Why asking commitment to teach someone works well?

From David Gurteen comments to Uncovering the implicit (a bit late to notice :-)

One of the things that Stephen Covey does before a workshop is to get the members of the audience to commit to teaching within the next week or so – the material they are about to learn – as this changes their mindset when they are learning becuase they know they need to understand it well if they are to teach it and they will furthr consolidate that learning wehn they come to teach it … there is probably a good reference or quote from Stephen somewhere – I will look out for one …

First, as David says it helps to get more serious attitude towards learning. Next, it helps with learning transfer and application, as teaching someone else

• requires to come back to the material and to do it in the work settings (why it works)
• requires being a role model and gives extra motivation for practicing
• creates a group of people “talking one language”, which makes it easier to apply new knowledge and skills rather than simply returning to the old habits.

So powerful! Definitely something to use in my practice.

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2002/08/22.html#a150; comments are here.

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