How to Explain Difficult Concepts Simply: Techniques That Work

There are no students who cannot understand a hard topic: there are explanations that start in the wrong place. These techniques for how to explain difficult concepts turn any steep subject into something a student can retell in their own words.

Why a Student Doesn't Get It (and It Isn't a Lack of Ability)

The bottleneck is working memory: it handles very little new information at once. If a single explanation carries a definition, two rules and an example, the student isn't choosing to drift off; a piece of the path simply fell out. Long-term memory has no such limit, but it only accepts what gets through that narrow door. That's why a dense explanation can sound flawless and leave the student with nothing.

The second obstacle is the curse of knowledge: once you master a topic you no longer remember what not knowing felt like, so you explain with shortcuts you have and the student doesn't. A quick diagnostic: write your explanation as numbered steps and mark the ones you take for granted. That's almost always the step the student cannot climb.

Before repeating the same speech, check what broke: is it the previous concept, the vocabulary or the last step? Re-explaining without knowing where the chain snapped burns twenty minutes of lesson time and both people's patience.

How to Explain Difficult Concepts: Start Concrete, Climb to the Abstract Later

A rule's name sticks once the rule has worked right in front of the student's eyes. Give a concrete example first (a sum, a sentence, a song, a real problem) and the definition afterwards, as the name we give to something they have already seen working.

A maths case makes it obvious. The rule many students repeat by heart: when a term moves to the other side of the equation, its sign flips. With x + 3 = 7 it works perfectly: x = 7 - 3 = 4. Now the second example, where the rule stops working: 2x = 8 isn't solved by flipping signs, but by dividing. If the student only saw the first case, they will apply the shortcut where it doesn't belong and get it wrong in the exam without understanding why.

Use two or three different examples, not the same one with new numbers: if only the numbers change, the student memorises the case, and if the context changes, they start seeing the pattern. Comparing one example that fits the rule with one that breaks it forces them to look at the condition rather than the answer.

Always close by climbing to the general idea with a question: "what do these three have in common?". What the student says out loud is what they keep. If you say it, they keep your sentence instead of the concept.

Chunk the Concept: Pieces That Fit in the Head

Split the content into blocks of two or three steps at most, teach each block on its own and join them at the end. If solving the exercise requires holding five things at once, the student isn't the problem: the bite is too big.

Use a simple design rule: teach what is always used first, exceptions later. Exceptions land once the general rule is solid, not before the first practice.

Give Every Block a Checkable Mini-Win

Before moving to the next block, ask for something small the student can do alone and check that it works. Advancing with a shaky piece costs double next session: you go back, repeat it, and the student feels stuck.

The "I Do, We Do, You Do" Model

I do: solve the exercise out loud, showing the decisions rather than just the answer. Lines like "here I ask myself what the question actually wants" or "I discard this because the condition changes" teach a line of reasoning, which is exactly what textbooks leave out. For a beginner, one fully worked example teaches more than a problem thrown into the air.

We do: the student solves it with you beside them, and you remove support in three steps. First time complete, second time a single hint, third time only the opening move. Removing support too early is the most common mistake: the student stalls, gets frustrated and decides the subject isn't for them.

You do: they solve alone while you watch in silence and take notes. That moment isn't filler; it's the only real proof that your explanation landed.

Analogies: Powerful, If You Close Them Properly

Every analogy breaks somewhere. Name the crack before the student finds it: "this is like a funnel, except a funnel doesn't widen with practice and this does". Closing the analogy stops them from building a wrong idea that is expensive to dismantle later.

Reuse the same analogy over several lessons instead of inventing a new one each time: a stable image becomes the box where the student stores the concept.

Let the Student Build Their Own

Ask them to invent their own analogy, or to explain yours in their words. Building it forces them to look at the structure of the concept rather than its surface, and that's where the gaps show up: the analogies a student proposes also tell you which part they genuinely understood.

Talk Less: Make the Student Explain

Explaining out loud forces someone to organise what they know and patch the gaps on the spot. That's why one checking question beats ten minutes of monologue.

Here's how it looks in a real lesson:

Tutor: "Explain this step to me as if I knew nothing about the topic."
Student: "First I find the lowest common multiple of the denominators."
Tutor: "And why the lowest one and not any multiple?"

The third line is where the gap appears. The short version of the Feynman technique works the same way: the student describes the concept in plain words, as if explaining it to a twelve-year-old. Where they stumble is exactly where they don't understand, and that gives you the plan for the rest of the lesson.

Ask for process, not just answers: "why did you take this step?" instead of "did you get it right?". A correct answer on shaky reasoning disappears in the exam; clear reasoning survives even when the exercise changes shape.

When Nothing Works: Three Strategy Switches

Change the route, not the volume. From text to drawing, from drawing to a physical or real-world case, from case to rule. The same content through another door often gets through where words alone stall.

Drop a level and allow the pause. When a topic won't go in, the previous concept is often missing, and ten minutes repairing the base saves three lessons of frustration. If it still won't land, park it and return tomorrow: understanding needs time and sleep to settle.

Switch the explainer. Ask the student to be the teacher and walk you through the exercise. Besides revealing what they missed, it hands back control, and with an unmotivated student that matters as much as the explanation itself.

Conclusion: Explaining Well Is a Skill You Practise

Recap the toolkit: diagnose before re-explaining, concrete example before definition, chunk the content, the "I do, we do, you do" model, closed analogies and getting the student to explain out loud. None of them requires longer lessons, only a different order for what you already know.

And explaining well pays: the student who understands comes back, parents recommend you, and a tutor with a full schedule can raise rates without losing students.

Pick one technique this week, try it in your next lesson and notice what changes. If you're just starting and want students to practise with, publish your free listing on clasespersonalizadas.com.