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Rote Memorization Affects Critical Thinking In High School Students

Rote memorization affects critical thinking in high school students. In this 21st first century critical thinking is very essential in high school students. This is century an era of so much of change in terms of technology, robotic tasking, culture and tradition. It saw the modern world. We call it modern world from the time of........ We fondly remember John Dewy When we speak about the critical thinking who emphasized on active thinking and used it against passive thoughts. The present educationists feel that we need to develop so much in the field of education. How to develop? Who will develop? Why to develop? They are valid questions and not easy to answer. But to bring change in the field of education everybody should cooperate with the functioning of administration. So the present education system has to develop into individual’s approach. It means to say that every student has to be prepared to face future challenges of the world. it will be possible if only students are taught how to think critically, if not they will run away from the challenges. What does it mean to think critically? “ ...as reasoning analyzing, problem solving, reading comprehension, scientific thinking, creative thinking, judgment and deciding accurately.” (“1-s2.0-S1877042812021660-main. pdf,” n.d.)

Memorizing is the thing in the olden days. The students are assessed through annual exams, whoever does the rote memory and writes well in exams which will get handsome marks. Those who are not able to memorize well and reproduced what is in the textbook will either pass with low marks or fail. Students were made to memorize so much so that they don’t understand what they memorize. It is called rote memorization. The education two decades ago is more of teacher’s contentedness and students are mere learners. They are encouraged to receive knowledge passively without reasoning in the class or outside the classroom. During my school days I too had the similar experience. I was always asked to memorize all the answers and there was no time for thinking in the classroom. I was not good at memory and I was somehow passed class X and went ahead for intermediate. I found there the teaching was worse than the class X because the lecturers bring their very old note books to dictate notes in the class. Those note books like taken from ancient time. I mean that note book has been continuing from their ancestors. I think we can encourage memorizing up to primary schools but in high schools students must be taught how to think.

Students start developing thinking critically, great innovative ideas, imaginations, and inquire about the subject one learns. It is also a time for students want to asking questions anything and everything about in the world. Start asking questions in high school. So it is very important to teach critical thinking in high schools. According to Gueldenzoph and Snyder critical thinking is students “to deal effectively with social, scientific, and practical problems” (“Teaching Critical Thinking Skills and problem solving skills - Gueldenzoph, Snyder.pdf,” n.d.) We often expect student to learn but we ignore to teach how to learn critically. Rote memorizing and no sufficient thinking leads students to depend highly on textbooks. There are so many barriers to critical thinking for instance the present educational system or trend focuses more on test scores, gives importance to write test rather than understanding. Teachers often expect students to perform well in class but they do not meet their expectation missing explicit instructional in classroom.

We may ask questions, what kind of pedagogy would be useful for students? Which is the best method of teaching in the classroom which will help students to think critically? I think an explicit instruction produces greatest gains. If we want to see students successful in this contemporary world critical thinking is essential. It should be encouraged among the high school students. It would be really helpful to students Heuristic method of teaching encourages students to problem solving, learn, discover etc. Here the questions or problem is given to the students to solve and come up with their answers or solutions to the questions. As the students try to solve the problem they will make efforts to think critically to come up with creative ideas and answers. In this regard teachers also need to be very creative and critical in their teaching in order to promote critical thinking among high school students. Teachers should not think that critical thinking is not useful for the high school students. For instance in USA teachers think that critical thinking only for certain highly achievable learners. But it is very important to teach high school students about critical thinking because they assimilate as well as imitate in future whatever they have learnt in the schools. We must give less importance to rote memorisation and give place for critical thinking.

The critical thinking helps students in writing compositions and reading. It is very important for high school students to understand, evaluate, analyse their own writing assignment. It is possible when students are taught how to think critically. So it is said that thinking critically is an essential and important life skill. It is important for every teacher that explicit instructions helps and improves students’ better performance in academic. In American society Critical thinking in high school students very much encouraged. It will enable students’ lifelong learners. They will be able to read critically and give their own opinions. “consider and express the relationship of their own ideas to the ideas of others.” (Adler-Kassner & Estrem, 2005).

Critical thinking should be a daily practice in classrooms. Each and every subject teacher can ask students logical questions. I am sure that all most all the students would come up with creative and innovative ideas and answers to questions. Today students are very creative and needs to foster their creative ideas. If students are not encouraged to critical thinking then they will not able to exhibit their hidden talents and they may not able to face demanding challenges in this fast changing world. As we know that the traditional method of teaching approach is seem to be futile in this rapid changing world. Students need scaffolding from teachers to push them to higher level of thinking.

In the olden days students are fixed to “the three R’s – reading writing, and arithmetic.”(“Want to Teach Critical Thinking?,” n.d.). We need to prepare students of tomorrow’s assets. Critical thinking and problem – solving for the 21st century learner. Learning begins with a sense of wonder which leads to enquiry. It is innate in every child. Students need to be encouraged to have a sense of wonder. Here in order keep alive and active the sense of wonder every teacher has to play a big role in student’s life. According to R Haridza and K E Irving say that it is important to develop critical thinking among the middle schools students by problem based learning especially by four core areas model like; developing students, accountability, responsibility, and lifelong skills.

Finally I would say that critical thinking is a skill and needs to be mastered. It is a generic and as well as universal characteristic. Most of the students are facing deficit in critical thinking. In order to enhance their critical thinking skills, explicit instructions are must from teachers. A teacher plays major role in the life of every student. Thus Rote Memorization Affects Critical Thinking In High School Students.

Is it important and helpful to encourage critical thinking more than rote memory in High Schools? Friends if you have any opinion about this topic kindly comment and share with me. It will be a great help to the future students as I have been reading on critical thinking to encourage and practice in high schools.