by Maria C Collins

Created on: September 20, 2009   Last Updated: December 24, 2009

Rote learning is where pupils learn long lists of facts,figures or sums by repitition and can recite them from memory. Whilst this is useful in learning some basic things, such as the times tables or the alphabet, where it is the only form of teaching and learning used it is narrow and restrictive and does not teach children to think or how to apply that information.

Many people will remember singing their times tables or the alphabet forty or fifty years ago and they can still immediately tell the price of twelve items at 4p each (48p). It is an effective tool for learning such information but, as with all tools, rote learning used to the exclusion of other methods brings troubles of its own. Rote learning by itself brings no understanding. The best teaching of multiplication tables combines rote learning with a practical demonstration showing what for example 2 times 2 looks like and that 2 times two is always the same whether one is talking about people, oranges, elephants or yards of sand.

Children were once taught history by memorizing long lists of dates, but history is boring if presented in this manner. It is far more interesting, memorable and enlightening to visit a museum, or attend an enactment of a historical event, or, when dealing with recent history, to have a pupil's Grandma or Grandpa come in and tell the class how life was. If lessons are boring, children find it difficult to learn and there is no merit in learning lots of facts only to regurgitate them at exam time and then never to take an interest in the subject again.

In France, where rote learning has long been the method of teaching and learning, there is much debate amongst educationalists over whether it is the right way to teach children. The general opinion is that, because rote learning does not teach a child to think or to question, that the French education system produces people who have all been trained to think in the same way and, therefore, does not produce enough innovators and entrepreneurs for a 21st century economy. Those innovators and entrepreneurs that France does have, arise despite the French education system and not because of it. It is also often said that the French education system only educates children to conform and to pass examinations.

Rote learning has a place within the tools necessary to educate a child, but like all tools should not be over-used. Rote learning when combined with other methods can prove an excellent way of imparting basic information and ensuring that it is there for the pupil's use for life. Teaching a child to think, experiment and question are all part of the education necessary to produce a well rounded individual. To condemn rote learning completely is to throw the baby out with the bathwater but it should never be the sole, or even the most prevalent method of teaching and learning. It is, nonetheless, sometimes an extremely useful tool.

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