Math wars: Rote memorization plays crucial role in teaching students how to solve complex calculations, study says - National Post

Math wars: Rote memorization plays crucial role in teaching students how to solve complex calculations, study says - National Post

"In effect, as young math students memorize the basics, their brains reorganize to accommodate the greater demands of more complex math. It is a gradual process, like 'overlapping waves,' the researchers write, but it clearly shows that, for the growing child's brain, rote memorization is a key step along the way to efficient mathematical reasoning...."

"One critic of the government's adoption of 'discovery-based learning,' Ken Porteous, a retired engineering professor, put it bluntly: "There is nothing to discover. The tried and true methods of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division work just fine as they have for centuries. There is no benefit and in fact a huge downside to students being asked to discover other methods of performing these operations and picking the one which they like. This just leads to confusion which ultimately translates into frustration, a strong dislike for mathematics and a desire to drop out of any form of mathematics course at the earliest opportunity.'"

Via Ace of Spades, who writes: "I think Common Core will fail in teaching kids actual mathematical insight, while simultaneously failing to teach them the memorized facts required to achieve that insight on their own." He also asks, "Why Is It... that everyone recognizes the absurdity of the Music Man's 'think method' of learning how to play instruments, but then decides that such a system ought to work with math and reading?"