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The building blocks of understanding are memorization and repetition

nautil.us

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Re: The building blocks of understanding are memorization and repetition

#11

Post by chairleader »

danso wrote: post #10
tucaz wrote: post #2

TL;DR: Study foundational blocks by repeating then until you understand. Keep repeating as you build knowledge and move to "harder" things. I like the message, but not the messenger. Articles like this, in my point of view, fail to delivery their messages in a better way because they are simply too long and with too much noise for my taste. The point he is trying to get across could be explained in a simpler way with…

A lot of people connect with concepts via story-telling. Life lessons aren't always learned by just consuming a stream of facts. And facts themselves aren't inherently valuable. A good story helps some readers filter what applies to them and what does not.

Agreed. I filed this story away as a way to explain math-centric learning to the more literary minded.

Re: The building blocks of understanding are memorization and repetition

#12

Post by westoncb »

The author is arguing that 'the latest wave of educational reform in mathematics' (in the U.S.) is overemphasizing conceptual understanding, and that doing so will be damaging to students.

The author advocates instead using a memorization and repetition based approach.

I can see where she's coming from, but the argument she is making is flawed. She describes a process for developing fluency both in foreign language and mathematics, wherein she experiments and plays with the constructs being learned—this is a great suggestion, but it's not in opposition to understanding: the two complement each other.

I think the error arises from making an overly strong identification between learning a foreign language and learning mathematics. If you take the representation of Euler's equation, for instance, and consider how much conceptual depth underlies it, versus a string of 20 Cyrillic characters meaning "I went to the store," or whatever—you can see the difference. You'd be wasting your time trying to get a deep understanding of the Russian phrase, but there's a reason to do it with the mathematical phrase.

Re: The building blocks of understanding are memorization and repetition

#13

Post by txutxu »

tucaz wrote: post #2

TL;DR: Study foundational blocks by repeating then until you understand. Keep repeating as you build knowledge and move to "harder" things. I like the message, but not the messenger. Articles like this, in my point of view, fail to delivery their messages in a better way because they are simply too long and with too much noise for my taste. The point he is trying to get across could be explained in a simpler way with…

Thanks for the TL;DR the topic was interesting but I was tired for read more after all day.

My grandma used to say "brain is a muscle".

And I used to see it as an over-simplification, because I was studying, etc...

With the time, I've come to a similar conclusion, a different muscle, and with a micro-services architecture, but at the end of the day, it inherits the attributes, methods and behavior, of the "muscle" class.

Re: The building blocks of understanding are memorization and repetition

#15

Post by noobermin »

tucaz wrote: post #2

TL;DR: Study foundational blocks by repeating then until you understand. Keep repeating as you build knowledge and move to "harder" things. I like the message, but not the messenger. Articles like this, in my point of view, fail to delivery their messages in a better way because they are simply too long and with too much noise for my taste. The point he is trying to get across could be explained in a simpler way with…

I remember first learning Quantum Field Theory. One week, my head would ache from what I was reading but by the next week, that bit would be incorporated into new parts, so the "confusing stuff" become foundation for the next week's confusing stuff. Eventually, it became intuitive.

Re: The building blocks of understanding are memorization and repetition

#18

Post by adamnemecek »

This mirrors my experience and this fundamentally proves that empiricists were right and rationalists were wrong. This also implies that your thinking isn't exactly logical.

Schools need to be adjusted for this, I think that currently schools are based on the rationalist point of view.

Re: The building blocks of understanding are memorization and repetition

#19

Post by sevenless »

noobermin wrote: post #15
tucaz wrote: post #2

TL;DR: Study foundational blocks by repeating then until you understand. Keep repeating as you build knowledge and move to "harder" things. I like the message, but not the messenger. Articles like this, in my point of view, fail to delivery their messages in a better way because they are simply too long and with too much noise for my taste. The point he is trying to get across could be explained in a simpler way with…

I remember first learning Quantum Field Theory. One week, my head would ache from what I was reading but by the next week, that bit would be incorporated into new parts, so the "confusing stuff" become foundation for the next week's confusing stuff. Eventually, it became intuitive.

How do you learn quantum field theory? I took a tiny amount of QM in school - basically, solving the Schrodinger equation for a few simple systems. What's the next step?
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