ABSTRACT: A lecture delivered by Prof. Umed on how we should study.
Prof. Umed: âUmm, Greetings everyone, myself Professor Umed, so I will be taking your Physics class this semester. Hoping to learn a lot from all of you. (And yups, here comes the classic Dead Silenceđ. Ohhh Lord!!! Please save me, what should I say next?đ§ Just as I was about to start with that vintage posture, Bookđ in one hand and markerâ in other. An idea clicked into my mind and I put everything back on the table.) Before starting with the regular lectures, let us have a brief interaction so that it may become easy for us to have a smooth semester long ahead. How many of you know about Richard Feynman? (And just like usual classroom configuration with that âOne Know-It-All child,â this classroom too had that one person.)â
Richard Feynman (Source: Wikipedia)
Feynman Diagram of electron/positron annihilation (Source: Wikipedia)
Rahul: Greetings Sir. My name is Rahul. So, sir, Richard Feynman was an American physicist, born on May 11, 1918, in New York City. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in Quantum Electrodynamics. Additionally, he is widely recognized for his diagrams known as âThe Feynman Diagramsâ and for his lectures titled âThe Feynman Lectures On Physicsâ Mr. Feynman made a significant impact for the future by laying the groundwork for nanotechnology and microtechnology. He served as the Committee Member for the Rogers Commission and was also involved in the Manhattan Project. He passed away on February 15, 1988.
Prof. Umed: Now that is quite an explanation. Honestly, I myself would not have known so much about himđ
. Quite a knowledgeable person you are Mr. Rahul. Building on what Mr. Rahul said, Mr. Feynman had been a role model for all the teachers in the world.
I learned a simple funda from his work, and that is: âQuestions are the first step towards an Answer & The Best Answer is the One that can Lead to Another Question.â
I understand that this might be quite confusing for all of you, but when has Physics ever been an easy language for the mind?
Saying this Prof. Umed lifts a marker and begins explaining his Statement.
Lifecycle of A Question
As you can see on the board. âAsk?â, for many students, this has become a word that they are tired of hearing. However, for those who are interested in knowing the truth, it serves as their driving force. Until you ask, you will never learn what we are teaching regardless of the scores you receive. The reason is simple, âAsk?â will lead you to another powerful word known as âWhy?â, and it is this âWHY?â that leads you towards finding your âAnswerâ. And believe me when you are able to satisfy the hunger of âWhyâ, your fundamentals will automatically get clear.
Prof. Umed: So today, I will introduce you to one of the most effective learning techniques mentioned by Mr. Feynman. I hope that you might implement
it somewhere ahead in your life. Itâs called the âFeynman Techniqueâ. I am pretty much sure that when you will learn about this,
the one thing that you are going to say is âSir this is something that we do one day before examsđâ
The technique is usually divided into â4â parts, but for your ease, I have divided it into â5â parts as shown in the image.
Feynman Technique
Letâs understand this technique with an example:
This is the first lecture of the semester and in this lecture say, I have to cover fundamentals of Physics, so,
- Step 1: The fundamentals is the topic that I have studied or you can say revised yesterday.
- Step 2: Today in this lecture I will be explaining you the topic using layman language assuming that you have very little knowledge about this topic.
- Step 3: Here comes the most crucial step, I call it as the âQuestion Phaseâ. This is because in this phase you i.e the students, are going to question me regarding what you are not able to understand in the topic. Usually in our days and I am hoping the trend is the same, this is also the phase where students test the teacher by somehow making him get stuck in a question whose answer he/she doesnât have.
- Step 4: I call this the âRevision Phaseâ, this is because after knowing the fact that there are still gaps in my teaching, itâs now my responsibility to go back, clear all my doubts through sources such as Google, YouTube, Books, Community Forums, etc. This is the most important phase as it is the make it or break it phase.
- Step 5: After polishing my concepts, I will try to explain the topic again in a much more simpler manner in order to make things not only clear to you but also to myself.
Prof. Umed: Now many of you will be thinking that why I took this example. The answer is simple, teacher-student, these two words work always together. We will forever be a student irrespective of the age and the reason is simple, this is because the world is full of learning. The moment we start sharing our knowledge with others, we become a teacher figure for them.
Yep, so thatâs it for todayâs lecture. Today I just wanted you all to know how crucial learning is and until and unless you donât practice, you will never improve.
And yes, thatâs what Prof.Umed is famous for. The moment he finishes his lecture, the class got dismissed. He is well known for utilizing even that last one second of his classđđ¤Ł