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by glfharris 1561 days ago
How is that any different from the rote memorisation that's been the mainstay of most education systems up to the 21st century?

It doesn't really aid understanding, doesn't incorporate active recall, and tends to become inefficient for a large corpus of knowledge.
3 comments
mlyle 1561 days ago
Rote isn't a huge part in the school I'm a part of.

We deliberately have some, though. There's some stuff that's just helpful to memorize to be able to do more active work and understanding with (multiplication tables, basic chemical formulas, sets of trig identities). There's also some stuff inserted (poem memorization, latin & greek roots for one grade, all 50 states for another, etc) just to strengthen the skill of learning by rote for when it's useful later.

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ASalazarMX 1561 days ago
"Doc, I have this small lump in my back that doesn't hurt, but hurts if I poke it."

"Oh, I remember I saw something like that in school, let me Google it!"

Medicine, like law, involves a lot of memorization.

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alasdair_ 1561 days ago
>"Oh, I remember I saw something like that in school, let me Google it!"

This seems like a good thing, not a bad thing.

I'd MUCH prefer to have a doctor verify a diagnosis with reference material than to have them rely on their memory.

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ASalazarMX 1560 days ago
It's a double-edged sword. If he googled "lipoma" or similar it would be good, if he googled "painful lump when poked" I would be very wary of him. Double wary if he clicks on a random blog.
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glfharris 1558 days ago
By chance, I am a doctor. I spend a lot of time looking things up, even things I'm 80% sure about.

Yes, it's useful to have that knowledge already, and to that I'd say that copying out a textbook is a poor way to learn. It's far better to know the processes behind things or to learn through experience.

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GekkePrutser 1561 days ago
Bad example though. I'm sure MDs actually look a lot of stuff up because they can't remember every fringe thing during their entire career :)

Also it's an ever changing field of course.

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jamesakirk 1561 days ago
Counterexample: It is impossible to understand a new language without memorization. Memorization is critical, but it is not sufficient.
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