Knowledge Construction
Chapter 7
We construct knowledge from the stimuli available, filling in the blanks with
inferences & past knowledge.
Construction occurs during both learning and retrieval of information
• Construction in Storage
• We make errors when we fill in the blanks of our understanding
with what we expect to see.
• Prior knowledge & expectation most influence our learning
when information is ambiguous.
• Construction in Retrieval
• This occurs when people fill in the gaps in what they can
retrieve based on what seem logical- but often make a
reconstruction error. This is an individual construction.
• Two people experiencing the same thing can both make errors
that contribute to misunderstandings.
Knowledge construction is a Social Process
• Social constructivism is joint, collective efforts to impose meaning
on the world.
• Culture plays a huge role in knowledge development.
• Group meaning-making in the classroom
• Students working together in groups construct meaning from
information presented.
Group meaning-making in the classroom
• Encourages students to organize/clarify thoughts
• Opportunities for students to elaborate on learning
• Enables students to see flaws, gaps in thinking
• Helps students to understand different cultural perspectives on the
world
• So students develop a more complex understanding of a topicdistributed cognition
Other benefits of group work
• Arguments among students pushes them to higher levels of cognitive/
moral development (Piaget)
• Arguments teach children to look at an issue from multiple
perspectives (Vygotsky)
• Develops more effective interpersonal skills
• Learning more complex metacognition skills
• Develops self-efficacy by modeling peers
• Motivates greater participation
Organizing knowledge
• Organizing knowledge creates better interconnectedness in LTM
• Concepts
• A way of mentally grouping/categorizing objects
• Schemas
• Organized body of knowledge about phenomena- a typical
example of objects
• Scripts
• Predictable sequences of events related to an activity
• Personal theories
• General belief systems about how the world operates
Concepts
• Undergeneralization (too narrow a view) vs.
overgeneralization (too broad a view)
• Positive instances- examples
• Negative instances- nonexamples
• Feature lists
• Defining features are present in all positive instances
• Correlational features- present but not essential
• Salient features–concrete and obvious, not abstract,
ambiguous
• Concepts as prototypes
• An idea or image that is a typical example
• It becomes a template to compare new examples with
• Concepts as exemplars
• Varieties of examples, not defining features
• Give students many examples to form a concept
• Interconnectedness of concepts
• Students must also find ways to connect concepts
• Hierarchies
• Single vs. multiple classifications (preoperational vs.
concrete operational ages)
Schemas and Scripts
• Teachers need to assess whether students have the appropriate
schemas and scripts (organized bodies of knowledge about specific
topics) to understand new subject matter being taught.
• If they do not, teachers need to backtrack and help them develop that
understanding.
Personal Theories
• Personal theories guide children as they identify possible defining
features of the new concepts.
• Some of these theories are incorrect- misconceptions about how the
world works.
Misconceptions
• May arise from how things appear to be – sun appears to move
across the sky.
• May arise from common expressions (sun rises)
• Events close together in time may be understood to be causal.
• Not only must teachers help students construct accurate concepts,
but must also help them discard inaccurate beliefs.
Effective knowledge construction
• Opportunities for experimentation
• Develops first-hand knowledge, procedures
• Presenting the ideas of others
• Emphasizing conceptual understanding- integrated, meaningful, &
interrelated information
• Organize units around ideas/ themes & show how context
relates to the core idea
• Explore topics in depth, with detail
• Relate topics to students’ lives
• Ask students to teach new information to others
• Using authentic activities
• Activities similar to those found in outside world
• May help to scaffold the tasks or use guided participation
• Letter-writing tasks, map-making, constructing a model,
tutor a classmate, make a videotape
• Promoting dialogues to solve problems
• Creating a community of learners- students help one another to learn
Benefits of creating a community of learners
• Students become active participants.
• Collaboration aids learning.
• Diversity of interests is respected.
• Students become resources for each other.
• Students critique one another’s work.
• The process of learning is emphasized, not just the products of
learning.
• Creates a sense of community in the classroom
Conceptual understanding
• To produce new understanding, the teacher must recognize &
replace faulty beliefs. Why?
• Misconceptions color understanding of new information
• We look for confirming information regarding our
preconceived beliefs. We ignore what doesn’t fit.
• If they learn things by rote, they may hold inconsistent ideas
without holistic understanding.
Principles of conceptual change
• Identify existing misconceptions before instruction begins. Assess
student beliefs first.
• Convince students their beliefs are inadequate. Use evidence that
can’t be explained by them.
• Motivate them to learn correct explanations. This can involve
disequilibrium (Piaget), feedback.
• Monitor students’ productions for misconceptions. Do it in a way that
preserves self-esteem.