Knowledge is defined as practical skills or awareness of facts.
It also deals with familiarity with situations and objects. Knowledge is actually the acquaintance and awareness that is acquired by the education or experience of facts, the practical and theoretical understanding of a problem or a situation.
Knowledge plays a very important role in the life of students, as when they have prior knowledge about something, they understand it much better. But if they don’t have knowledge related to that particular topic, they would face a lot of difficulties in understanding it.
Characteristics Of Knowledge
Knowledge is the most powerful and important tool in learning. It is knowledge due to which human beings are given dominion over other beings who are much mightier and stronger than them. It is the knowledge that has prompted the progress of civilization.
Here are some characteristics of knowledge that are as follows;
- Knowledge is an addiction. The more you get it, the more you crave it.
- It has no limits and never decays.
- Once the knowledge is gained, it casts light everywhere.
- It is boundless.
- Knowledge is the application of three things; truth, conviction, and proof.
- Knowledge is contextual and can be reused.
Different Types Of Prior Knowledge
There are about four types of knowledge (background knowledge) that are instilled in the mind of the students and pupils at their very early stage of learning.
It is rightly said,
“What students already know about the content is one of the strongest pointers of how well they will learn new information related to the content.”
The four types of background knowledge are as follows;
- General Knowledge
- Vocabulary Knowledge
- Concept-based Knowledge
- Knowledge from Books
General Knowledge
General knowledge is all about promoting information and giving updates to the students about what is happening in the world. The most important advantage of general knowledge is that it relates that it relates contextual knowledge with background knowledge.
General knowledge is the basic knowledge about various things in the world and it is very necessary for understanding a normal language. It is the initial thing of a student’s learning stage. It depends on the background knowledge of the students and what meaning they comprehend about the words when they read them.
So, for a reader, background knowledge plays an important role. Reading is a very essential tool and is the best source of knowledge. It not only helps in comprehension of the articles you read but also increases the meaning of words in our minds.
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Vocabulary Knowledge
Reading is the best medium for increasing our knowledge. It has a key role in promoting and developing our vocabulary skills. The more we learn and read, the more vocabulary and familiarity we get with the words of how and where to use these words.
Prior knowledge has a very dominant role in learning and education. Background knowledge helps the students and gives multiple options of words and meanings and enhances and improves their vocabulary.
Concept-Based Knowledge
Conceptual understanding of any topic clarifies all the queries and questions arising in the mind. In education and learning, prior knowledge about words and topics and their clarified conceptual understanding play a big part.
While reading an article, the hands-on experience becomes a big source of understanding the concepts. It is the practical experience and hands-on practice that brings the students closer to the practical world.
In promoting concept-based knowledge, envisaging and discussions are very helpful as it helps in the collection of different ideas, information, and views about the world.
Knowledge From Books
Books are the main instrument for providing knowledge. They actually provide a sea of knowledge about that particular niche or topic on which they are written. Books bring us very close to the mind of the writer who has created them. We can talk and converse with books.
Books provide us with knowledge about each and everything we want to learn and explore. Each and every understanding about anything is just sitting and reading that context in the book away!
When you have books, you don’t need to panic or to travel for exploring things you want to learn. It is also very necessary to have knowledge about the text language that is used in the books to understand the content clearly.
Parenting also plays a vital role in educating students about their general understanding and knowledge of things. The education of a child starts from his birth at his home and his fists tutors are his parents.
Prophet S.A.W.W. has said,
Achieve Knowledge from your mother’s lap to the grave.
In the learning process of children, after parents there come teachers who educate them in the institutions. These are teachers who engage the students in different cultivable activities and polish their prior knowledge about the subjects.
How Is Knowledge Important In Learning?
Without the accumulation and collection of knowledge, education, and learning do not seem to have many goals as learning knowledge is very important and crucial. Students practice knowledge when they learn as it is the knowledge that urges them to think critically about the things they learn.
Knowledge not only gives students something to think about and increases their thinking capabilities but also makes learning quicker and easier. Knowledge grows exponentially. People with rich and strong bases of factual knowledge have much ease in learning books and gaining knowledge more and more, and their interest in learning becomes richer and richer.
Factual knowledge (the simple and basic information and understanding of the discipline and content that students must be familiar with) helps in enhancing the cognitive processes that include reasoning and problem-solving capabilities.
If the factual knowledge base is richer, it makes learning smooth and effective. Hence, students accumulate most of the beneficial and functional knowledge on the basis of prior factual knowledge.
How Knowledge Brings More Knowledge?
When you have some basic knowledge about the things and topics you are going to learn, only then you will get interested in the learning and would accumulate more and more knowledge. It is the knowledge that helps at every stage of learning as;
Knowledge helps in taking new information
It is the first stage when you get to benefit from your factual knowledge when you get new pieces of information either by reading or by listening.
Comprehension of any learning depends on previous knowledge because language is rich in various semantic breaks that can be understood better if you already knew about them.
Knowledge helps in thinking about new information
After taking information, it is very necessary to understand and think about it so as to gather more information and elevate your interest in learning and practicing.
It is the working memory that works on the thinking of the information and the chunking of information depends on the background knowledge.
Knowledge Helps In Remembering New Information (Material Stored In The Brain)
The final stage of learning is remembering the information. It is easier to memorize more information when you have prior knowledge. Knowledge is important in every aspect whether you like to grow your career or just want to start a business.
The knowledge is always there to help you to achieve your professional and personal growth in every aspect. So do not compromise the growth of your brain.
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