Learning by 'heart'

Hi all,

Were you made to 'learn' the times tables by heart at school? If so, does the memory still haunt you?

Do you think this style of parrot fashion learning has a place in our education system?

I would be very interested in your comments

Theresa

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Permalink Reply by Theresa Young on January 8, 2013 at 4:04pm

Hi Jax,

I know exactly what you mean about words not 'looking' right. I think the more 'successful' students become with numeracy, the more their confidence increases and the same thing happens when the answer to a given problem just does not 'look/feel'' right. Again, it's hard to explain as this ability has become so automatic to me.

Theresa

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Permalink Reply by Tracy brookes on January 19, 2013 at 7:31am

Hi Teresa,
Yes it is great that that kind of pressure teaching (and it is teaching rather than learning) is no longer in place, I would hate for my children be feel the kind of pressure I did when I was growing up!!
Learning to music can be a very positive way to learn, this I encounter within my sector, something as simple as learning to slow down massage pace with slower music is a fantastic help for my learners. Something simple and effective and like you suggest it becomes automatic.
T x

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Permalink Reply by Lissa on January 9, 2013 at 11:40am

Hi Theresa

yes the memory still haunts me but from that experience i certainly remember them. whilst learning the times tables in groups we could learn from each other aswel.

in regards to my own area of music we have a saying for the cirlce of fourths and fifths, 'father charles goes down and ends battle and in reverse 'battle ends and down goes charles father' this is something i learnt over and over again and have continued to use it with my own learners in music theory sessions.

Repetition within learning can become boring but from experience it sure does stay with you.

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Permalink Reply by Roland Baggott on January 21, 2013 at 8:41am

Hi Theresa,

It is one of those activities we all have early memories of. I am not sure for learning basic times tables there are many other effective ways execpt to do the sums everyday until you can mentally, recall the answers.

Apart from this case parrot fashion learning is likely to have as many resistors as followers. I am a great believer that even if what to be learned is repetitive and/or sequentially linked, learning should be linked to something real. In engineering, students have to learn about percentages of carbon and other elements for a variety of steels. They could learn them parrot fashion, but having a wider understanding of how each element effects an alloy mixture will help them build core knowledge to make a pre-conditioned prediction rather than abstract memory recall.

As Piaget reminds us .. linking together facts helps many of us expand schemas.