Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Process Mnemonics
For all the educators out there here is an interesting way to teach mathematics. It is called the process mnemonics.
According to Higbee (1987) process mnemonics is a strategy "that is used to remember a process or as one that gives a process for remembering many different facts ".
They are names as process mnemonics because they are intended to serve as readily retrievable mediators for learning and recalling the orderly cognitive processes required in problem solving (Kunihira1981, Higbee1987)
And it is designed to “facilitate the retention of the rules and procedures involved in computational skills” (Emmanuel Manalo Julie.K. Bunnel and Jennifer A. Stillman 2000).
"Yodai "or Process mnemonics was originated in Japan as Yodai which means "the essence of structure". Japanese educator Masachika Nakane developed the method to teach students summarize the organization of the problem and solve it.
Generally used to teach higher levels of computation like multiplication of decimals and fractions. Sentences, phrases, songs and rhymes are used to teach the steps in solving the problems. The components of computation are explained elaborately and then the concepts explained through the familiar ideas related to the students. (e.g. warriors, pools joggers, swimmers, bugs etc…)
The whole sum is summarized into short essential phrases. Symbols and words used as cues to extract the essence of the problem, which helps the students recognize the process for the solution. There is the linking of abstract symbols with concrete associations facilitate the cohesive combination of relevant parts of a procedure.
Process mnemonics is useful in computational skills of addition subtraction multiplication and division,remember rules and procedures in spelling, trigonometry, mathematics and science.
It is used to teach a range of subjects including arithmetic algebra geometry trigonometry calculus inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry, physics, biology spelling grammar and the English language.
Process mnemonics utilize the five principles of learning and memory: meaningfulness organization association attention and visualization. It thus establishes the two rules or components of mnemonics (learning and retaining the correct procedures) effectively.
Mnemonics helps the students remember the numbers and their concepts by associating them with the peg words. In order to learn the structure to develop problem solving skills "yodei " or process mnemonics is immensely helpful. Thus the combination of both the above methods can help improve the efficiency of a student's computation skills.
According to Higbee (1987) process mnemonics is a strategy "that is used to remember a process or as one that gives a process for remembering many different facts ".
They are names as process mnemonics because they are intended to serve as readily retrievable mediators for learning and recalling the orderly cognitive processes required in problem solving (Kunihira1981, Higbee1987)
And it is designed to “facilitate the retention of the rules and procedures involved in computational skills” (Emmanuel Manalo Julie.K. Bunnel and Jennifer A. Stillman 2000).
"Yodai "or Process mnemonics was originated in Japan as Yodai which means "the essence of structure". Japanese educator Masachika Nakane developed the method to teach students summarize the organization of the problem and solve it.
Generally used to teach higher levels of computation like multiplication of decimals and fractions. Sentences, phrases, songs and rhymes are used to teach the steps in solving the problems. The components of computation are explained elaborately and then the concepts explained through the familiar ideas related to the students. (e.g. warriors, pools joggers, swimmers, bugs etc…)
The whole sum is summarized into short essential phrases. Symbols and words used as cues to extract the essence of the problem, which helps the students recognize the process for the solution. There is the linking of abstract symbols with concrete associations facilitate the cohesive combination of relevant parts of a procedure.
Process mnemonics is useful in computational skills of addition subtraction multiplication and division,remember rules and procedures in spelling, trigonometry, mathematics and science.
It is used to teach a range of subjects including arithmetic algebra geometry trigonometry calculus inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry, physics, biology spelling grammar and the English language.
Process mnemonics utilize the five principles of learning and memory: meaningfulness organization association attention and visualization. It thus establishes the two rules or components of mnemonics (learning and retaining the correct procedures) effectively.
Mnemonics helps the students remember the numbers and their concepts by associating them with the peg words. In order to learn the structure to develop problem solving skills "yodei " or process mnemonics is immensely helpful. Thus the combination of both the above methods can help improve the efficiency of a student's computation skills.
# posted by Swapna Bolleboina @ 4:47 PM 
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Hi Sonia,
Thanks for visiting the blog. It is indeed interesting to know that you love mathematics. You did ask very interesting questions and let me provide you with a better understanding of process mnemonics.
