Activating Prior Knowledge
Activating Prior Knowledge
Transcript
Every new piece of information that we learn rests on a foundation of prior knowledge. We learn new ideas by connecting them to what we already know, adding them to an existing network of concepts and relationships. The more we know about a subject or an idea, the more easily we can learn, because the more we have to connect back to.
Let me give you an example. My baby nephew Sean has been trying for months to learn his colors. He'll line up his little matchbox cars in a row and my sister will point to one and say, "Sean, what color is that?" For a long time, the answer every time was yellow. Not because all his cars are yellow, but because he knew that yellow was a word people often said after color. And that if he said yellow and he happened to be right, everyone would clap and tell him how smart he was and it would be exciting.
He had one kind of connection, but he didn't have the whole picture. Recently though, Sean figured out what yellow meant. He learned his first color and all of a sudden, the rest of the colors were easy. Once you have the abstract idea of what a color is, you have context and every new color is just an example of an idea you already understand. Learning new colors is just a process of naming what you see and perceive. Obviously, most of what we learn in college and in the world is a whole lot more complex than a baby learning colors. But, the same basic principle holds. It's easier to take in and retain new information when we have a framework, a context to fit it into.
How does this help us in the classroom? If we know prior knowledge is important for learning, then one of the best tools at our disposal in any new learning project is self-assessing prior knowledge. Before we begin, we want to start by asking ourselves two essential questions, what are we trying to learn, and, what do we already know? Asking these questions at the outset helps us confirm we're ready to begin, that our prior knowledge is adequate.
Say I want to learn multivariable calculus, but all I know so far of math is Algebra I. Self-assessing what I know so far helps me recognize that I'm missing Algebra II, geometry, trigonometry, precalculus, single-variable calculus. It helps me recognize that I can probably learn multivariable calculus, but it's gonna take extra work and extra time to fill in gaps and it may end up being more time than I'm gonna be able to put in. Assessing what I already know helps me recognize that maybe I'm not ready for that deep learning project. And then maybe I want to go back a few steps to ensure prior knowledge. For yourself in the classroom, you might ask questions like, what do I already know about this topic or field? And have I learned a similar subject or skill? What will my professor expect me to know when I show up in class the first day in terms of facts and background information, but also in terms of the skills and techniques that are used in the field?
The other reason assessing prior knowledge is helpful is just because it forces us to retrieve what we already know. And it reminds us of the connections and associations that are already at our disposal. Consciously taking the time to inventory what we know that's related primes our brains to make connections as we take in that information. And so it helps us distinguish what's new and important from what's already familiar as we go through the lecture and readings, right? It helps us tell when the professor is really excited and we didn't know that yet, from when the professors are reminding us of something that we learned a long time ago. It also sets us up to think about learning as a process of making connections. That same strategy of consciously working to identify new information and how it fits with what we already know where it's not just at the beginning of a project, but at every step along the way.
Self assessment isn't a one-and-done deal, it's a constant foundation that we're working from as we learn. So as we go, we might ask questions like, how does this subject relate to other subjects I've learned in the past? How does each new topic or unit connect with the ones that came before and after? What stories are being told by this information? The effect of this regular self assessment and this effort to connect new ideas to prior knowledge is to foster what's called conceptual learning. If we learn by connecting information to what we already know, then the more connections we can make, the better we'll be able to hold onto that information.
By asking ourselves questions about how ideas connect, we force ourselves to think consciously about those conceptual connections to tell ourselves stories, to draw ourselves maps of how ideas fit together. If we take the time to ask these questions, we can use our understanding of the importance of prior knowledge to set ourselves reasonable learning challenges and help our brains along in the process of making connections that we know to be essential for deep learning.
Let me give you an example. My baby nephew Sean has been trying for months to learn his colors. He'll line up his little matchbox cars in a row and my sister will point to one and say, "Sean, what color is that?" For a long time, the answer every time was yellow. Not because all his cars are yellow, but because he knew that yellow was a word people often said after color. And that if he said yellow and he happened to be right, everyone would clap and tell him how smart he was and it would be exciting.
He had one kind of connection, but he didn't have the whole picture. Recently though, Sean figured out what yellow meant. He learned his first color and all of a sudden, the rest of the colors were easy. Once you have the abstract idea of what a color is, you have context and every new color is just an example of an idea you already understand. Learning new colors is just a process of naming what you see and perceive. Obviously, most of what we learn in college and in the world is a whole lot more complex than a baby learning colors. But, the same basic principle holds. It's easier to take in and retain new information when we have a framework, a context to fit it into.
How does this help us in the classroom? If we know prior knowledge is important for learning, then one of the best tools at our disposal in any new learning project is self-assessing prior knowledge. Before we begin, we want to start by asking ourselves two essential questions, what are we trying to learn, and, what do we already know? Asking these questions at the outset helps us confirm we're ready to begin, that our prior knowledge is adequate.
Say I want to learn multivariable calculus, but all I know so far of math is Algebra I. Self-assessing what I know so far helps me recognize that I'm missing Algebra II, geometry, trigonometry, precalculus, single-variable calculus. It helps me recognize that I can probably learn multivariable calculus, but it's gonna take extra work and extra time to fill in gaps and it may end up being more time than I'm gonna be able to put in. Assessing what I already know helps me recognize that maybe I'm not ready for that deep learning project. And then maybe I want to go back a few steps to ensure prior knowledge. For yourself in the classroom, you might ask questions like, what do I already know about this topic or field? And have I learned a similar subject or skill? What will my professor expect me to know when I show up in class the first day in terms of facts and background information, but also in terms of the skills and techniques that are used in the field?
The other reason assessing prior knowledge is helpful is just because it forces us to retrieve what we already know. And it reminds us of the connections and associations that are already at our disposal. Consciously taking the time to inventory what we know that's related primes our brains to make connections as we take in that information. And so it helps us distinguish what's new and important from what's already familiar as we go through the lecture and readings, right? It helps us tell when the professor is really excited and we didn't know that yet, from when the professors are reminding us of something that we learned a long time ago. It also sets us up to think about learning as a process of making connections. That same strategy of consciously working to identify new information and how it fits with what we already know where it's not just at the beginning of a project, but at every step along the way.
Self assessment isn't a one-and-done deal, it's a constant foundation that we're working from as we learn. So as we go, we might ask questions like, how does this subject relate to other subjects I've learned in the past? How does each new topic or unit connect with the ones that came before and after? What stories are being told by this information? The effect of this regular self assessment and this effort to connect new ideas to prior knowledge is to foster what's called conceptual learning. If we learn by connecting information to what we already know, then the more connections we can make, the better we'll be able to hold onto that information.
By asking ourselves questions about how ideas connect, we force ourselves to think consciously about those conceptual connections to tell ourselves stories, to draw ourselves maps of how ideas fit together. If we take the time to ask these questions, we can use our understanding of the importance of prior knowledge to set ourselves reasonable learning challenges and help our brains along in the process of making connections that we know to be essential for deep learning.