Memorization has a bad name in educational circles. Since it is the easiest type of learning to teach and to measure (test), it is overused. We often require our learners to memorize things which don't really need to be memorized, and we fail to teach as many of the higher types of learning as our learners need because we have spent so much time on memorization. 

But there are some important invariant tasks in the world, and the only way it makes sense to learn them is memorization. Most higher forms of learning are not possible unless certain information has been memorized first, to the point where it is an "automatic" "response-that" is, we don't have to think about it, which frees us to use our cognitive resources on higher matters. The addition facts in math and the sounds of individual letters in reading are cases in point. We also need to memorize the names of things in order to be able to communicate about them. 

  

• What are invariant tasks? 
• Why are invariant tasks important? 
• Principles for learning invariant tasks 
• Principles for teaching invariant tasks - Case Study
• Principles for teaching invariant tasks - Summary
• Activities in the development process 
• Synthesis 
• References and resources