Prior Knowledge

Mirror

 

Prior knowledge can both hinder and help learning.  While we might imagine students enter our classrooms like the empty glasses referenced in the cognitive load workshop, ready to be filled with knowledge, our students come into our classrooms with minds already filled not only with hopes and expectations mentioned in the motivation workshop, but also with knowledge about the world and how they think it works.   For instance, prior misconceptions can interfere with their retention of accurate information while relevant examples and analogies can aid their understanding new content.  This resource page will provide examples and strategies of how prior knowledge affects learning.

 

 

 

#1.png Prior Knowledge can HINDER learning

All students will have had either formal or informal exposure to your particular discipline through their K-12 schooling, popular culture, family and friends or through their own everyday experiences.  That exposure may give them inappropriate knowledge about your field and thereby hinder their learning.  For instance, all students have been taught in school how photosynthesis works; yet the Minds of their Own video below shows Harvard and MIT graduates still misunderstand a key outcome of photosynthesis because their misconception that a plant is similar to a human is so much stickier and robust.  

Or, when the inaccurate prior knowledge is based on such a deeply held intuition, exposing it as a misconception can evoke such sheer disbelief that it may interfere with further learning.  

Follow-up Resources

 

#2.png Prior Knowledge can ENHANCE learning

Yet prior knowledge can also enhance understanding of new content, especially when a teacher uses a familiar context.  For instance, set a timer to see how long it takes you to solve this logic game.  Then, time how long it takes you to review this version of the game, which takes place in a more familiar setting.  

Follow-Up Resources

 

#3.png Strategies/Methods to Address or Encorporate Prior Knowledge

  • Assess students frequently with Classroom Assessment Techniques Links to an external site.; in particular, give students knowledge surveys Links to an external site., have them draw concept maps Links to an external site. or ask them to describe the “muddiest point”--the most unclear/confusing part--of the class.
  • When the new knowledge has the potential to conflict with students’ personal or political beliefs (such as evolution and climate change), teachers need to be careful since there’s a possibility that simply presenting correct information could engage the “backfire effect Links to an external site.”.  While focused specifically on addressing the backfire effect, the  Debunking Handbook Links to an external site. also provides strategies for handling less controversial misconceptions.  
  • While choosing the appropriate strategy to assess prior knowledge is important, it is equally important to remember the human(e) side of teaching, where honesty and humility can play often overlooked roles in motivating students to learn.  The video linked below is of a professor talking about how he learned about his students’ inappropriate prior knowledge, reminds us that teaching is more than just methods, techniques and strategies.

Tools for assessing students