The Teaching and Explanation Pattern

Unit ID: PAW-M09-U04 Estimated active time: 20-25 minutes

The family

Explaining something to someone who does not know it, making study material, checking your own understanding, preparing to brief a colleague.

The defining feature is that the reader's existing knowledge is the main design constraint.

What this family gets wrong

Explanations that are fluent, correct-sounding and pitched at nobody — too much assumed for a beginner, too laboured for someone who half knows it.

And confident explanations of things the tool has partly wrong, which are harder to spot in an area you are learning.

The pattern

PATTERN: teaching and explanation

Use when:        the reader's starting knowledge is the main constraint
Do not use when: you cannot judge whether the explanation is correct

Slots
  Reader:        what they already know, in specifics
  Goal:          what they should be able to do afterwards
  Length:        how long they will spend
  Sticking point: what people usually get wrong here

Fixed rules
  - assume exactly what I listed and no more
  - one worked example before any general rule
  - name the common misunderstanding explicitly
  - end with two questions that test understanding, with answers
  - do not use an analogy that requires knowledge I did not list

Output spec:  worked example | the rule | the common mistake | two questions
Review:       check the worked example against a source you trust
Known failure: explanations of unfamiliar material sound equally confident
               whether right or wrong -- verify before teaching from it

The sticking-point slot does the work

Naming what people usually get wrong turns a generic explanation into a useful one.

If you do not know the sticking point, that is worth finding out first — from a colleague, or from the questions you have been asked before.

Do not learn from it unverified

This pattern is safe for explaining what you already understand to someone else.

It is risky for learning something new, because you cannot check it. Use it to generate questions to take to a source, not as the source.

Mini practice

Take something you understand well and explain it with the pattern.

Check the worked example.

Then try the same pattern on something you do not know, and count how much you would have to verify before using it.

Mark complete