It is important for students to understand ideas and concepts than it is for them to learn facts. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

The world today has made progress in various fields ranging from science and technology to arts and humanities. With this ongoing development, there has been a huge demand out of the box thinkers and especially, much more expected from the younger generation. For such a highly thoughtful process, some people believe that it is important for students to understand ideas and concepts while rest believe it’s just important to learn facts and figures. Personally, I believe that understanding ideas and concepts deeply is the initial step to think in an innovative or a rather creative manner.

Firstly, understanding of a concept or an idea involves thorough understanding that too in a significant depth to the topic. Going through the details of a topic is an essential element in every subject like biology, engineering, medicine, anthropology, astronomy, history, arts, mathematics, etc. Without an in-depth understanding, the idea or the concept behind the topic remains mystic to a student and impedes the learning process. Suppose, a biology student just learns the important facts behind the process of digestion without completely understanding the whole process, then such vague method of learning can have a detrimental effect later in life while practicing medicine. Consider another example of an engineering student, who just memorizes the theory of thermodynamic cycle without absolutely understanding the concept. Act of such memorization can hinder the practical understanding of the concept and can later affect the student during practical sessions.

Secondly, the world today is filled with complex problems and issues in a variety of subjects. Solutions to these require an unconventional way of thinking. For, thinking with such a different methodology involves the elementary step of understanding the concept or idea as a whole. Without having a deep knowledge of the concept, solutions or ideas cannot be developed in response to any issue. For example, as the number of cars is increasing day by day all over the world and so, is the demand for fuel increasing simultaneously whereas the fuel reserves have been depleting. So, to tackle the issue between the widening gap between demand and supply for energy, scientists have designed electric cars which run battery. Such out of the box solution wouldn’t have been possible without the proper understanding of the working process of an engine.

However, understanding of an idea or a concept is a tedious process and can be a monotonous task for some students. Many students throughout the world find their syllabus to be vast and often find it difficult to finish in a semester. So, as a result, students mostly end up just learning the facts and figures on a topic which might be helpful to just score well enough in their term examinations. They find this method easier and time consuming not really finding it necessary to understand the whole idea. In fact, many university students around the world have developed a habit of studying the night before exams and scoring well enough to clear their subjects.

In sum, understanding of concepts and ideas has many advantages which outweigh its disadvantages. It can make the students think innovatively and creatively which is the need of the hour in today’s world. In fact, the world today values and commends such out of the box thinkers rather those who know just the facts and figures.