A few days ago, I was trying to explain some technical concepts to a friend. After a bit of explaining I tried listing out reasons, places and times where those concepts would be applicable. I still thought that I had left out something. I then spent some time searching online for ways to - learn systematically and teach correctly by at least outlining the essentials of the problem and encouraging the learner to follow up in his/her own time.
Did I find anything? Of course I did. In fact I discovered too much information but found only some to be simple and interesting. My favorite is what you might think is obvious - The Five Ws approach. Also popular in problem solving is the Five Whys.
Apart from it being obvious, the Five Ws helps you to break down the problem into:
- When
- Where
- What
- Who
- Why
- How
Now, why is this simple technique relevant?
It is:
Simple
Easy to remember
Easy to explain
It serves as a starter guide to:
Formulate the right questions
Break down the problem
Cover/analyze all aspects of the problem - like why & why not, what & what not
It also helps us:
Remember better by understanding, instead of memorizing
Identify the problem by looking for signs (5 Ws)
It works quite nicely as:
A way to exchange ideas (5 Ws = 5 aspects)
A way to encourage people (even kids) to think deeper- (Systems thinking)
By supplying the first 5 questions when stumped
Progress to other approaches
A template to share and disseminate knowledge (5 Ws = 5 steps)
Like Design Patterns and Anti-patterns for software design
Simple reproducible steps for QA/Support/Services/junior members etc.
Here's a simple pictorial way to help you get started. I drew it for myself initially. It is built like a form where you can fill in the blanks, on the right hand side. I encourage you to print it out and use it in meetings too or even to teach your kids.
 |
| The 5 Ws and H extended |
Until next time!
5 comments:
Cool! Nice, easy, simple steps to demystify anything! Very child-friendly too! Thanks for this! Keep them coming!
Good one! I shall use it for my students. Some of the ICSE text books use only so much to teach new concepts, with no connectors what so ever , probably assuming that the high school chilren can fill in on their own. It does lessen the time spent on learning. But this can work only in science.
good one , keep 'em coming!
At first look it looks like an unromantic journey to learning. But, with closer look it descends as the most rational tool.
@vjp I disagree, this approach would apply to History/Civics too.
It helps the child learn History as a story composed of 5 aspects - people, why they did it, when they did it, who did they fight, where they fought... or would you just prefer a mind numbing list of events that happened in some year like 1885?
I think, that the 5Ws helps you build a more rounded story based on 5 pillars instead of just 1 that is arbitrarily chosen by history text books. Usually that pillar is time/year/date.
Post a Comment