[su_row] [su_column size=”1/2″]Memorization comes first both in language and mathematics learning, says Dr. Barbara Oakley, who teaches engineering at the University of Oakland. Her story, beginning with her years as a Russian language specialist in the army, and later as a translator on a Russian fishing boat, has the ring of authenticity, especially when one considers that she started as a self-described math-phobe. So how did she learn math and science so well that she is now a professor of engineering? She did it by applying the memorization and repetition-based techniques she had learned while studying language at the University of Washington. With apologies to the many language instructors who emphasize understanding from the outset, Dr. Oakley claims that one must first master “chunks” of a subject. These chunks correspond to the building blocks of whatever subject is being studied. In mathematics the equivalent to vocabulary and the learning of simple phrases are basic equations. Once these are learned, Dr. Oakley explains, understanding has a substrate in which to put down roots. It is not a matter of understanding complex explanations of grammar or mathematical principles, but of getting the basics down pat to the extent that they can be […]
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