Learn. Know. Teach.

To know, to learn, to teach. These three activities or guides frame our learning experiences throughout our lives. Beginning with our first moments in the world, these experiences move too swiftly through our childhood and years of formal schooling. If we are fortunate, the experiences continue throughout our lives. 

To know is the result of taking in information and processing it. Knowledge is information placed in context, when we understand not simply the facts but also the implications of the facts. To truly know something means that we have integrated the information into our world, and why it is important.

To learn is to be exposed to information, then to take that information and create an understanding and structure for putting the information into our own context. When we learn, we draw upon our own experiences (what many teachers call “background information”) to give knowledge meaning. 

To teach is a multi-step process that combines both knowing and learning. It begins with the presentation of information, which could (and should) come in a variety of formats. In an ideal world, teaching will activate a learner’s background information, helping the student place the information in a relevant context. The teacher can then use a variety of techniques and/or assignments to check for understanding, and assessing what the learner has absorbed based on previously established learning objectives. And in many cases (in my opinion, the best cases) the teacher’s own understanding is developed and altered, and they too become a learner.

As I have laid it out here, this process is complex, but once embedded in practice, becomes a natural process, whether in a classroom, a studio, a living room or an online forum.