| Background Knowledge |
Readings (3) |
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Background Knowledge
Barbara J. Ehren
Patricia Gildroy
University of Kansas - Center for Research on Learning
We know that readers need to activate background, or prior, knowledge in order to construct meaning from text. We also know that students with reading disabilities often have deficits in this area. In order to understand the nature of the problem it is helpful to understand what is involved in background knowledge. This reading explores three areas related to knowledge: types of knowledge, constructs of knowledge, with a focus on schemata, and categories of knowledge. The following map is a visual depiction of background knowledge.
Types of Knowledge
One way to explain background knowledge is to talk about the different types of knowledge: declarative, procedural, and conditional. Declarative knowledge is often described as the "what" or content of learning. Knowing a piece of information, i.e., a concept, fact, idea or label, would be considered to be in this category. Here is an example: I have declarative knowledge about Labrador Retrievers. I know the history of the breed, characteristics of their behavior, and physical conformation features. Procedural knowledge is "how" type of information that tells us rules to follow to accomplish a task. My procedural knowledge about Labs includes how to care for them and how to show them in a competition. (Knowing the math calculations to figure how much it costs to raise and show a Lab is another example of procedural knowledge!) Conditional knowledge relates to contexts and circumstances of using specific procedures, addressing "when," "where" and "why" information. Applying my procedural knowledge of how to show Labs by knowing the most advantageous time and place to do so is an example of conditional knowledge.
In many learning situations all three types of knowledge may be required. Take, for example, learning to become a safe driver. In order to learn to drive a car, you first have to learn lots of declarative knowledge or facts. For instance, you have to learn the rules of the road, what the different instruments on the dashboard indicate, the differences between the brake and gas pedal, and what is a safe distance between moving cars. Even though you may learn much declarative knowledge, if that is all you know about driving you certainly would not be considered to be a safe driver. Another thing you need to know is the procedural knowledge of how to actually drive a car. Some examples of the procedural knowledge for driving include starting the car, accelerating and stopping smoothly, steering, and turning the car off properly. Safe drivers also have conditional knowledge, which is knowing the appropriate responses for a given set of circumstances. An example of conditional knowledge in driving is being able to brake differently and appropriately if stopping on a gravel road, a smooth dry road, a wet road, or an icy road. Another example of conditional knowledge is knowing that you may need to adjust your driving speed or change lanes to accommodate merging drivers. This goes beyond the procedural knowledge of how to start a car, move forward and backwards, stay in your own lane, and stop smoothly.
Constructs of Knowledge - (Focus on Schemata)
Another way to talk about background knowledge is to discuss the constructs that it includes, like facts, ideas, concepts, labels and schemata. Since schemata are the focus of this lesson, we will discuss them. Before explaining schemata, let's first clarify a point. You will encounter both the words "schema" and "schemata." Don't let that confuse you. Schemata is the plural of schema. A schema is organized knowledge of the world which helps to account for the relationships among elements. It colors how we interpret the words we read. While schema refers to a particular organizational pattern, schemata is a network of many schema. According to schema theories, all knowledge is packaged into units. These units are the schemata that provide a cognitive template for us to store and access world knowledge.
A schema can involve any of the types of knowledge you just learned about or combinations of them. A content-related schema involving declarative knowledge can be described as a domain-specific, relational cluster or a collection of concepts and associative links. Catts (1999) describes content schema as "a superordinate organization of a mass of possible content facts." A student trying to read the biography of General Sherman would be greatly assisted by a Civil War schema; i.e., specific facts, ideas and concepts about that part of history woven into a framework within which to process the new information encountered. Without it, she may not understand everything in the text.
A schema may also involve knowledge structures that people have for common routines or events, like going to a restaurant or attending a basketball game. An event schema is sometimes called a script. This kind of schema has procedural knowledge elements. Read the following sentence and see if you can identify the schema needed for understanding it. "Jesse did not fill out the mailing labels before he went to the post office to mail the packages." If you said you need to have some kind of a "going to the post office" schema, you are right. Based on your past experiences, you may have at first wondered, "How you can mail packages without addressing them." However, Jesse's schema is based on his experiences. At Jesse's post office there is always a very long line. Jesse considers completing the mailing labels while standing in line an efficient use of his time. So the packages do get addressed, but not before Jesse goes to the post office. If you have never encountered long lines in the post office, this may not makes sense to you. Now that you have heard about Jesse's post office, your post office schema has expanded to include the possibility of waiting in long lines, if yours didn't include that before.
It is important to understand that schemata are formed within a cultural context. A person will construct a framework consistent with his age, sex, race, religion, nationality, and occupation, among other factors. For example, if you were to read a book about Italian weddings and a book about American weddings, in which case would you remember more information? Unless you are Italian or have been to an Italian wedding your schema would not be developed for that event. Given that you probably have been to an American wedding and have a schema for it, you would probably remember more of what you read in the American wedding book. However, having read the Italian wedding book, you would have probably constructed a new schema for it, so that the next time you encounter the topic you will have background knowledge to activate.
Categories of Knowledge
There are also many categories of knowledge. However, it is not our intent to review all of them here. The graphic above displays three. One type of knowledge is metacognitive knowledge. It is the knowledge base you must have to operate strategically. It includes knowledge of self as a learner, knowledge of task demands, specific strategies, and general knowledge about strategies. Another type of knowledge is metalinguistic knowledge. It involves knowledge about the structure and use of language. For example, knowing that a word is made up of specific sounds or phonemes is metalinguistic knowledge. Another category of knowledge is world knowledge. It includes those labels, concepts, ideas, and facts about the world in general, organized in a meaningful way to form schemata. It includes the general information shared by people in a given culture, such as wedding traditions, as well as information in specific content domains like biology, literature, and geography. The world knowledge schemata in background knowledge provide a frame of reference for interpreting the experiences we may have or read about.
Reference:
Catts, H. W. & Kamhi, A. G. (1999). Language and reading disabilities. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
