GaTAPP Essentials - Build on Prior Knowledge

Building on Prior Knowledge

Students learn more effectively when they already know something about a content area and when concepts in that area mean something to them and to their particular background or culture.

For example – If you can recall a feeling of homesickness, you can understand the story better.

For example - You can understand + - numbers easier if you can make a connection to a bank statement.

When teachers link new information to the student's prior knowledge, they activate the student's interest and curiosity, and infuse instruction with a sense of purpose.

Prior knowledge acts as a lens through which we view and absorb new information. It is a composite of who we are, based on what we have learned from both our academic and everyday experiences. By tapping their students' prior knowledge in all subject areas, teachers can plan lessons that will: clarify incomplete or erroneous prior knowledge, determine the extent of instruction necessary in a particular topic area, and discern necessary adjustments to planned independent activities and assessment materials.

The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach accordingly.
Activating Prior Knowledge is like tilling the soil before planting or preheating the oven before baking the cake.

Background Knowledge

•Research has shown that a learner’s prior knowledge often confounds an educator’s best efforts to deliver ideas accurately.

•Learning proceeds primarily from prior knowledge, and only secondarily from the presented materials.

•Neglect of prior knowledge can result in the audience learning something opposed to the educator’s intentions, no matter how good those intentions are.

It's true that knowledge gives students something to think about, but a reading of the research literature from cognitive science shows that knowledge does much more than just help students hone their thinking skills: It actually makes learning easier.

Knowledge is not only cumulative, it grows exponentially.

Those with a rich base of factual knowledge find it easier to learn more—the rich get richer. In addition, factual knowledge enhances cognitive processes like problem solving and reasoning. The richer the knowledge base, the more smoothly and effectively these cognitive processes—the very ones that teachers target—operate. So, the more knowledge students accumulate, the smarter they become.

Comprehension demands background knowledge because language is full of semantic breaks in which knowledge is assumed and, therefore, comprehension depends on making correct inferences.

If the writer assumes that you have some background knowledge that you lack, you'll be confused.

For example, if you read, "He was a real Benedict Arnold about it" and you don't know who Benedict Arnold was, you're lost. This implication of background knowledge is straightforward and easy to grasp.

The ability to read a text and make sense of it is highly correlated with background knowledge. If you know more, you're a better reader.

Interested in learning more??

http://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/spring-2006/how-knowledge-helps

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