

Feynman Technique is a simple learning method and 4-step process


for understanding any topic or concept quickly and effectively. Some
people call it a method for how to learn anything fast, and it really is one of
the best learning techniques out there.

Essentially, the Feynman Technique can be quickly described as such: In


order to really understand something well, you must be able to explain or
teach it to a child. 

The first step in the Feynman learning process is to think of a subject you’d
like to learn or a topic you think you’d like to test yourself for understanding.

Once you identify a topic, take out a blank sheet of paper. Write out
everything you know about the subject you want to understand as if you were
teaching it to a child.

As you learn more about the topic, add it to your sheet. Often people find it
helpful to use a different color pen so you can see your learning grow.

Once you think you understand the topic,

The next step in Feynman’s system on how to learn things quickly is to


teach what you know about your chosen topic to a child. Now, you don’t
have to find an actual child, of course. Rather, explain your understanding
of the topic to someone else in as simple a way as possible, so simple
even a child could grasp the concept. Use your sheet as a reference and try
to remove any jargon or complexity. Only use simple words. Only use words
a child would understand. Anyone can make a subject
complicated but only someone who understands can
make it simple.
The third step in the Richard Feynman Technique is to go over the
explanation you just gave. Read it out loud as if to a child. If the explanation
isn’t simple enough or sounds confusing, that’s a good indication that you
need to reflect and refine.

Go back to the source material, reviewing the parts you don’t quite
understand yet.
Repeat until you have a simple explanation.

The Feynman Technique is considered to be a simple learning method for


understanding things quickly and easily. However, it’s really more like a
self-assessment method to test your understanding of something you
learned rather than a full-fledged method of learning. Either way, it is quite
a useful concept to know for understanding anything, whether you’re in
high school, college, in the professional world, or during your everyday life.

One of the main benefits of the Feynman learning process is that it denies
memorization from playing a large role, if you do it right. While memorizing
material is a prerequisite for learning anything, it doesn’t itself imply
understanding. Using analogies and simple language to explain your
chosen topic to a child, however, goes much further in proving your topic
knowledge.

Finally, the easiest way to learn something new is to have an interest and
to explore it deeply.

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