Teach to Six
A simple mnemonic framework — Simple language, It's a bit like, eXamples — that turns explaining a concept to a six-year-old into a reliable test of how well you truly understand it.
This is the key framework for communicating their learning and a valuable technique from the Talk for Learning philosophy.
Teach to Six is a structure that makes it really easy to see how well you understand a topic, concept or idea. The idea comes from the quote (possibly wrongly) attributed to Einstein:
If you can’t explain it to a six year old then you don’t understand it properly yourself.
SIX acts as a useful mnemonic for the process.
S — Simple Language
Students are forbidden from using any words in their explanations that would be outside the vocabulary of a typical six year old. This reinforces Feynman’s and Einstein’s approaches and avoids students masking their lack of deep understanding of a topic by using technical language.
A key question to ask is this: does the introduction of this word add any understanding? Or is it just a definition?
I — It’s a bit like…
This is the concept of Analogy. It’s far better to say what things are like than to introduce them ‘in vacuo’. This is what all learners do anyway whenever you are introducing them to a new concept.
The mind is constantly trying to make sense of the new information in relation to all the information it currently has. A deliberate use of analogy can ease this transition, especially if many different analogies are used.
X — eXamples
It’s a bit of a fudge, but examples are so important. Newton famously said ‘Examples are of more use than precepts when learning the sciences.’
It’s critical to remind the explainer that examples are key to embed this learning into the learner’s set of well-understood concepts.
So, the Teach to Six Framework provides a systematic way of making sure all students become expert explainers.