Do you agree or disagree the following statement: It is more important for students to understand ideas and concepts than it is for them to learn facts
I think I agree with the statement.Learning facts and understand the concept are two different parts of study,each serves their own function.But if I am asked which priors the other,I believe according to the roles they play in study,grasping concept comes first.
I still remember when I was in the secondary school,my math teacher always emphasize the importance of digesting the concept,he kept saying:"no one can really learn math well just by remembering the problems they have ever met,you have to understand the concept." At first, I didn't believe in him and I supposed all I need to do in order to get a good score in the test is just reciting the problems in the problems set.I did as what I thought it would work,but in the end term exam,I can't even figure out one problem because none of the problmes in the test came from the problems set.Since then I began to see the importance of learning the concept.
Things can never be learnt without the understanding of idea.If one just learn the facts but not the idea and the concept,the next time when he is in the similar situation,he won't be able to come about a solution to tackle with.Concept,is the summary of the all the relevant knowledge,it is the essence of the solution.If you want to really handle a method of solve problems,the first and foremost thing you need to do is analyse the concept,think of how the concept is gotten,what conclusion can be drawn from the concept.then you will be able to solve all the problems which belongs to that category.Let's cite the student of economy as an example.In the economy class,the professor teaches how the government solve economic crisis with the famous case of Roosevolet's adjustment in the great depression.By lively discussion and the explain of professor,student A learnt the way government adopt to deal with economy recession,student B recite all the statistics about the great depression.Which one is more likely to score higher in the case analysis in the end term examination?who is more probable to become a qualified government officer when a new economy recession take place?No doubt,student A is the one who really learnt something useful,what student B learnt is just a lot of useless number and names.But to put it more objective,learning facts is usually a effective way for one to grasp the idea and digest the concept,it's not totally useless.That's why we say learning fact is still needed in study.
As a result,my opinion on is learning the concept is the most important part of study.learning facts may function as a complement.
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