By way of introduction, I do mathematics. Or rather, I'm learning mathematics. Will definitely teach, some day. I've always felt that the reason why math teaching at the school level is so problematic, (I know it is in India, and have heard it's so all over the world)
is that there is little resemblance between real beautiful meaningful mathematics and the computational skills we think we need to equip our children with.
(I was unable to understand this part of your sentence. In case you are trying to argue about the difference in what is taught and what is needed to be taught then I agree wit you. However it is very important to make the abstract concepts interesting. Hence they are beautified or rather made interesting through the use of stories and various other methods).
Oh, I just wanted to say that I object to your first sentence. Whatever process mnemonics are, they don't sound like anything related to mathematics.
(This part of my answer very well connects with the earlier part of your comment. So mathematics is made easy or interesting using various strategies of which process mnemonics is one. They try to personify the process of subtraction, addition, multiplication and division and other methods of mathematics to make the students understand the “process” and the concept than just mugging up the process. )
That was rude, I know, but I feel strongly about the subject. I spent some in classrooms thinking "All this is so interesting when you really look at it. Why do they insist on making it so boring? All tables to be memorized and procedures to be followed, and no one tell you why you aren't allowed to do things differently."
( This was what exactly I mentioned earlier. Process mnemonics tries to simplify and make the banal and boring part more interesting by making them understand what exactly addition or subtraction etc.. means. And when you know the concept thoroughly don’t you think it is easy to remember how to solve the problem?)
You venture an idea and they tell you not to act too smart. I was never a topper, not even in mathematics. Couldn't memorize tables for my life. Little good they would do me if I could, too.
( Well, that is really unfortunate about our system of education. We are not expected to try out anything new. Moreover the teachers teach them in such a way that the students develop hatred to the whole subject. So the instructors and the teaching practices are to be blamed not the new methods like process mnemonics which try to help the students who have difficulties in learning the “process” and the “concept” than just encouraging the mugging up part)
What you say about the five principles of learning and memory is striking. Meaningfulness, organization, association... it's all there, once you know where to look, or how to look.( I hope you have got a substantial answer to your queries. In case you want any further information about process mnemonics, I would be too glad to provide you with the same. Keep visiting :)).
Thanks for visiting the blog. It is indeed interesting to know that you love mathematics. You did ask very interesting questions and let me provide you with a better understanding of process mnemonics.
By way of introduction, I do mathematics. Or rather, I'm learning mathematics. Will definitely teach, some day. I've always felt that the reason why math teaching at the school level is so problematic, (I know it is in India, and have heard it's so all over the world)
is that there is little resemblance between real beautiful meaningful mathematics and the computational skills we think we need to equip our children with.
(I was unable to understand this part of your sentence. In case you are trying to argue about the difference in what is taught and what is needed to be taught then I agree wit you. However it is very important to make the abstract concepts interesting. Hence they are beautified or rather made interesting through the use of stories and various other methods).
Oh, I just wanted to say that I object to your first sentence. Whatever process mnemonics are, they don't sound like anything related to mathematics.
(This part of my answer very well connects with the earlier part of your comment. So mathematics is made easy or interesting using various strategies of which process mnemonics is one. They try to personify the process of subtraction, addition, multiplication and division and other methods of mathematics to make the students understand the “process” and the concept than just mugging up the process. )
That was rude, I know, but I feel strongly about the subject. I spent some in classrooms thinking "All this is so interesting when you really look at it. Why do they insist on making it so boring? All tables to be memorized and procedures to be followed, and no one tell you why you aren't allowed to do things differently."
( This was what exactly I mentioned earlier. Process mnemonics tries to simplify and make the banal and boring part more interesting by making them understand what exactly addition or subtraction etc.. means. And when you know the concept thoroughly don’t you think it is easy to remember how to solve the problem?)
You venture an idea and they tell you not to act too smart. I was never a topper, not even in mathematics. Couldn't memorize tables for my life. Little good they would do me if I could, too.
