Teach Meaningful Cell Biology with Urban Planning, Conceptual Knowledge & Microscopes!
Unlocking Meaningful Learning: The Flaw in Schooled Memorization
Memorization isn’t the Problem. Lack of Meaning is
Most parents I know have a bad taste in their mouth about memorization. They remember memorizing random facts about history or science or even language arts just to pass a test, then promptly forgetting it all.
But what most fail to understand it wasn’t the memorization that was the problem. It was the lack of meaning.
Young children's brains are designed to memorize things. Children will memorize 10,000-20,000 words in their first 5 years of life. They will do this without being explicitly taught or taking any tests. They will do it because words have meaning and intrinsic value to children. If a child asks for milk, milk arrives.
The problem with schooled memorization is that what children are memorizing has no meaning to them. That doesn’t mean it’s not important! Memorization of times tables, which is nearly universally hated, is actually quite important for upper division mathematics. Why? It makes upper division math easier. But no one bothers to explain this to children.
If we expect kids to memorize things, the least we can do is explain to them why it's important. And if you can't explain why isn't important, well maybe it's not worth memorizing. Indeed a lot of what is taught in school should make use of another powerful form of learning - conceptual learning.
Not Everything is Worth Memorizing - the Power of Conceptual Learning
Let’s go back to speech. A kindergartner has memorized the meaning of 10-20,000 words but speaking is not the regurgitation of memorized phrases. Rather speech is the process of putting word combinations together based on a set of rules. We teach these rules explicitly in school (e.g., verb tenses and agreements). But we teach grammar rules to reduce variation in language across an entire country not because it is necessary. My husband’s native language, Tamil, is not taught in schools in India but in his region everyone knows how to speak it. This is possible due to the power of conceptual knowledge.
Conceptual knowledge is the understanding of the structures, rules, and principles that govern a topic. How is it different from memorization? Let’s go back to math. Memorization is that you know that 3 x 4 = 12. Conceptual knowledge is that you know that 3 x 4 means 3, 4 times or 3 + 3 + 3 + 3. Conceptual knowledge is understanding the idea behind the multiplication not memorizing the answer.
Conceptual knowledge is arguably more important than memorization. Indeed, if I had to pick between memorization (also called procedural knowledge) and conceptual knowledge, I’d pick conceptual. But luckily, we don’t have to pick. But we do need to know when to use each!
Memorization is an excellent tool when skills build on each other like that which happens in mathematics.
But in near all other cases, conceptual knowledge should be the primary focus: understand the rules, systems, ideas that underlie a subject. Don’t just memorize the answers.
Teaching this way also enhances analytical and critical thinking skills because children are given the skills to figure out solutions based on a set of rules instead of memorizing the answers that they will promptly forget if not retested over-and-over again.
I recognize that at this point you may be saying I understand but practically what does this look like? OK, here’s a lesson plan that I completed with our cohort of 6-11 year olds about cell biology using urban planning as the backdrop.
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