Activating prior knowledge is a fundamental part of modern teaching practice; it has
an important place in frameworks such as Gagne’s (1979) ‘nine events of instruction’,
where it is situated between event 2 ‘ Informin
...
Activating prior knowledge is a fundamental part of modern teaching practice; it has
an important place in frameworks such as Gagne’s (1979) ‘nine events of instruction’,
where it is situated between event 2 ‘ Informing the learner of objectives’ and event 4
‘presenting the stimulus material’, and the inquiry cycle championed by Kath
Murdoch (2015), where it is described as ‘Tuning In’ and comes between the first
step of ‘Framing the inquiry’ and the third of ‘Finding Out’.
In this essay I will be examining two strategies for activating prior knowledge in the
contexts of these frameworks; K-W-L and ‘answering question’, both taken from the
text ‘Background knowledge instruction and the implications for UDL
implementation’ (Strangman et al, 2004). I shall describe a practical application of
each, as well as their limitations, and make a recommendation for which framework
they are best suited to.
K-W-L
K-W-L is an abbreviation for ‘accessing what I Know, determining what I Want to
find out, recalling what did I Learn’ (Strangman et al. 2004). It has three stages:
-First, a group brainstorming discussion where a communal list of ideas about the
topic is created and categorized in to different types of knowledge. This is
student lead, with the teacher supporting the activity by highlighting
interesting gaps in the knowledge base being assembled.
-Second, the creation of personal lists of questions that each student wants answered,
or areas where they are interested in finding out more. These can target the
knowledge gaps previously highlighted, or not, and also include aspects of the
knowledge base already identified by the group, but which the individual is
not as familiar with
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