( Well, that is really unfortunate about our system of education. We are not expected to try out anything new. Moreover the teachers teach them in such a way that the students develop hatred to the whole subject. So the instructors and the teaching practices are to be blamed not the new methods like process mnemonics which try to help the students who have difficulties in learning the “process” and the “concept” than just encouraging the mugging up part)
What you say about the five principles of learning and memory is striking. Meaningfulness, organization, association... it's all there, once you know where to look, or how to look.( I hope you have got a substantial answer to your queries. In case you want any further information about process mnemonics, I would be too glad to provide you with the same. Keep visiting :)).
My 17 paisa on rote-learning..
FAQ: If I learned multiplication by repeating my times table sing-song, does that mean I don't understand arithmetic?
You might be able to understand arithmetic, but those cases would be very rare.
2 * 3 = 6 is pretty easy to remember, but it does not necessarily mean what it means to multiply. It does not tell us how it is useful, nor what situations require its application and why would one use multiplication instead of addition or division in a particular situation. One way (there could be many other!) to learn multiplication without rote learning is to apply it for calculating area and or volume. If we understand the question, what it is we are trying to solve (area, volume, density), it is pretty easy to figure out how to go about it, lets take calculating area, it is repeated addition and then what multiplication actually is makes sense. Just making kids learn multiplication tables is useless and counter-productive.
The rote-learning method is not just for multiplication, but it is continued ad nauseum. People rote-learn forumulae for calculus, trigonometry, physics and almost everything else, pass the exams, which are designed to test a person's ability to read, remember and regurgitate, eventually leading to a degree without any understanding! If someone doesn't understand what multiplication is but learns calculus and trigonometry, the entire educational (mathematical) foundation is on very shaky foundation.
On a related note, how many degree holders can actually fill various forms without asking a dozen people on what each field means? What it tells me is that people can read (that their visual cognitive apparatus is functional), but can't comprehend. I think it is fairly reasonable to say that Indian education system produces illiterate degree holders. A compelling case can be made that most of them would fail a test of comprehension and arithmetic.
Where/how do Indian's get the impression that they are smart(er)? This can be found in the grading system.
Sinister aspect of grading: "Grades really cover up failure to teach. A bad instructor can go through an entire quarter leaving absolutely nothing memorable in the minds of his class, curve out the scores on an irrelevant test, and leave the impression that some have learned and some have not. But if the grades are removed the class is forced to wonder each day what it's really learning. The questions, What's being taught? What's the goal? How do the lectures and assignments accomplish the goal? become ominious. The removal of grades exposes a huge and frightening vacuum." - Robert Pirsig, ZAMM
Indian education system is "merit" based, just like the grades above. But they are all relative, they only measure how well one can regurgitate, not understanding.
On an slightly unrelated note.. As most of the education is on very shaky grounds, Indians are unlikely to innovate, for example we don't even see pseudocode based OS's like Windows OS's from India. "Pseudocode is code to demonstrate a concept, not designed to be run. Like certain Microsoft software." - Robert's Perl Tutorial. Nor do we see search engines. Innovation requires understanding and that too a lots of people who understand. Not just a few outliers. Because for every success we see out here, there are thousands of failures that we don't know about, most of them by people who understand but could not come up with a profitable business model. Innovative success requires risk-taking and from my limited understanding, it seems that 99.763% of Indians are ultra-risk-averse. If someone can throw some light on this, would very much appreciate it. It could very well be that my understanding of risk is fundamentally flawed, just like corruption, before reading Balu's responses on corruption.
Now, some would say that Indian Traditions rely on memorizing. But I don' think it is based on rote-learning. For the sake of discussion, lets take Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. From my understanding, each sutra has a lot of meaning, it is very densely packed and one needs to think deeply (or meditate!) on what it means. Of course, this can't be done without memorizing that particular sutra.
Any questions, comments, brickbats (even personal attacks profanities are welcome!) and such, please e-mail me at letsbuildanation@gmail.com or leave a comment on my learning research blog at: http://learningresearch.blogspot.com/
FAQ: If I learned multiplication by repeating my times table sing-song, does that mean I don't understand arithmetic?
You might be able to understand arithmetic, but those cases would be very rare.
