Coaching practices for Prior Knowledge Probe

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

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

• I keep launching into explanations assuming people are starting from where I picture them, and I’m forever either talking over their heads or boring them with stuff they already know
• I dive straight into new material cold and it washes over me without anything to grab onto
• 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
• I can recite the what of this topic fine, but the moment I imagine a sharp beginner asking me why it works or what happens if you change one piece, I realize I have no answer
• A term jumps out as familiar so I assume I know what it means

Practices that may help

1. Ask what the audience already knows before explaining
   Probe prior knowledge explicitly rather than assuming it.
   The Curse of Knowledge: Why Experts Struggle to Teach
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
5. Source monitoring
   When you feel you know something, also ask yourself where you learned it and how recently.
   Feeling of Knowing: Why Your Confidence Misleads You
6. Recite: self-test from cue questions before re-reading
   Cover your main notes and attempt to answer each cue question from memory before uncovering the answers.
   Cornell Note-Taking: A System for Learning, Not Just Recording
7. Make the question precise, not generic
   Ask "why does THIS fact hold, given what I know?" rather than a vague "why?"
   Elaborative Interrogation: Ask "Why Is This True?"
8. Fresh-eyes inquiry: "What if I knew nothing about this?"
   Before engaging a familiar situation, ask what you would notice if you were seeing it for the first time.
   Beginner's Mind (Shoshin), Made Practical
9. 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
10. Retrieval-based JOL
    Base your confidence rating on whether you can recall the answer, not on whether the material feels familiar.
    Judgments of Learning: Why You Misjudge What You’ve Learned

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.