Learn to Teach: Why Explaining Skills Makes You Smarter

One of the best ways to learn something new is to try teaching it to someone else. It might seem counterintuitive at first - after all, you seek out a teacher when you want to learn, not the other way around. But countless students and experts have discovered a powerful truth: when you explain a concept or skill to another person, your own understanding deepens. This is often called the “protégé effect” - the idea that teaching others helps the teacher learn more effectively. As the old Latin proverb says, “by teaching, we learn.” Even Roman philosopher Seneca observed this two thousand years ago: “While we teach, we learn”.

Anyone who has ever helped a friend with homework or trained a new coworker can intuitively attest to this. In the act of teaching, you are forced to recall knowledge, organize your thoughts, and explain the material clearly. That process reveals how well you truly understand the subject. If there are gaps in your understanding, they tend to surface when you attempt to explain the topic. Thus, teaching acts like a mirror for your knowledge - reflecting back any blind spots. At the same time, articulating something in simple terms reinforces the knowledge in your own mind. Studies in educational psychology confirm that when we teach or prepare to teach, we engage in more effective mental processing of the material. We retrieve facts from memory (which strengthens that memory) and we put information into our own words, which creates new neural connections and deeper comprehension.

Research has put this idea to the test. In one experiment at Stanford University, a group of eighth-grade students were told they would need to teach a lesson about how the human body fights infection. These students studied the material using a computer program and even had to create a flowchart to explain the processes, believing a virtual character (a “teachable agent”) would learn from their input. Another group of students studied the same content for their own self-study, without any teaching role. The results were striking: the students assigned to be “teachers” learned the material significantly better and scored higher on tests than those who studied only for themselves. The mere expectation of having to teach made them more engaged and thorough - some even apologized to the computer character when they realized they had provided incorrect information, then corrected it and learned in the process. This increased effort translated into real learning gains. Intriguingly, the biggest improvements were seen in students who initially had lower performance; by teaching, they caught up to the level of the highest achievers in the other group. This phenomenon - that teaching others elevates your own mastery - is exactly why explaining skills makes you “smarter.”

Scientists have replicated this protégé effect in many contexts. In follow-up studies, learners who were told to prepare to teach scored higher on understanding and remembering material than those who were told they would be tested on it. The act of teaching seems to unlock a different level of mental processing. It’s more powerful than passive review, and in some cases even more effective than other active techniques like self-testing or mind mapping. Why is teaching so potent? One reason is motivation - if you know someone else’s learning will depend on you, you feel responsible and put in more effort to get it right. Another reason is that teaching forces you to retrieve information from memory and then re-encode it in your own words. That combination of retrieval and re-statement is known to solidify memories and understanding. Additionally, when you teach, you tend to think about the topic more extensively - anticipating questions, drawing connections, and simplifying explanations. All of these mental actions go beyond rote memorization and push you into deeper learning.

Explaining a concept can also highlight the nuances of your knowledge. Consider a time you thought you understood something, until you tried to explain it and got stuck. Maybe you encountered a question you hadn’t considered, or you realized your explanation was a bit fuzzy. This is a positive step in learning! It shows you where you need to clarify or study more. Essentially, teaching shines a light on the edge of your competence. Identifying those gaps is the first move to filling them. In fact, many students use this technique deliberately: they quiz each other or take turns teaching chapters of a textbook, benefiting from the mutual exchange.

One famous approach illustrating the power of explaining is the Feynman Technique, named after Nobel-winning physicist Richard Feynman. Feynman was known for his ability to break down very complex topics into simple terms. His technique for learning anything was straightforward: study the topic, then explain it as if you were teaching a child. If you struggle to explain any part clearly, that’s a signal to go back and study that part again. The process involves four steps: (1) choose a concept, (2) teach it to a novice (or pretend to), (3) identify where you get confused, and (4) refine your understanding and explanation. By writing down an explanation in plain language, you quickly see whether you truly know the material. As Feynman liked to say, “You haven’t really learned something until you can explain it to a freshman.” This method forces you to simplify and clarify, which greatly enhances your own mastery.

You don’t need a formal classroom to learn by teaching. You can incorporate this strategy informally in everyday learning. For example, after you read an article or finish a chapter of a book, take a few minutes to summarize the key points out loud as if you’re teaching an imaginary class. Better yet, explain it to a friend or family member willing to listen. If no one is around, some people even explain things to a rubber duck on their desk - a whimsical trick programmers use to find bugs by carefully explaining code line by line. The duck, of course, doesn’t ask questions, but the act of articulating the problem often leads to an “aha!” moment for the programmer. In your case, the “rubber duck” could be any inanimate object or simply a journal where you write an explanation. The important part is the active attempt to communicate the idea.

If you’re in a study group or have a classmate, suggest teaching each other different portions of the material. Peer teaching is mutually beneficial: when you explain Topic A to your friend, you solidify Topic A for yourself; when they explain Topic B to you, you get a review of Topic B. Both of you end up understanding both topics better. Tutoring others, if you have the opportunity, is another fantastic way to reinforce your own skills. For instance, helping a younger student with math will sharpen your own math abilities because you must double-check that you’re doing it right and figure out how to make it understandable.

Even writing can be a form of teaching. Starting a blog or writing short posts about what you’re learning compels you to structure your thoughts. You might need to fact-check and ensure you’re conveying the correct information, which leads you to do additional research and cement the knowledge. And don’t worry if you’re not an absolute expert - you only need to be one step ahead of the person you’re teaching. In the process of preparing that step, you’ll fortify your own foundation.

It’s worth noting that teaching as a learning tool works best when you’ve put in at least some initial study. In other words, you need some pieces of knowledge to begin with; teaching then helps assemble and reinforce those pieces. It’s not a substitute for studying altogether, but a powerful complement to it. When you combine studying with an intent to teach, you transform what could be a passive review session into an active, engaging one.

To recap, learning by teaching is a proven strategy to boost your understanding, retention, and problem-solving skills. When you explain skills to someone else, two people benefit - the listener and you, the explainer. You become more alert to what you know and don’t know. You process the material more deeply, often leading to insights you would have missed otherwise. So next time you want to master a new topic or skill, don’t just read it and hope it sticks. Teach it. Explain it to your friend, your pet, a mirror, or an imaginary student. By teaching, you are effectively studying at a higher intensity. You’ll find that the knowledge sinks in more firmly and stays with you longer. As the saying goes, the one who does the teaching does the learning - and that means you end up smarter for the effort.