Coaching practices for Learning by Explaining

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Learning by Explaining, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I can get to the right answer but the second someone asks me to explain why I did it that way, I go blank
• I can explain it smoothly to myself, but I have a feeling I’m skipping right over the parts I don’t actually get
• When I explain this to an actual person and they say "wait, I don’t get it," I have to scramble for a whole different angle on the spot
• I read through the solved examples and they all make perfect sense as I go, but then I hit my own problem and realize I can’t actually do any of it
• I thought I understood this until I tried to actually say it out loud

Practices that may help

1. Articulation prompts
   Ask learners to explain their reasoning before, during, and after a task to surface and strengthen tacit knowledge.
   Cognitive Apprenticeship: Learning by Making Thinking Visible
2. Teach it to a real person
   Explain the concept to an actual listener who can ask questions back.
   The Feynman Technique, Step by Step
3. Teach a real peer and let them push back
   Explain to another person who can ask questions and say "I don’t get it."
   The Protege Effect: Learn It Better by Teaching It
4. Self-explain each step as you work through an example
   Pause after each step in a worked example and explain to yourself, in your own words, why that step was taken.
   The Worked Examples Effect: Learn Faster by Studying Solutions First
5. Explain it out loud to a real or imagined learner
   Actually say the explanation aloud, to a person, a pet, or an empty chair.
   The Protege Effect: Learn It Better by Teaching It
6. Self-explain at every step
   Pause after each idea and ask: "Why does this follow from the last point?"
   The Generation Effect: Why Making It Yourself Makes It Stick
7. Write the explanation, do not just think it
   Put the "why" in writing so vague mental hand-waving cannot pass as understanding.
   Elaborative Interrogation: Ask "Why Is This True?"
8. Pre-explanation rating with commitment
   Rate your understanding before attempting to explain — not after — and record the number.
   Illusion of Explanatory Depth: You Know Less Than You Think
9. Third-party explanation test
   Explain the concept to a person who knows nothing about it and let their questions expose your gaps.
   Illusion of Explanatory Depth: You Know Less Than You Think
10. Teach cases to solidify and test your own patterns
    Explaining your recognition logic to others forces the implicit to become explicit and exposes gaps.
    Recognition-Primed Decision Making

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