4 ms·

I think those of us who aren't a fan of "memorize/repeat" is that it is extremely inefficient. And you lose as many people as you gain. The classic example is

I think those of us who aren't a fan of "memorize/repeat" is that it is extremely inefficient. And you lose as many people as you gain. The classic example is long division. In elementary school I did a thousand long division problems, but I never understood it. I just knew the pattern. I didn't really know the math. It wasn't until much later did I learn how and why it worked. Having done those thousand problems didn't really help my understanding at all. And honestly, it's not a skill I use today. Rote learning is useful when what you memorize is useful in itself. Learning what 2+2 is useful, but because adding 2 to another small number, including itself, is something you do a lot. Addition/times tables are great because the scope of numbers is something you will run across a lot of day to day. A thousand long division (or multiplication) problems is just rote work for little benefit. It's better to teach the concepts, and then build on them.

Verdex 12y ago
I can relate to your long division example. In grade school my mom helped[1] me put in a ridiculous amount of effort in order to get through my school's spelling tests. I have come to believe that the reason that I couldn't spell was because at the time I did not understand the rules behind how the letters form together to get words. Simply memorizing how words are spelled took a lot of painful practice. A more recent example is when I was first learning lambda calculus I wanted to understand how church encoding worked to allow basic integer operations with just function abstraction and application. Most of the operators are easy except for predecessor, which is absolutely nightmarish to get on your own. I tried memorizing the definition I found on wikipedia for over a year to no avail, but once I understood how it was working ... pred = λ n . λ f . λ v. n ( λ a . λ b . b (a f) ) λ k . v λ i . i I haven't yet forgotten what it is. [1] - well, basically dragged me kicking and screaming EDIT: formatting
- eric_bullington 12y ago
  > I couldn't spell was because at the time I did not understand the rules behind how the letters form together to get words. One of the main goals of this kind of learning (at least for me) is to recognize patterns and rules on your own. When I repeat something often enough, patterns and rules began to jump out at me.
wz1000 12y ago
Have you read Lockharts Lament[0]? It discusses something similar to what you have experienced. [0]- https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/LockhartsLament....

Verdex 12y ago

I can relate to your long division example. In grade school my mom helped[1] me put in a ridiculous amount of effort in order to get through my school's spelling tests. I have come to believe that the reason that I couldn't spell was because at the time I did not understand the rules behind how the letters form together to get words. Simply memorizing how words are spelled took a lot of painful practice. A more recent example is when I was first learning lambda calculus I wanted to understand how church encoding worked to allow basic integer operations with just function abstraction and application. Most of the operators are easy except for predecessor, which is absolutely nightmarish to get on your own. I tried memorizing the definition I found on wikipedia for over a year to no avail, but once I understood how it was working ... pred = λ n . λ f . λ v. n ( λ a . λ b . b (a f) ) λ k . v λ i . i I haven't yet forgotten what it is. [1] - well, basically dragged me kicking and screaming EDIT: formatting

eric_bullington 12y ago
> I couldn't spell was because at the time I did not understand the rules behind how the letters form together to get words. One of the main goals of this kind of learning (at least for me) is to recognize patterns and rules on your own. When I repeat something often enough, patterns and rules began to jump out at me.

wz1000 12y ago

Have you read Lockharts Lament[0]? It discusses something similar to what you have experienced. [0]- https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/LockhartsLament....