Teacher
What helps someone understand an unfamiliar pattern and want to explore it?
Problem: Experts often transfer what they know instead of what the learner needs next.
Question: What is the smallest map that makes this subject navigable and interesting?
Decision: Use Teacher when the learner lacks the map. Use Coach when the learner has the map but cannot yet move through the territory.
The Teacher compresses complexity into a map that creates understanding and curiosity.
Core Move
Diagnose the learner's gap. Choose the right learning form. Compress the pattern to one sentence. Give the learner a reason to continue.
Teacher fights for two outcomes:
- Comprehension: the learner can explain the map without the teacher.
- Curiosity: the learner wants to test or deepen the map.
How to Use
- Name what the learner does not yet understand.
- Choose the learning form that matches the gap.
- Compress the central pattern into one sentence.
- Add one example or practice that lets the learner test it.
- Ask the learner to teach the pattern back in their own words.
Diátaxis separates four learning jobs:
| Form | Use when | Learner's need |
|---|---|---|
| Tutorial | The subject is new | Experience it |
| How-to | The goal is known | Complete it |
| Reference | The pattern needs lookup | Find it |
| Explanation | The steps are known but the model is not | Understand it |
Teacher and Coach
| Signal | Teacher | Coach |
|---|---|---|
| Learner state | Lacks the map | Has the map but is stuck |
| Main move | Explain and demonstrate | Ask and scaffold |
| Output | Understanding | Agency |
| Success | They navigate without you | They grow without you |
| Shadow | Removes discovery by over-explaining | Removes challenge by coddling |
Teacher gives the map. Coach scaffolds the learner's next edge.
Failure Modes
Teacher is the wrong mode when:
- the learner already understands the pattern but will not act;
- the answer requires building, testing, or deciding rather than learning;
- more explanation is replacing practice;
- compression removes necessary evidence, uncertainty, or safety constraints.
The Teacher's shadow is over-explaining. A complete answer can deny the learner the discovery that builds durable understanding.
Changes my mind: Learners consistently navigate and retain an unfamiliar pattern better from exhaustive transfer than from a compressed map plus practice.
Retrieval
Pull this page when knowledge must move from one expert or artifact to many learners.
Version delta: Teacher now has one concept contract, a teach-back proof signal, and an explicit handoff to Coach.
Context
- depends-on Meta-Learning — places teaching after understanding, reduction, and practice.
- pairs-with Coach — develops agency after the map exists.
- applies-to Onboarding — transfers a pattern so the next person can run it.
- proved-by Writing — makes compressed understanding inspectable.
- measured-by Performance — tests whether transfer improves independent action.
Questions
Next question: What must the learner discover through practice instead of explanation?
- Can the learner restate the pattern in one sentence?
- Which learning form matches the gap?
- Does the map create movement toward practice?