Ahmed: Don’t doubt importance of memorization

There really isn’t a “best” way to teach students. But in great teaching, there are… There really isn’t a “best” way to teach students. But in great teaching, there are essential components whose importance we shouldn’t disregard. Even with all of the negative press it gets, rote memorization is still one of those components.

Most of us have probably taken a fair number of courses during our college careers. But have we considered what kind of education we are getting, and if it is the best learning methodology in use? When I say education, I mean taking courses for simplicity’s sake.

In my time at Pitt I have come to realize that almost any course can be categorized by one of two realms: information or intuition. However,  there are some courses that will be hybrids of these.

It is likely you have taken both types of courses. Information courses are largely and sometimes solely based on seemingly endless information you must memorize and then be able to recall accurately come time for examinations. These courses exist everywhere; it’s not like they are only relegated to either arts or sciences. There are information classes in both fields.

Intuition classes are something else. They do require you to know a basic amount of information — minimal memorization, really. But the real weight is in being able to synthesize and derive answers given a premise. This type of course really assesses your thinking ability. That is not to say information courses are relaxed, but rather, they exercise a different set of mental faculties.

I understand I have been quite vague in describing these courses and their qualities. To see if you agree, and if you can differentiate these two realms, think back to questions you’ve been asked on examinations. Information classes will ask you to state facts as defined in class. Conversely, intuition classes will ask you to hypothesize, deduce and engage in in-depth critical thinking.

Whereas there might be more than enough bushes to “beat around” on Pitt’s campus, I’ll instead be frank and admit my own preference: I like intuition classes. But then again, I could just be passively following the trend in sentiment about learning. It seems many public figures and academics downplay memorization classes nowadays.

Not so long ago, the U.S. education system operated differently. Recall our collective image of brick schoolhouses that were cleverly labeled “Schoolhouse,” with troops of students chanting aloud multiplication tables at the whim of the teacher. Those students were educated folks, but today, society and I quickly judge that methodology as inferior to the more recent, intuition-based education I was just romanticizing.

However, we shouldn’t get lost in the false belief that any one educational method is the final answer. Because as it turns out, memorization might be one of the most fundamental skills to learn. In a recent article in the The New York Times, Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, was asked about rote memorization. “You can’t be proficient at some academic tasks without having certain knowledge be automatic — ‘automatic’ meaning that you don’t have to think about it, you just know what to do with it.” Automatic recollection requires methodical memorization.

An example of this necessary base of automatic knowledge is when you’ve tried to learn a language. With a new alphabet and an entirely new vocabulary, rote memorization lends itself as an efficient tool. Another example is in medical school, where problem-based learning is central, medical students still must learn human anatomy with the same memorization skills they acquired with schoolhouse training.

In an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the author, Mark Bauerlein, claims that “memory is a muscle … the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.” As such, it is no surprise that courses in college, where it seems we would have abandoned schoolhouse techniques by now, still encourage some level of rote memorization. It’s something we will always need.

So to myself and others, before we consider intuition the sole path to become educated folk, we must appreciate the virtue in the fundamentals, that is, in memorization.

Next time you are asked to memorize a sonnet, a list of electromagnetic equations or the names of every nerve unfortunately known to mankind, know you are exercising a truly important skill. This skill will come in handy in any class, intuition or not.

Write Abdul at aba24@pitt.edu.