Is Learning by Rote Memorization So Bad? (NYT)

[Recursion]

The word “drill” has come to define bad teaching. The piercing violence that “drilling” evokes just seems not to belong in sensitive pedagogy. Good teachers don’t fire off quiz questions and catechize kids about facts. They don’t plop students at computers to drill themselves on spelling or arithmetic. Drilling seems unimaginative and antisocial. It might even be harmful.

“In educational circles, sometimes the phrase ‘drill and kill’ is used, meaning that by drilling the student, you will kill his or her motivation to learn,” explains Daniel Willingham, a University of Virginia professor of psychology who has written extensively on learning and memory. “Drilling often conjures up images of late-19th-century schoolhouses, with students singsonging state capitals in unison without much comprehension of what they have ‘learned.’

Oh, those schoolhouses — with the hickory sticks and the dunce caps. “Harrisburg! Salt Lake City! Montpelier! Tralalalala!” That does sound kind of fun — I mean, authoritarian. And drilling hardly has a better reputation outside academia. On message boards, students complain bitterly about Kumon, the extracurricular Japanese system of worksheet drills that many also admit has made them superb at math. Only unsportsmanlike parents hellbent on raising valedictorians, it seems, require their kids to do such rote work. At the same time, parents dismiss cutesy, flashy apps and Web sites that drill students using elaborate animation (like PopMath for arithmetic, iFlipr for custom flashcards, Cram for custom practice tests) as superficial edutainment, on par with children’s TV.

But while drilling might not look pretty — students doing drills don’t tend terrariums or don wigs to re-enact the Constitutional Convention — might it nonetheless be a useful way for some students to learn some things? By e-mail, E. D. Hirsch Jr., the distinguished literary critic and education reformer, told me that far from rejecting drilling, he considers “distributed practice,” the official term for drilling, essential. A distributed practice system, Hirsch explained, “is helpful in making the procedures second nature, which allows you to focus on the structural elements of the problem.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19fob-medium-heffernan-t.html?_r=1

I know drilling math works, at least; when I tutor I dedicate at least half of the session to out-loud drills. Not sure how well it carries over to other subjects.

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. I have studied six languages...

...for credit, or because I needed them for work, and for the acquisition of vocabulary, nothing else -- save of course, just up and moving there, and for a classical language, that's a toughie -- works, or works near so well.

Even sexy software, like Rosetta Stone, has under its hood what amounts to a flash card stack.
Even sexy audio programs, like the Pimsleur Method, have under their hoods what amounts to audio flash cards.

Repetitio mater studiorum est.

[Recursion]

2. I always had vocab problems with dead languages

I'm probably better at the grammar of Sanskrit than any of the living languages I've studied, but I definitely can't seem to acquire vocabulary. I think it's because I make my flashcards for living languages from newspapers, but for dead ones I just have to pick the vocab lessons at the end of the chapter of the textbook I'm on. Less of a population to select from.

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. Still Learn 450-800 words...

...well chosen, and you'll recognize 65-80% of what you see.
The rest you only learn by reading anyways.
My student text margins are stuffed, absolutely stuffed, with glosses. I bought the first 0.5 mm mechanical pencils, just to do glosses.

There's a special problem with dead languages, insofar as what you need beyond that base to do Caesar, or selections from the Taín, or I imagine from the Pune Mahabharata, won't overlap much with what you need to do Catullus, or the metrical Dindsenchas, or Kālidāsa. Literary sub-dialects & technical vocabulary.

[Recursion]

5. I learned Homeric Greek

A friend handed me a Greek new testament and... well... Graecum est; non potest legi.

[Davis_X_Machina]

6. Where'd you do your Homeric Greek?

In high school, that's a Jesuit thing, pretty much -- that's where I learned mine. Never did a day of Attic or Koine till college. All Ionian dialect (Herodotus) or Homeric.

