If you choose the right kind of problem that the children can figure out on their own -- it helps a lot. The will remember it better, and they will also feel better about their own skill at math.
But if you incorrectly estimate the difficulty of the problem... and instead of noticing your mistake and fixing it, you just wait for a miracle to happen -- the kids will only waste time and get frustrated.
The problem is teachers who believe they can do this trick, but fail to notice that they are doing it wrong, and then they blame the kids.
If you choose the right kind of problem that the children can figure out on their own -- it helps a lot. The will remember it better, and they will also feel better about their own skill at math.
But if you incorrectly estimate the difficulty of the problem... and instead of noticing your mistake and fixing it, you just wait for a miracle to happen -- the kids will only waste time and get frustrated.
The problem is teachers who believe they can do this trick, but fail to notice that they are doing it wrong, and then they blame the kids.