Some people say drill and practice is really "drill and kill." What can teachers do to make sure this kind of use doesn't happen and drill and practice can serve a useful function?
Teachers need to make sure that students understand the meaning behind the lesson before drill and practice is used. For example a student needs to understand what addition is, be able to describe it, be able to explain it, give examples of what it is, and then they need to memorize their addition facts. If they do not have that foundation of what addition is prior to memorizing addition facts, then there is no motivation to memorize them. Drill and practice is a needed thing. We don’t want adults to whip out their fingers when asked a basic addition problem. So basically teachers can teach meaning before drill and practice to make it a useful function.
I agree that you must teach and students must have a basic concept before they can move on to effectively benefit from “drill and practice”. I believe drill and practice also builds confidence in children when they master skills. We do use drill and practice for math, but we also use it in reading skills; learning the alphabet, sounds, sight words, etc. We use songs to develop automaticity in children. Just think of the “Alphabet Song” and the multitude of other songs and chants to teach kids in reading. The computer can also teach students by the same methods. The computer can also provide practice in a variety of ways.
ReplyDelete