[Recursion]

8. College

The class just said "Ancient Greek" but the prof liked Homeric so he taught it. I could struggle through pre-Socratics, but Plato or later and I'm pretty much in the weeds. Oddly enough I had better luck with modern Greek speakers.

[starroute]

25. I'm pretty skeptical of drilling even for languages

When I took classical Greek in college, I really busted my ass the first semester -- which was mostly learning vocabulary and grammar -- and got an A. But the second semester, which was far more heavily into reading comprehension and translation, I only got a B.

The next year, I took Sanskrit, but I had several other demanding courses so I couldn't put as much time into it, and the first semester I got a C. But the second semester, even though I still hadn't mastered all the fiddly little bits, I got a B.

Any faith I might have had in rote learning after that experience has been further undermined by the fact that I no longer remember anything I learned in college by marching up and down the hallway chanting vocabulary words under my breath -- but I remember all the stuff that was fun, or interesting, or made good stories.

[Prometheus Bound]

15. I've read a lot of research on vocabulary learning.

And I've found studying word lists - alone and in context - is still the fastest way to acquire vocab.

Not very sexy and a bit disappointing, but there it is.

[mzteris]

4. for some people sometimes - YES!

It IS "SO BAD". Learning Differences for some children (and adults) makes "rote memorization" damn near impossible. People need to recognize this and accommodate it in those people with this type of learning difference. (If you're a math tutor - are you familiar with dyscalcula?)

[Recursion]

9. I've found drilling helps dyscalculia

Just take it slow and drill very, very simple things. Like, addition tables for junior high students. With the right demeanor it can help build confidence.

When I was in the military, I saw people with appalling learning disabilities learn how to fix tanks. Everyone can develop muscle memory; that's why drilling out loud is so important, and that's how the military taught.

[mzteris]

30. I don't think will work for dyscalcula

"rote memorization' can be detrimental - same thing is true for "spelling" in some kids with dyslexia - it makes the problem worse.

what works for most dyscalculics (wd?) is being allowed to use a chart or calculator. Of course, you must ensure that they understand the CONCEPT of the operation they're doing - but again - usually - this is NOT the problem. As you probably know people with dyscalcula are usually very good conceptually and challenged with the computation.

Using the tool develops the "memory" retrieval faster than trying to do the "rote" thing as there is nothing visual to tie it to.

I prefer to think of it as a "learning difference" - not a "disability" - many gifted children have differences.

[Recursion]

31. Muscle memory is muscle memory

And my whole point is the concept for basic math should be secondary to the performance, which can be reduced to muscle memory (this is why you say it out loud).

I prefer to think of it as a "learning difference" - not a "disability"

Does saying that help them do math?

I've had plenty of students who are capable of determining which operation to use from a word problem, but then can't actually perform that operation. I think that's backwards, and my tutoring results from trying to reverse that have been pretty good.

[mzteris]

32. My son is entirely capable of "doing the operation"

he just can't say his times tables!

He taught himself multiplication at the age of four. He's nearly 17 now - and is INCAPABLE of saying his tables.

Though he was the ONLY Kindergartener to ever learn all 50 state capitals!

It's a neurological issue. It's where information is STORED AN RETRIEVED in the brain. No matter how much you may TELL it to "do this" or "do that" - it can't. Same thing with his dysgraphia. It's a matter of rerouting the wiring.

If your students are conceptually challenged then they don't have dyscalcula.

[Recursion]

33. I was saying they *weren't* conceptually challenged, they were operationally challenged

And if you can multiply, you can say times tables. You just may have to do it very, very slowly for a while. Which is how you start.

[mzteris]

35. Nope -

like I said - my son simply can not say them - and he's not alone.

I'm on gifted ld groups where this is the rule, not the exception.

[Recursion]

36. Yep

If he can multiply 2 times 2, and 2 times 3, and 2 times 4, etc., he is capable of saying them. It might be very slow and frustrating, it might be so slow and frustrating it's not worth it, it might involve a whole lot of false starts and reminders where he is in the table, but anyone capable of A) speech and B) multiplication is able to do it

[mzteris]

37. wow - you are soooo smart!

