Blog Two - Updates to the Education System
In a rapidly evolving world, the knowledge students need to adequately prepare for future careers is changing. The approach used to educate them must also adapt and cater to these changes. For many decades, the education system prioritized memorization and had less emphasis on understanding, disregarding a crucial skill needed to succeed and move ahead: critical thinking. Breakthroughs in fields like technology, human psychology, and human behaviors mark a new era in which educators, students, and society itself have started to address the need for a change in the way we think about learning. Changes have been proposed to the curriculum, calling for more logical thinking and knowledge application rather than memorization. However, drastically decreasing the amount of memorization practice may have a devastating effect on vital skills students need in the future. Will we possibly be able to find a balance between the two?
Many educators push to teach critical thinking rather than have students memorize facts. This stems from the idea that if a student forgets something like the quadratic formula, it does not matter much in the real world. Plus, even if they require it, they can look it up online. Instead, emphasis should be placed on problem-solving. As written in We Must Dump Marginal Learning Standards and other annoyances in Return to Classrooms, an article by the Washington Post, “Math instructors during difficult times like [COVID-19] should teach how to solve problems and where to seek answers when puzzled.” Teaching students to think for themselves is much more valuable because they cannot find this online. Giving students an environment where they can question everything and solve problems by thinking creatively can also make them more engaged and interested in their learning. This can include practices like asking students questions with no correct answer and asking them to discuss with their peers. This helps them think deeply about their answers and collaborate with those around them.
However, while critical thinking may be essential, memorization also has its merits. Dismissing the importance of remembering specific facts may make students overly reliant on external sources of information. This may, in turn, harm the critical thinking we are trying to teach, as memorizing fundamental concepts can lay the groundwork for more advanced concepts. Additionally, when students look certain things up online, they may be inaccurate and spread misinformation or could be biased. Furthermore, when students are used to not having to memorize, this might affect retention skills. Just like critical thinking, being able to store information for later is valuable and vital. There has already been evidence that a dependence on technology can harm cognitive memory skills. A study published in the National Library of Medicine found that “the presence of a smartphone and high phone conscious thought affects one's memory learning and recall.” Memorizing facts in school may help combat this decline in retention and give students a bank of knowledge they can rely on over finding the answer online.
Changes to the curriculum should be done with much thinking and caution. While critical thinking encourages students to solve problems independently and creatively, memorization can lead to a deeper understanding of content and also aid in problem-solving. Remembering facts and having a deep knowledge base leads to well-rounded students, and being able to think for themselves leads to students who can advocate for themselves and others. These aspects can complement each other and do not need to be seen as polar opposites. Finding a balance between our current education system, which emphasizes memorization, and a system that focuses on critical thinking can hopefully provide today’s students with enough of both to be helpful in their future endeavors.