2 * 3 = 6 is pretty easy to remember, but it does not necessarily mean what it means to multiply. It does not tell us how it is useful, nor what situations require its application and why would one use multiplication instead of addition or division in a particular situation. One way (there could be many other!) to learn multiplication without rote learning is to apply it for calculating area and or volume. If we understand the question, what it is we are trying to solve (area, volume, density), it is pretty easy to figure out how to go about it, lets take calculating area, it is repeated addition and then what multiplication actually is makes sense. Just making kids learn multiplication tables is useless and counter-productive.
The rote-learning method is not just for multiplication, but it is continued ad nauseum. People rote-learn forumulae for calculus, trigonometry, physics and almost everything else, pass the exams, which are designed to test a person's ability to read, remember and regurgitate, eventually leading to a degree without any understanding! If someone doesn't understand what multiplication is but learns calculus and trigonometry, the entire educational (mathematical) foundation is on very shaky foundation.
On a related note, how many degree holders can actually fill various forms without asking a dozen people on what each field means? What it tells me is that people can read (that their visual cognitive apparatus is functional), but can't comprehend. I think it is fairly reasonable to say that Indian education system produces illiterate degree holders. A compelling case can be made that most of them would fail a test of comprehension and arithmetic.
Where/how do Indian's get the impression that they are smart(er)? This can be found in the grading system.
Sinister aspect of grading: "Grades really cover up failure to teach. A bad instructor can go through an entire quarter leaving absolutely nothing memorable in the minds of his class, curve out the scores on an irrelevant test, and leave the impression that some have learned and some have not. But if the grades are removed the class is forced to wonder each day what it's really learning. The questions, What's being taught? What's the goal? How do the lectures and assignments accomplish the goal? become ominious. The removal of grades exposes a huge and frightening vacuum." - Robert Pirsig, ZAMM
Indian education system is "merit" based, just like the grades above. But they are all relative, they only measure how well one can regurgitate, not understanding.
On an slightly unrelated note.. As most of the education is on very shaky grounds, Indians are unlikely to innovate, for example we don't even see pseudocode based OS's like Windows OS's from India. "Pseudocode is code to demonstrate a concept, not designed to be run. Like certain Microsoft software." - Robert's Perl Tutorial. Nor do we see search engines. Innovation requires understanding and that too a lots of people who understand. Not just a few outliers. Because for every success we see out here, there are thousands of failures that we don't know about, most of them by people who understand but could not come up with a profitable business model. Innovative success requires risk-taking and from my limited understanding, it seems that 99.763% of Indians are ultra-risk-averse. If someone can throw some light on this, would very much appreciate it. It could very well be that my understanding of risk is fundamentally flawed, just like corruption, before reading Balu's responses on corruption.
Now, some would say that Indian Traditions rely on memorizing. But I don' think it is based on rote-learning. For the sake of discussion, lets take Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. From my understanding, each sutra has a lot of meaning, it is very densely packed and one needs to think deeply (or meditate!) on what it means. Of course, this can't be done without memorizing that particular sutra.
Any questions, comments, brickbats (even personal attacks profanities are welcome!) and such, please e-mail me at letsbuildanation@gmail.com or leave a comment on my learning research blog at: http://learningresearch.blogspot.com/
What is meant by the term "brickbats" as mentioned in the first response to this article concerning Masachika Nakane?
Also, is there a way to find specific information written by Masachika Nakane on how to use process mnemonics in tandem with mathematics? When I tried looking for information, I could only find information in Japanese. Any information about process mnemonics in English would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
I actually found a great article dealing with process mnemonics. It is called Cross-Cultural Applications of Yōdai Mnemonics in Education. It's authors are Kenneth L. Higbee of Brigham Young University and Shirou Kunihira of Loma Linda University. Use the PsycINFO database to locate this article.
Hi Iam really interested in pursuing Mnemonics and wanted to know if there is any formal education on the subject in India that I can apply for.
Hi I'm really interested in Mnemonics science and wanted to know if there are any universities in Mumbai that give formal education on the subject.
Thanks
Urmita
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Thanks
Urmita
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