Best learning technique

Inert knowledge is information that a person knows but doesn’t fully understand, which means that they can only recognize, express, or use it in very limited ways. For example, a student has inert knowledge if they memorize a math formula and are able to repeat it, but they don’t understand what it means or what its implications are.

To transform existing inert knowledge into active knowledge and avoid developing inert knowledge in the first place, you should engage with relevant information in a deep manner, meaning that instead of simply memorizing it you should try to understand, apply, analyze, and evaluate it, as well as use it to create new things.

To achieve this, you can do things such as examine examples of the knowledge in various contexts, summarize the knowledge, explain it to others, use it in practice, critique it, and draw connections between it and other knowledge.

To help others develop active knowledge, you can also use these techniques in your teaching, or encourage others to use these techniques; when doing this in educational contexts, you may also benefit from doing other things, such as ensuring that students have enough time to engage with the material in-depth, and ensuring that students are incentivized to develop active knowledge.