A common problem seen in the education system is that students are starting to rely on memorization instead of actually learning the material. They’re forced to memorize, just to get a good grade on a test. But, the long-term effects of just memorizing material, instead of learning it, are negative.

Students are now just being taught to memorize a certain subject, be tested on it, and then move onto the next step in that subject. If the students don’t actually learn the subject, how are they supposed to successfully move onto the next step if they haven’t mastered the first step? For example, how is a football player supposed to make touchdowns if they haven’t even mastered catching a ball?

To master something, it takes longer than just one or two weeks. However with students, they are taught new material and sometimes in the same week, or a week after, they are tested on it. They do not have enough time to completely master the material, but they have to memorize and move onto the next step.

By teaching for test scores, students are forced to memorize the content, and then after they take the test, most of what they memorized is already gone and lost out of their memory. By understanding the topic and teaching students for mastery, students will apply the content learned into problems, and they will not only get better scores on tests, but it will also make the next topic because of the knowledge they already have.

When learning new material, it is very important to fully understand the material before moving onto the next step. By moving on without having all of the prior knowledge needed, it will be very difficult to understand the new material. Teaching for mastery should be valued more than test scores and memorization.