Still More from Chapter 2 of Why Students Don’t Like School

Background Knowledge is Necessary for Cognitive Skills

Most logical thinking is memory retrieval. When confronted with a problem, we think back to how we solved a similar problem, and apply that background knowledge to the new problem.

This is why it’s important to practice solving math problems. The repetition helps us store the problem solving procedures in our long-term memory.

Background knowledge is also important for science. How else could you determine whether or not your experiment had unexpected outcomes if you did not already know what to expect?

Factual Knowledge Improves Your Memory

Let’s say a group is reading a story or an essay. Those with greater background knowledge about the topic will remember more of what they read than those for whom much of the information was new.

Why is this? The reader with background knowledge knows more about the topic and consequently does not have to pay attention to as much detail as the person without the background knowledge. The person with the background knowledge has less new information to absorb. It’s hard to keep too much new knowledge in working memory.

“…Having factual knowledge in long-term memory makes it easier to acquire still more factual knowledge.” The more you have, the more you retain. Now we’re back to the Matthew Effect I posted about here.

Willingham sums up this part of chapter 2:

“…the cognitive processes that are most esteemed – logical thinking, problem solving and the like – are intertwined with knowledge. It is certainly true that facts without the skills to use them are of little value. It is equally true that one cannot employ thinking skills effectively without factual knowledge.”

Implications for the classroom in the next post.