In my mind the word drill brings about a negative connotation. It makes me think of a military drill sergeant. It makes me think of being under a time pressure. It makes me think of the moans and groans that usually come from my students when they hear the word drill. When we do timed multiplication (or other skills) drills, students are asked to repetitively perform the same action, often with no true understanding of what they are doing. It is based on rote memorization.
On the other hand, practice has a far gentler feel to it and does not bring about such negative emotions. "Practice Makes Perfect" comes to mind. When we are providing the kids with activities for practice, we are giving them a way to become "perfect" at that skill, a way to play with the concept until they can truly understand it for themselves. To use Maggie's terms--we are feeding them mangoes!
6 comments:
I went for the dictionary first as well! Both words can mean practice through repetition. I think of drills as teacher generated to memorize a fact or skill. It makes me think of teacher ownership. Practice to me seems more like the kids have ownership. We drilll something into someone and when we practice we finetune that skill.
Marianne
grade 2
I too went to the dictionary first...
What caught my eye were the words "intensive instruction or training". Which means to me, unpleasant repeated exercise. Another difference was that practice definition contained the word "proficiency". Practice leads to proficiency, but drill may not.(?)
Drill to me conjures up the image of regurgitation of a rote skill, whereas practice feels more like putting the skill into context, i.e. applying a skill to something meaningful.
Tammy :P 7th grade resource room FMS
I agree with all of you. I want to be a practitioner of mathematics rather than a drill sargeant. In my own educational experience I have had both types of teachers and combinations of the two. Certain concepts have been drilled into my head and I appreciate the automaticity. (I'm a tactile learner and if I hadn't had certain facts drilled into my mind I probably would have had to use my fingers during tests in HS and college.) With that said, (just to play Devil's advocate) is there a place for the drill in math class? Is there a type of learner who learns best this way?
I have to agee with the statement that "the word drill brings about a negative connotation" and I don't believe in drilling younger students (grades 1 & 2), expecially Special Ed. students. My feeling is that there are more creative ways to drill addition and subtraction. Play games, using number grids, maniplitives ....
I was thinking about this on my way home... and like many here, I also teach Language Arts... so here is my analogy...
Practice is done to develop skill and deepen understanding and insight. (That's why it's so important that a student is practicing right, instead of practicing wrong.) I agree with all the posts here, practice is done during the learning phase.
So, it's much like learning the meaning of words and how sentences and paragraphs work together to communicate ideas and describe feelings and things.
Once those skills are developed the student can read and make meaning.
Drill provides the necessary opportunity to develop smoothness, speed, and rhythm ... in other words... fluency. Drill is essential because just as a halting and stammering reader is losing the meaning in the struggle to navigate text, a math student, without facility with facts and concepts, gets blocked and anxious... and loses sight of the actual problem or mathematical goal.
So, both practice and drill have a place in learning concepts and procedures and refining skills.
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