Why do our teachers teach students to regurgitate facts?
Rote learning, regurgitation, repetition, retrieval, rehearsal or practice. Call it what you want, but to strengthen our expertise, we need to repeat to a point of automaticity.
So, the answer to the above question is ‘Repetition is essential for learning’.
Schools have always taught students concepts, rules and facts, but how teachers do it today is far more sophisticated than perhaps what you and I experienced.
We know that the more we practise, the stronger we become. The result? It becomes easier for us to perform everyday actions. For example, riding a bike, tying your shoelaces, or scratching your head while reading this post.
This is why rote learning, recall, testing, exams, retrieval practice or whatever you want to call it, is essential for teaching and learning. Practice makes perfect, but I prefer to advocate, ‘Perfect practice makes perfect‘.
