This is what I'm reading right now...

JackiTiger · January 2009

This article summarizes the basic concepts of multiplication and provides some evidence that the traditional third-grade curriculum and instruction emphasizing memorization of multiplication facts produces much less understanding of the basic concepts of multiplication than a standards-based curriculum and instruction emphasizing construction of number sense and meaning for operations. This study also describes a collection of assessment tasks that provided meaningful evidence of children's understandings of basic multiplication concepts, including understandings of the relationships between multiplication and addition.
At the beginning of a recent school year, parents of students in the first author's third-grade mathematics class asked if their children would be following the longstanding tradition of memorizing multiplication facts. The experiences of these parents with their older children at this same elementary school had been that third-grade mathematics included a heavy emphasis on memorizing facts through drill and practice, worksheets, flashcards, and other memorization aids. Timed tests had previously been used to monitor and encourage children's growing ability to recall multiplication facts. Consequently, the parents had often assisted their children in memorizing these facts. The parents knew that Dr. Smith would be continuing the standards-based curriculum she had used with their children during first and second grades as she continued her 6-year longitudinal teaching and research project. However, the parents wondered how the new curriculum's focus on problem solving, understanding, and mathematical discourse would prepare their children for the state's end-of-year examination.

but it's just blah blah blah....somebody put me out of my misery