Knowledge of the learner (KAB)

The knowledge of a person is the collection of facts, ideas, concepts, principles, and general "things" that they know about or know how to do. Knowledge is a part of the knowledge-attitude-behaviors (KAB) framework of a person's overall psychological makeup and status.

Definition

Knowledge is any information, concepts, procedures, or facts that a person can recall and use to perform tasks. Knowledge is often synonymous with understanding or comprehension, which is the ability to remember, interpret, and use information.

Additional Information

There are different types of knowledge and understandings that a person can acquire or build.

In educational settings, people learn about and describe concepts, ideas, categories, skills, procedures, facts, terms, definitions, or other items to help them make sense of a topic and be able to do tasks. This is often called declarative knowledge (or descriptive knowledge). Declarative knowledge is largely the things that are memorized that describe or label things, by using words. Descriptive or declarative knowledge is when people know aboutsomething and can describe it using words and comparisons, but not necessarily know how to use it or apply it. People come to understand facts, concepts, and ideas by using language and describing their definitions, often through memorization.

Declarative knowledge is also often called conceptual knowledge or factual knowledge.

Declarative knowledge items include:

• Facts
• Definitions
• Concepts and their descriptions
• Stories and depictions of events or history, as well as how events are sequenced
• Categories, labels, traits, characteristics of concepts and things
• Memorized information and data
• Opinions

In another type of knowledge, procedural knowledge, a person can demonstrate the skills necessary to do a task. In other words, procedural knowledge is knowing how to do something (and not just knowing about something). A person demonstrates their procedural knowledge by actually performing the task and can also usually describe each step of the process by using words. Additionally, describing stories or narratives can also involve procedural knowledge, as procedures are almost always sequential in some way.

It is important to remember that a person does not need to be able to describe or use words to demonstrate their procedural knowledge - they can simply just do the procedure to demonstrate their knowledge. However, if possible, a person who uses words to describe their procedural steps can help evaluators understand how and why they do what they do.

Procedural knowledge is also often called practical knowledge or performative knowledge.

Procedural knowledge items include:

• Performing pre-defined tasks
• Ability to perform step-by-step processes
• Technical procedure knowledge
• Following instructions
• Creating new procedures and following them
• Making decisions based on available information
• Rationalizing and reasoning
• Remembering positions, movements, and actions (such as in sports)
• Making logical decisions based on observed conditions (i.e., if this happens, then do that)

Knowledge in both of its forms (declarative and procedural) is a part of the knowledge-attitude-behavior (KAB) framework for understanding a person's psychological status and makeup. All three of knowledge, attitude, and behaviors influence each other and can influence how someone performs in educational situations. Therefore, each of these three factors should be developed when a person learns in an educational setting.

It is useful to note that the behavior of a person in the KAB framework differs from the procedural knowledge of knowing how to do something. A person can know how to do something but choose not to do the behavior, or not be aware that they should perform the behavior. Behaviors are about what people actually do, and not about what knowledge they have of how to do it. However, it is essential that someone has the necessary procedural knowledge or skills to perform behaviors if they are expected to perform the behaviors. Therefore, teaching procedural knowledge is fundamental aspect of educational products and experience so that people can actually perform desired tasks and skills (i.e., behaviors).

Tips and Tricks

• Consider the specific knowledge that you would like participants to learn with your educational product. This includes knowledge "items" that can be memorized or stored as information through declarative knowledge, as well as the skills and procedures that you want people to be able to do through procedural knowledge.
• For declarative knowledge, identify the specific topics, concepts, facts, and other knowledge items listed above that you would like people to learn. Also consider how deeply you want someone to learn these items: should they simply be aware of them or have a familiarity, or should they memorize their definitions and meanings? Should they be able to use these items in their tasks and apply the knowledge to some kind of activity? You will need to specify which knowledge items you are prioritizing when you define your learning objectives for your product.
• For procedural knowledge, consider what specific skills or actions that you desire your participants to be able to do. They should be able to perform these tasks if they have learned the skill or procedure. Procedural knowledge should also be documented in the learning objectives for the product so that people can demonstrate whether they have gained the desired skills as a result of their participation with the product.

Related Concepts

• Knowledge-attitude-behavior (KAB) framework
• Attitudes and affect of the learner (KAB)
• Behavior of the learner (KAB)
• Content
• Learning objectives and outcomes
• Determining learning objectives

Examples

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External Resources

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