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Actually for language learning at least, understanding doesn't need to come before rote memorization. While "stupidly" learning a one-two word definition might
by leppr 6y ago
Actually for language learning at least, understanding doesn't need to come before rote memorization.
While "stupidly" learning a one-two word definition might not allow you to understand how a word is actually used, it will allow you to get its meaning should you encounter it in native material, delaying understanding to that moment.
- eska 6y agoEven in science there is a lot of knowledge that doesn't need to be understood. For math subjects that would be all the definitions for example.
- Smaug123 6y agoWell, there can be a lot to be understood in why something is defined the way it is. For example, a red-black tree is defined the way it is because it's a pretty simple structural way to force the tree to be "pretty well balanced". Why does it force that?
- eska 6y agoYou're going for too big cards again. A single card doesn't need to answer absolutely everything there is about a red black tree. You want to ask about a single aspect of it per card. The definition is "what is it?". There is nothing to understand here. It could be taught to a parrot or child to repeat this information. What you're mentioning is a bunch of cards on top of that: how does a red black tree stay balanced on insertions? When is the self-balancing property of red black trees useful? When is it not? Etc etc. You cannot answer this if you mistake a red black tree for another tree for example. It's essentially vocabulary. Another one would be notations: what's the symbol for a cross product? Again, nothing to understand, but you must know it to work on actual math problems involving cross products.