Considering the fact that I wish to teach history, some might find it strange that I have no interest in rote memory learning. I do not believe that it is necessary for students to memorize and be tested on endless dates and minute facts about history. Instead I hope to have my students learn broad concepts and understand the reasons behind the decisions made in history, while also gaining a firm understanding of the chronological order of events. The skill that students will need to be able to do this relates to the meaningful learning principal and is known as elaboration. Elaboration requires students to use prior knowledge to better store more information than creating all new information. This process will be important in students learning beyond rote memorization of facts. University of Illinois education professor Brenda M. Trafenenko says that rote memorization causes students to think that history is boring, and therefore, they learn less. For this reason I hope to rely as little on endless recitation of facts and focus more on the actual history.
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