Note: This essay and those that following (if there will be any) are based on posts I made on Internet usegroups in 2000-2001. At the time, I got precisely the pushback that I expected, which is why I posted in the first place. Let's see if I can present my thesis any clearer this time.
Abstract: Throughout this series of essays on memorization, I will pursue two themes at the same time. The first theme is to define memorization and to advocate for why we need to do it. The second is to define understanding and to advocate for why we need to do that, too. On the controversy of the memorization vs. understanding debate in education, I will not take sides, except to debunk them both. At every level of one's formal educational completion, one should both know more (have memorized more) and understand more than one had at the beginning of it. We need to stop framing this debate in the form of an either-or fallacy and recognize that we need both.
Section 1: The role of memorization in science education.
I want to take as my starting point the article called "The role of memorization in physics education" by M.A.B. Whitaker, published in Am. J. Phys. 53 (2), February 1985 pp. 111-113. Whitaker's abstract follows:
A published statement that the physics student needs to memorize values of physical constants is questioned. It is pointed out that understanding, not memorization, should be aimed at. Requirement for the latter should be minimized, though it is reasonable to demand order-of-magnitude knowledge of important constants which have direct experimental significance. Values of constants are categorized as a crude kind of "craftsman's knowledge" which may be obtained genuinely only from experience, not by learning.
It seems to me that Whitaker is promoting a version of the eithor-or fallacy. Does the physics instructor he references really want to pass students who take with them no understanding of the subject? I doubt it. Anyway, he continues:
Let us return to the often-heard student complaint the physics is just "a lot of facts to be learned." The lecturer will certainly reply that what should be aimed at rather is a general understanding of the principles and concepts of a particular branch of physics.The truth is that there is a lot of memorization needed in all the sciences and engineering classes, and the same goes for mathematics classes. That's just the nature of the beasts.
Section 2: It's not memorization vs. understanding!
So, how much should you memorize for a given class, especially if it's in your major? Answer: as much as you can. Change your attitude about memorization, and it will get easier as you go.
"Is it [memorization] hard?"
"Not if you have the right attitudes. It's having the
right attitudes that's hard."
-- Robert Pirsig to his son Chris (slightly altered for the occasion)
Algebra Word Problems (Scheme). A general heuristic for solving algebra word problems. Many solved problems presented and the techniques extended to Stoichiometry. (This is word problems for chemistry).