ROTE LEARNING – IS THIS THE VILLAIN OF OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM?

After the introduction of the New Education Policy once again there is a barrage of criticism against rote learning and how it is not allowing our students to grow into genuine thinkers. The policy makers have ignored teacher absenteeism, inadequate teacher’s training, poorly funded government schools, too much interference with private schools and a lack of understanding of the very purpose of education and pointed towards ‘rote learning’ and shouted “Eureka! Here is the villain!!” So I thought it was important to understand whether rote learning is really all that bad and what are the other smarter alternatives.

What is Rote Learning?

Rote learning is a method involving repetition and memorization. “Practice leads to perfection” is the tagline for rote learning. Students repeatedly read and learn the same topic several times to memorize it by heart. It is an integration of repetition, drilling, memorization and proper practice in a certain interval.

It is an effective means of motivation of getting basic knowledge in early stages of learning. Our religious schools of Buddhism and Islam have been using this system since time immemorial. They can afford to do so and stagnate but can modern education system afford to do so?

Rote learning is beneficial when we focus on factual (facts) questions. It is also good for learning lists of information that does not require any context. It boosts up our confidence and also motivates us to learn newer things. At early stages of learning, a child learns so many new things, i.e. rhymes, days, months, basic spellings, table, counting, basic facts, different useful sentences in day to day life. Parents and teachers motivate the child to practice several times. It becomes an active habit of learning. 

Are there any advantages of Rote Learning?

Surely there are and some undeniable ones. The fact that rote learning is way of developing a level of understanding through memorizing is an undeniable one. But we must not overplay its role.

Academically weak students gain confidence through rote learning techniques. They learn definition, day and dates, mathematical formulas, historical points, scientific fact, general rules and regulations, differences, certain points and regurgitate them in their examination. Rote learning is a means to cross the barrier. It is one of the best learning style in an examination oriented educational system but is passing examination the only purpose of education?

Disadvantages of Rote Learning

In primary and secondary education, you are learning building blocks, small pieces of facts and figures that you will expand upon when you go on to higher education. Rote memory will work to memorize these facts and figures, but once you move on to higher education, you will be unable to learn complex concepts in this fashion. It doesn't prepare you for higher learning or on the job memory applications. 

Rote memorization doesn't work for students because there is no engaging pattern or effort made to relate the content to students' lives. Rote memory allows for the memorization of base information, but it doesn't put that information into any sort of context. The lack of context for complex subjects means that the student has not learned anything about what they are studying. Likewise, an employee might be able to memorize a list of features of a product, but be unable to sell it effectively because they are not putting those features into a context that can be easily explained as benefits to the consumer.

Rote memory works primarily with short-term memory. When you repeat information again and again to memorize it, you are committing it into your short-term memory banks. To retain this information for longer than a few hours, you will have to commit the memory to long-term memory banks. This will require its repeated use. The more you access and retrieve the information from your memory, the more likely it will be that you will remember it long term. So I remember the Gayetri mantra because I recite it daily but have forgotten the Pythagoras theorem and Ohm's law because I have no use of them.

In our daily life, rote memory also has its place. You can memorize phone numbers by using rote memory, as well as other numbers such as your credit card number, PAN number, passwords, but you have to keep on using them otherwise you will forget them. Forgetting passwords is so common if you have to recollect after a very long time. 

Rote learning also does not allow for complex connections between previous and new knowledge. It can also be very difficult to understand a concept by only using rote memory. Rote memory doesn't give you knowledge. Rote memory will give you base facts and figures that you may remember for a short time but are likely to forget with disuse. To truly learn something, you must be able to make connections to your past experiences and the world around you. Without that context, the facts that you are memorizing are just facts, dates, vocabulary, or numbers. They do not represent true knowledge.

Other alternative forms of learning

Some of the alternatives to rote learning include meaningful learning, associative learning, and active learning.

Meaningful Learning

Meaningful learning is a learning strategy that gives deeper meaning to concepts and subject matter. The more meaning that is given to information, the more likely it is that you will remember that information long term. Information that is learned through meaningful learning is often remembered for years rather than only months such as with rote memory. This is because meaningful learning also promotes understanding over memorization, which helps with overall comprehension. It relates new information to prior knowledge and encourages active learning techniques. All of these points are proven to help one remember the information for years to come. An example - we are going to read a text about Nelson Mandela and before we read the text we show a picture of Mandela and we ask learners what they know about him.  We also ask them what they’d like to know about him. So we are trying to co-relate the new information to the already present knowledge

Associative learning

Associative learning is a theory that states that ideas reinforce each other and can be linked to one another. Close your eyes and try to remember how your mother’s left eyebrow looks like. Difficult, isn’t it. You will remember her face, her eyes and then perhaps her eyebrows. Our brain is not designed to

recall information in isolation; instead, we group information together into one associative memory. That's why it is difficult to recall just one eyebrow without seeing the whole face. Our ideas and experiences reinforce each other and can be mentally linked to one another. Associative learning help students connect with information more deeply and recall that information with greater accuracy. Thus Australia can be associated with South Australia, which can then be associated with Barossa Valley which in turn can be associated with good wine!

Active Learning

Active learning involves actively engaging students with the course material through discussions, problem solving, case studies, , peer teaching, debates, role plays and other methods. In active learning teachers are facilitators rather than one way providers of information. Interacting with content through active learning

has some compelling advantages over 'delivery mode' lectures. It helps to maintain student concentration and deepens learning towards the higher-level skills like critical thinking. It also helps to engage students who might otherwise struggle. The active learning process produces the students on having a lot more creative thinking by implementing into their basic skill of talking, listening, reading, reflecting as well as writing.

So yes, there are other modalities of learning which seem to be smarter but we cannot throw away rote learning lock stock and barrel. Rote learning is path to reach the destination of understanding, but not the destination. This is where our education system is failing our students. Rote learning is a ladder for starting from lowest point of learning to highest point of understanding and our students are not reaching that point.