In all of our life we learn new things, as babies and young children we learn new concepts every minute of the day, later we go to school where we are trained, stimulated, and sometimes forced, to learn more complex concepts as we grow up into graduation, and into adulthood.
During adulthood we can choose our own paths, and for some, these path does not contain learning new concepts anymore, some choose to refine their current knowledge, and some choose not to learn a thing, but we are not here to talk about these.
Most people whom their life's are filled with learning new concepts, although learning new concepts, fail to understand the importance of the differential of learning, the actual learning process of a concept rather then the concept it self.
How many ways can you teach a person a very basic concept, for example sum: X + Y?
And how many ways are there to teach a more complicated concept?
Given the fact that one can use verbal, graphical, body language, and a variety of other communication parameters and multipliers, sums it up to infinite(or at least very very big)!
Under these parameters, ask yourself this, assuming we are talking about a "concept A", and you are very familiar with this "concept A", could you teach a person without any previous understanding of A, the actual most abstract "concept of A".
Do you think you can teach a new concept in one session?
Do you think you would have to explain it once?
In how many verses would you describe any part of the concept?
Imagine this is the first time explaining it...
Wouldn't you miss something?
Couldn't you have explained it differently/better?
Could you have broken the concept into small details?
Did your words had the impact you wanted?
Understanding this, as a teacher, gives one the power of understanding others as a student, How?
I believe that in order to be a better teacher, one would have to exercises more then a single combination of communication methods to pass/share/explain/teach a concept.
Having the desire to improve oneself, the will to adapt and be better, Understanding the errors/limitations one has made, altogether, while explaining a "concept A", allows to transfer the lesson learned (all or some) to the next time one would explain "concept B", to another person.
How the hell the title has to do with any of this?
Been a student means you need to be able to grasp a concept the person in front of you is talking about, trying to get into their head, and see what on earth is their point. By anticipating the "errors/limitations" your students would have while teaching them, and reverse them into understanding your own "limitations"(cause we are never wrong) as a student, gives one the advantage to know which questions must he ask to get the answers he needs to better understand the concept at hand.
