Are We Setting Up Students for Failure? Is Rote Learning Really Required?

The bell rings, the child stops writing the poem midway. Puts the English textbook inside. Takes the notebook for the next period from his bag. Science teacher walks in and opens the class with a question, what is sine (pi/2)?

Children reply in unison. The teacher moves on with what is next in the lesson. Children turn to the chapter which the teacher is referring to. Soon after, the bell rings again.

Down the hallway, in another class, the 3rd-grade children are given test papers where among other questions, they are asked, 8*7 =?

This is how a typical day in a school looks like. Every interaction with the teacher is like a call and response game. A teacher asks a question and if children answer it correctly, the teacher moves on with his/her lesson plan.

Going Back to the Classroom Scenario

If a student is good at memorizing, he knows the answer for sine (pi/2) formula. Multiplication tables are something most of us can answer correctly even if we are woken up in the middle of our sleep.

Now, think about it from your child’s perspective. If a 10 th grader is asked the “Sine” question, even if he says 1, which is the right answer, does he really know what fine actually means?

And If a 3 rd grader knows her tables like the back of her hand, does it actually means she has a great number sense?

Is Rote Learning Really Required?

Interestingly this question – what is 8 x 7 was asked to a British Politician on live TV. He answered it incorrectly triggering widespread ridicule. Along with severe criticism, there were talks about introducing “TimeTable Memorization” in schools.

Now we ask you this- If a person has a clear understanding of the pattern that is established in an 8 table and has a natural intuition towards not giving away the wrong response, is rote learning really required?

The New Techniques of Learning to Remember

Flashcards, repetitive worksheets or converting difficult concepts into songs, like this one on elements of the periodic table.

Is it the right approach to take? Are we providing them with a natural environment to learn and to understand concepts? Do children who out there beautifully chime away Hydrogen, then helium, then lithium, Beryllium know why a periodic table exists and why is it used?

We are training them to “answer correctly”

Should Thinking Based Teaching Be Encouraged?

Shouldn’t we be teaching them how to think rather than how to respond correctly and promptly with speed?

Between this answering correctly and answering promptly process, children, are losing the wonderful chance to explore opportunities of looking at different answers, making mistakes, redoing it to arrive at the right answer, making some more mistakes, thus going through the entire journey of exploration, till finally, they discover the right way(s) to get to the solution.

Sadly, those who answer the Sine question or the timetable question incorrectly, are labelled as bad students. They live in frustration because not understanding and not knowing the right answers gives a feeling of helplessness. Unknowingly or knowingly schools and society have created a conducive atmosphere for stress and anxiety to thrive in.

Negative Impact of Overly Structured Learning Environment

These so-called bad students, may not actually be bad. They may be children who do not do well under an overly structured learning environment. It’s no wonder that children with ADHD or children who are dyslexic were bracketed among the disabled category are gradually being looked as potentially gifted children.

Our thinking seems to have evolved over time, but that cannot be said about the Education system where memorization, rote learning, good grades, and student ranking – all of this overshadows the most important aspect- “Education” itself.

Who Takes Responsibility for Student Failure?

There are a few hard-hitting questions we need to ask ourselves.

1. Are our schools preparing our children for the needs of the future?
2. Is having good handwriting or mental calculation skills enough to land a child a job?
3. How is the mass learning approach in a school tailored to meet every student learning style and match every student’s rate of progress?
4. How are the students who are lagging behind being taken care of? Are there clear measures that help them improve?
5. How about the gifted ones? Are their skills correctly identified and honed or are they just drifting along with the rest? Come to think of it, is there even a criterion to identify the gifted one?
6. Who takes full responsibility if a child does not do well. The school only promises coverage, nor training nor excellence. After school classes offer shallow secondary exposure. In such a case who takes who’s the responsibility to guarantee that the child will have all the fundamental & core skills developed.

Blind Competition

Guppies or popularly known as rainbow fish have a tendency to chase each other. Humans have the same herd mentality. And that is especially the case of any competitive exams, case in point – the Olympiads. In fact, the craze for Olympiads has blinded us towards the fact that these exams are actually supposed to be conducted by a body that is recognized by UNESCO.

But most of the schools that conduct Olympiads are by private organizations. In a true sense, Olympiads are very prestigious because students from around the world gather to compete with each other. But this gets lost somewhere when exams lose the true meaning of why it is held in the first place.

Lagging in Sports, Way Behind in Technology

Ironically, India which is considered to be a lagging nation in sports has more specialized world-class sports academies than a world-class pre-graduation media lab or tech academy. FC Barcelona has established training schools in India. But MIT Style of teaching has not reached India. This is probably the reason why we have more engineers in the country than any other country and just 2 Nobel laureates.

Where Exactly is Our Education System Going Wrong?

Schools provide an ecosystem where children gather a lot of skills, ranging from social skills, leadership skills, to learning to be independent and pretty much by themselves.

But there are certain aspects, sadly which modern-day schools fail to teach our kids. And that can be changed if there is a change in pedagogical approach. There must be a solution to this problem in hand. Luckily, we have the answer.

Let Us First Compare and Contrast 2 Models of Learning

Let’s get an understanding of which learning environment works best for students.

The traditional manner like in our schools where learning is dictated by a grade-wise curriculum Vis-a-vis process of learning which is natural.

Learning which is governed by a structure and limited to a textbook Vis-a-Vis learning where Student Autonomy is high and the learner has the flexibility to learn as per his interests and progress according to his pace.

Student Who Solves a Problem Vs Student as a Problem Solver

A question with a problem is stated in the textbook. The teacher explains what the question is. She may open the class for a discussion or she may not. She writes the correct answer on the board. The children copy it down. This is the typical approach to answer questions in a school.

In an approach where let’s call it Learner Centric, we let the students decide on how to solve the problem.

Here is How It’s Done

Let us say you want to introduce a new attraction to your school, Zipline! As easy as it may look, there is a lot of science and math involved in constructing a zipline. If the children are asked to construct a “Safe” Zipline using a dummy they have to determine how much cable they need so that the dummy lands safely.

Want to know more about Rote learning, click here