Dangers Of Memorising Without Knowledge To The Purpose Of Education
One of the purpose of education is that it helps refines and illuminates the mind from ignorance and crudeness. And when the purpose of a thing isn’t known abuse is inevitable. Failure to understand the purpose of education is one of the major reasons why students don’t seek for knowledge rather a shortcut to pass exams.
I was invigilating some set of students and the title of the question was industrial management. My eyes scanned through their questions and I saw Abraham Maslow’s theory of motivation. The motivation behind the theory was what caught my attention. I started thinking on what the law could be and also I was curious to know about the law. It is such a fascinating theory that I believe will have an impact on me. I tried to Google it and I saw something interesting.
I went through the theory and I found the meaning of motivation that appeal to me. Motivation was referred to as the psychological processes that stimulate excitement and persistence of voluntary actions aimed at some goal. Maslow proposed that motivation is the result of a person’s attempt at fulfilling five basic needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization.
According to Maslow, these needs can create internal pressures that can influence a person’s behavior. Also he talked about Needs theory: Needs theories attempt to identify internal factors that motivate an individual’s behavior and are based on the premise that people are motivated by unfulfilled needs. Maslow’s theory was not the motivation behind this writing but the need for students to allow what they were taught in school to take root in them.
I believe if students can take extra step to understand and apply what they are taught in school life would be much easier. Our educational system is a little bit faulty because it projects schooling as a place of memorising notes or theories for the purpose of passing exams.
Having good grades have been the major goal of students and not the fruit that can be produced in them during learning. I am not saying you should have poor grade but let the knowledge you have acquired in school take root in you and make sure you apply that knowledge. I was even thinking that many of the students that wrote the exam would have forgotten the theory immediately after the exam, because they memorised the theory for the sake of the exam. The theory isn’t part of them.
I was also in their shoes when I was in the University because I saw a school as a place to have good grades and not a place to acquire knowledge for my life’s journey. Now, I understand better.
Students must know that what they are taught in school is for them to understand and apply and not for them to memorise for the sake of passing exams. Scholars that propounded laws and theories have aims and one of their aims is to spread their theories for people to apply. They believe those theories have the ability to solve some human related problems.
Educators and parents must take note of this. It is high time we stop putting emphasis on passing exams but we should make sure that we tell the students to let the knowledge acquired take root in them. The understanding of concepts behind any subject is what gives mastery over such subject(Olajire B.). For you to be an authority in any field you must have good understanding of that field. Seek understanding and how to apply it and you will see that it will be easy for you to pass any exam and have good grades.
From the experience I have shared above, one of the dangers of memorising without seeking knowledge is that the mind will still remain void and empty. This kind of mind can’t be productive to the society.
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