“Rote memorization has displaced critical thinking and driven young Japanese students away from the study of history, argues the author, who blames the universities’ own fact-driven entrance examinations for the crisis facing the humanities and social sciences in higher education.” https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a05103/exam-hell-and-the-crisis-in-history-education.html
This RLE looks at different ways of studying history and assessing history knowledge. The rote memorization way is closer to the “just observe” and “just write down” model. This style of education does help simply teaching and testing. It is also easier for a government to ensure uniformity in education because the simplicity of this model is easy to replicate in a large number of schools.
However, the the “just observe” and “just write down” style of history education does not help students develop a deeper understanding of the issues. It also does not help them evaluate evidence or formulate complex arguments.
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