by Angel Quinton

Created on: March 27, 2009   Last Updated: June 06, 2009

Teaching by rote is an outdated ineffective way of teaching. It relies on learners remembering and reciting lists of information. What is not taught in rote learning is the full wel rounded understanding of the subject. This is why you should say a very definate no to rote learning at any level.

If you are unfamiliar with the term rote learning it is embodied in the chanting' of facts that used to occur in classrooms: 12=2, 22=4, 32=6 etc.' Often children could recite these facts perfectly. However, if you took the numbers out of order or changed them around it became clear that the understanding of what these numbers actually mean has not been learned. For example, if a child had just learnt their three times table they would know that 93=27 but if asked what 39= they would often say they had not done their 9 times table yet. This shows that the words had been learned but understanding had not.

Quite often children have a great ability to remember if a rhythm is used in the same way as they learn the words of songs. This is maybe why this method of teaching became so popular. However, even with songs children with often sing them without understanding what the words mean. You hear two year olds at Christmas singing away in a manger quite fluently but if you ask them, What is a manger?' or What is a crib?' they do not know. More worrying it has not even occurred to them to ask. This is the same with rote learning the child thinks if they can recite the facts it requires no further thought.

In today's classroom, in Britain, literacy hour consists of a session of mental maths' which quick fire questions are asked of individual children. These questions are randomly asked and do not follow on to ensure understanding is learned. Different ways of getting the same answer are considered, for example if a child says '50 is half of 100', they may be asked how else can we say this. They can then reply with various answers, 2/4, 0.5 of 100 for example. In this way the teacher can see that the chid can manipulate numbers, think about them, and play around with them. It is a more active way of learning the children are involved, the class is quick paced and the children enjoy it.

It is the same of course with other the subjects, history should be more alive than remembering lists of dates and events. If it fully understood it will be remembered far better than if the facts are dryly presented. Think back to your own school days, the likely hood is that you remember days out, active lessons, if you dressed up, did a play, did an experiment or something active more than rote learning. This is because it is through active learning that we learn fully because we ourselves need to experience in order to learn.

This is why we should say no to rote learning. If your children's teacher or school is teaching in this way you should question it. It is not good for children's leaning and will not inspire them to want to learn more. The ideal teaching session should leave learners wanting to know more, inspired and interested. Rote learning is more likely to lead to boredom frustration and inadequate knowledge of the subject.

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