You've never even met my son, have read a dozen words about him, yet yet yet you KNOW WHAT HE CAN DO!

Simply amazing!!

[Davis_X_Machina]

10. Interesting....

...recent-ish metastudy on learning styles research here.

May be less than meets the eye.

[jwirr]

7. I am bad at memorizing but in order to pass a confirmation interview

I had to memorize many Q/A and Bible passages. To this day 50 some years later I can still remember them. I highly recommend doing at least some memorization but I do not think a lot of educational subjects are better because somehow they are memorized.

[kcass1954]

11. Memorization can be a very good thing.

When my older son was in elementary school and I stayed home with a younger child, I did math tutoring at his school once a week. There was an organized program with about 30 parents participating to help students memorize basic math facts - 2+2=4, 6x7=42, 81÷9=9. The theory behind the program was that if the children could memorize these basic equations, when they reached more advanced math classes in middle or high school, they could spend their time learning the concepts and not working on the arithmetic.

[Recursion]

12. I didn't know that was a "theory"...

I butted heads with a lot of teachers as a math tutor because I wasn't moving the kids on to algebra "fast enough", when they couldn't do arithmetic. These things happen in order for a reason. When you can solve arithmetic problems without having to think, you have the foundation to "get" algebra. Not before.

[dkf]

13. Wow. The value of rote memorization gets unrec'd.

Too funny.

[Demeter]

14. What's Bad Is Expecting ALL People to Be the Same

and subjecting young children to half-baked theory and wet-behind-the-ears teachers.

To teach, you have to know how to learn, and reflect upon how you learned--the process is a feedback loop. You have to observe the student and be responsive to how the student responds.

Teaching is a very intimate process, when done right. Very few people are autodidacts who can survive any clumsy incompetence inflicted upon them.

[Recursion]

24. *shrug* it's a question of the cart vs. the horse, I think

If a student literally cannot form memories from drilling, sure, we need to look for other options. How many students are actually like that, though, vs. people simply deciding this student is a "visual learner" or whatever?

[MedicalAdmin]

28. The key to drill, as some of the language software knows.

Is to involve all the senses in the drilling. Visual, verbal, aural, tactile. Involve the full student.

People's bodies are so much more than transportation devices for their heads.

[Demeter]

34. A Lot of Them

Including my autistic daughter.

[raccoon]

16. I don't see how somebody could learn the multiplication tables without drill.

Or maybe they don't teach the multiplication tables any more, since we have calculators?

[Recursion]

17. Bah. I still use a slide rule

Though I didn't use that until grad school. As long as you only need 3 or 4 digits it's usually faster than punching it in to a calculator.

[MineralMan]

18. I was in grammar school starting in 1950. Drilling was the

method for arithmetic. It worked, although I learned the tables very quickly, so it was sort of boring.

However, when I was 45, I had viral encephalitis and almost died. When I began recovering, and before any tests were done, I tested myself on basic stuff. I was shocked to discover that I could no longer remember the multiplication tables. That was the only real deficit I could identify, but it was shocking.

I could still add numbers OK, so, as I lay in the hospital bed, I reconstructed the multiplication tables in my head by using addition. Then, I recited them mentally, over and over again, until I had rebuilt that ability. By the time they started testing to identify deficits, I had them down, so that loss didn't show up. I told the neurologist what I had done, and he just shook his head.

Basically, I put myself through 4th grade arithmetic all over again. It worked.

[bobburgster]

19. "Drill and Kill" was a mantra of the Whole Language Movement.

Any drill or repetitive practice was deemed bad during the 1990's when whole-language, and inventive spelling were in their heyday. As it always seems the case in education, new theories are taken to the extreme.

