I look at the role 'rote memorization' plays very differently from what spaced and interleaved repetition does. Rote memorization is short-lived because the kind of patterns and associations that the brain builds internally is not that strong. Our brains 'remember' well when a piece of knowledge (for the lack of a better word) is repeatedly encountered in diverse settings. More the associations the better we remember and recall.
It is true that without a good understanding of fundamentals the advanced concepts will be difficult to comprehend. But, rote memorization should not be construed as something that lays a strong foundation of fundamentals. Even if we are able to recall basic concepts 'learned' via rote memorization, their applicability to understanding advanced concepts is very limited.
Comments
Abstracting and generalizing, and understanding advanced concepts, is impossible if you don't have the fundamentals memorized.
I look at the role 'rote memorization' plays very differently from what spaced and interleaved repetition does. Rote memorization is short-lived because the kind of patterns and associations that the brain builds internally is not that strong. Our brains 'remember' well when a piece of knowledge (for the lack of a better word) is repeatedly encountered in diverse settings. More the associations the better we remember and recall.
It is true that without a good understanding of fundamentals the advanced concepts will be difficult to comprehend. But, rote memorization should not be construed as something that lays a strong foundation of fundamentals. Even if we are able to recall basic concepts 'learned' via rote memorization, their applicability to understanding advanced concepts is very limited.