You learnt a whole chapter, practiced the problems, and you are confident that you understand it very well. But the next day, when the teacher asked you about it, your mind shut off completely, and the logic and words fell behind. This has happened to us all. This is because there are gaps in your understanding of that concept. This is where you can use the Feynman method to clear out your gaps in learning and learn it all.
The Feynman method is one of the most effective methods to develop a deep understanding and quickly learn any subject. This is a learning strategy developed by Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman. Albert Einstein once quoted – ‘If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.’ Which basically means that if you want to understand something well, try to explain it simply. When you explain something in simpler terms, you will realize where you have a good understanding of that concept. You will also be able to get the general idea of the gap areas, because they will be the areas where you would get stuck for sure. This is the idea behind the Feynman Method.
Richard Phillips Feynman (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988), who strategized the Feynman method, was not only a Nobel Laureate but also an American theoretical physicist. He was definitely a brilliant guy, best known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, particle physics, and whatnot. Feynman received the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Julian Schwinger and Shinichiro Tomonaga in 1965.
According to Richard Feynman, what made him Richard Feynman wasn’t some kind of innate intelligence but the systematic way in which he threw himself into understanding things from inside and out. He said,
‘There’s no miracle people. It just happens they got interested in this thing, and they learned all this stuff. There’s just people.’
Feynman’s secret lay in understanding the core knowledge of a concept rather than merely knowing its name, leading to his remarkable achievements. This learning method can be applied anywhere, irrespective of the subject.
The Feynman method is a simple method built around four key steps: choosing a concept, teaching a toddler, identifying gaps, and reviewing and simplifying. Now, let’s start with a blank page and delve into these steps:
- Step 1- Choose a concept: Select a subject and then a topic you want to learn. Write its name at the top of a blank page. Then, do a little study on it.
- Step 2- Teach a toddler: After studying it, write an explanation of the concept in your own words. Explain with simple language as if you were teaching your baby brother. This is the core of this method.
- Step 3- Identify gaps: As you teach, you will find some gaps in the explanation. These are your knowledge gaps. Go back to your source material and restudy the areas where the gaps are.
- Step 4- Review and Simplify: Once finished filling up the gaps, rewrite your explanation in an even simpler way. You can use analogies, stories, or anything easy to remember. Repeat the process until your explanation is clear and easy to understand.
In the Feynman method, you learn something by breaking down topics into chunks and explaining them, which helps in filling the gaps. This reinforces your brain through active recalling, making the concept understandable. It is like building a house made of bricks. If every concept is a brick, then when you understand and explain one, you add a brick to the house and ultimately build the whole house. That means gaining a full understanding of that concept.
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Writer,
Ifraat Jahan Esha
Intern, Content Writing Department
YSSE