[BlueMTexpat]

20. I know that rote memorization helped ME with math, with languages,.

with remembering chronology, timeline and events. And mnemonic devices like "Spring forward, fall back" for remembering whether to turn clocks back or ahead to mark Daylight Savings Time or "Leftie-Loosey, Rightie-Tightey" for opening jars, loosening screws, etc. or "30 Days hath September ...." for which months have 30 days and which 31 are some simple ones that have made my practical life much easier. Okay, so perhaps I'm slower than most ...
Most such things simply are not innate. You have to learn them by heart or you never even "get" the concepts. What I found worked out best when I was a teacher was to teach certain things by rote so that my students could respond automatically but also to explain and/or demonstrate the concepts that related to the rote exercise at the same time - or as close to it as possible - so that they could understand the meaning of what they were doing.
To me, rote memorization is for the mind what physical exercises are for the body. For real learning, one shouldn't stop there, but it should always be a point of departure.

[Recursion]

22. James Burke talked about illiterate societies in "Connections"

And how incredibly smart those people had/have to be: imagine if everything you were going to know in your life, you had to remember. A lot of those mnemonics that still stick with us ("30 days have September...", etc.) come from times when literacy was rare and people needed ways to remember things since they couldn't write them down.

[Kablooie]

21. I was taught math using 'new math' techniques and I don't retain anything.

It was a horrible system.
Everything was explained in words as concepts instead of memorizing techniques of manipulating numbers.
I read my dad's 1930's math books and they were much clearer than the 'new math' techniques.

[Recursion]

23. New math always struck me as very doctrinaire

Like, "if only we get these kids to get the concept, they won't have to work at achieving mathematical facility." I mean, introducing kids to different bases may possibly be a good idea (and I had some exposure to that as a kid, which led to a nice "every base is base 10" epiphany) but I don't personally think you're ready to think until you can first do. It's like it comes at math from the point of view of how an adult would teach an adult, rather than a child.

Then again, Euler introduced students to complex numbers very early (basically as soon as powers and roots had been introduced, age 10 or so).

[Grinchie]

29. I agree that Mathmatics education suffered in the last decade.

I started out like everyone else, memorizing tables and such, and I was really good at it, or so I thought until I went out into the real world and struggled trying to figure out problems using the convoluted method I was taught.

It wasn't until I realized that I had not really been taught to actually perform math that I began to actually seek out a better way, and that came in the form of an inconspicuous little book called "Instant Math", which was very thin, but contained the crucial techniques of making calculations in seconds. For me, it was life changing, and I started using the techniques for everything, and it bloomed into an understanding on how to save money on everything by actually being able to do the simple calculations that would prevent me from buying some overpriced widget on a whim.

Rote learning is only a foundation, but too many people rely on it for their entire lives, and don't even bother to actually look for the real answer on their own.

They'd rather take some Cabbage Patch Doll's viewpoint on Fox News instead of exercising their own mind.

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. You need a foundation. But once that foundation is established,

you should be taught how to extrapolate the concepts.

[MedicalAdmin]

27. Drills are normal in the arts, sports and voc. ed.

When it comes to picking up the basic skills, nothing beats repetition of the correct procedure (note: repetition of the incorrect procedure/skill is a waste of time). Of course with that drill should also be taught and understanding of the underlying system and the skills place within that system.

As a former musician I can't tell you how many scale, mode, transposition, chord progression, etc. drills I have run over the years. I do them every day as a warm up so my guess would be in the range of about 2 years in total time spent on drills so that when I play I am able to make what I do seem as effortless as breathing.

As a former teacher of music I can tell you that drills are useful. The key as a teacher is to keep making them relevant to the music being studies as well as constantly fresh, new, and challenging every day. For example, drill a band on the B flat scale. The next time drill them on a B flat scale starting on the 5th scale degree. The next time repeat the B flat scale but only decending. The next time repeated but only ascending. Etc. Ad Nauseum. It is a way of taking a skill and making the students experience from all angles and sides.

So yah, I think drills have thier place. And lord knows I have a love/hate relationship with my spanish vocab flip cards.