Coaching practices for How to Prime Learning
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Prime Learning, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I dive straight into new material cold and it washes over me without anything to grab onto
- I lead straight in with my pitch and watch people’s guard go up before I’ve finished a sentence
- Whenever I hit something new I reach straight for the tutorial before I’ve even tried it myself, and I’m starting to wonder if grabbing the answer that fast is exactly why none of it ever sticks
- When I’m handed the rule up front it goes in one ear and out the other, but when I’ve been wrestling with the examples first and then the principle clicks, that’s the version that actually stays with me.
- I open a new topic and dive straight into reading, and the new material just slides off because there’s nothing already in my head for it to hook onto
Practices that may help
- Attempt to recall before studying new material
Try to answer questions about material before you’ve studied it — the attempt, even when wrong, enhances retention of the correct answer when it comes.
The Testing Effect: Why Retrieval Practice Beats Restudying - Channel attention to the relevant concept before the ask
Briefly focus the audience on a concept that makes your core message naturally follow.
Pre-Suasion, Made Practical - Attempt before instruction
Try to solve a new type of problem with your current knowledge before any formal teaching.
Productive Failure: How Struggling First Makes Instruction More Effective - Expose examples before naming the rule (inductive first)
Present several cases before stating the principle; let the learner induce the pattern.
Concrete Examples: How to Make Abstract Ideas Stick - Write what you already know before reading a topic
Before reading anything new, write down everything you already believe about the topic.
The Generation Effect: Why Making It Yourself Makes It Stick - Attempt problems before seeing the solution
Try to solve or answer a question before you are shown how — even if you fail.
The Generation Effect: Why Making It Yourself Makes It Stick - Prepare for the questions a learner would ask
Predict what would confuse a beginner and make sure you can answer it.
The Protege Effect: Learn It Better by Teaching It - Generation: attempt before you are taught
Try to solve or answer first, even if you get it wrong, before seeing the solution.
Make It Stick: The Science of Learning - Post-session reflection
Immediately after a learning session, evaluate what you learned, what strategies worked, and what to do next.
Self-Regulated Learning: Taking Control of How You Learn - Use what you couldn’t teach as your study list
The moments you fumbled while teaching are exactly what to go back and learn.
The Protege Effect: Learn It Better by Teaching It
Related concerns
- Prior Knowledge Learning
Before reading anything new, write down everything you already believe about the topic.
Write what you already know before reading a topic
- Why Try Before Learn
Try to solve or answer a question before you are shown how — even if you fail.
Attempt problems before seeing the solution
- Engagement Before Instruction
Connect the task to what the learner already cares about before asking them to work hard on it.
Recruit and sustain engagement before demanding effort
- Guessing Before Studying
Try to answer questions about material before you’ve studied it — the attempt, even when wrong, enhances retention of the correct answer when it comes.
Attempt to recall before studying new material
- Practice Past First Success
Collect your first successes where failure costs little — so the evidence base is strong before the stakes rise.
Accumulate mastery in low-stakes environments first
- Prior Knowledge Probe
Probe prior knowledge explicitly rather than assuming it.
Ask what the audience already knows before explaining
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