Learning Not Recalling

Read first:)
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/when-memorization-gets-in-the-way-of-learning/279425/

When I read chapter four of Zull’s book, there was a statement about brain structures and emotion that stuck out. “Then we can be grateful when our students sputter, because that is valuable information.” (Zull, 2002, p.55) As I thought back over the discussion about the importance of memorization, I felt this statement from Zull solidifies my argument that memorization of facts is not always a benefit for the long term memory. As I thought more about this topic, I decided to research more about memorization and its effects. I came across the article by Ben Orlin that discusses memorization. I found it very interesting. During my reading I read about how memorization of facts does not allow the students to learn anything. They are just storing information in their short term memory in order to complete a task or test. The information rarely makes it to the students’ long term memory. Orlin (2013) stated, “Memorization is a frontage road: It runs parallel to the best parts of learning, never intersecting. It's a detour around all the action, a way of knowing without learning, of answering without understanding.” By just recalling information the students are not learning anything. In order for students to learn material, they need to understand why they must know things. The teacher needs to engage the students and have them question concepts and discover their own understandings about concepts. If the students cannot tell you why something is important, then they have wasted valuable learning time. “What separates memorization from learning is a sense of meaning. When you memorize a fact, it's arbitrary, interchangeable--it makes no difference to you whether sine of π/2 is one, zero, or a million. But when you learn a fact, it's bound to others by a web of logic.” (Orlin, 2013) Learning must be meaningful, and students should struggle some. This allows them an opportunity to problem solve. I believe this was what Zull was talking about when he was discussing emotions. Students need to “sputter” because it allows teachers an opportunity to see which of the aspects of critical thinking are weak, as well as where students could use some improvement in their learning abilities. If the class is made up mostly of memorization activities, this needs to be changed because the students are not gaining true knowledge. Although there is no way around memorization, the information being memorized must be meaningful and learned-not recited. Orlin discussed how this can be done in a way where the information is retained in the long term memory. The two examples he gave was that of repeated use and building on prior knowledge. When using the repeated use technique, students are interacting with the same information over and over, but what makes it different from memorization is that the repeated use is not deliberate. Students are not using this technique to cram for a test. It is a strategy, or concept, they see weekly, or even daily, and it comes naturally. Building on prior knowledge is different from memorization because students are constantly firing and wiring information through different pathways. By using this strategy, the students are able to continue to make connections which will help information to be stored in their long term memory. Memorization techniques do serve some importance, I just do not think it should be a goal or objective for practicing educators.