Education Shortform
Knowledge and Education
In a nutshell…
Knowledge. What we know, or need to know. The foundation of Bloom’s taxonomy.
In education, knowledge is often carved up and categorised in terms of ‘key stages’, ‘key ideas’, and so forth. To keep track of this, some schools use knowledge organisers; the idea being that all of the meaningful information can be written down in advance, making it easier for teachers to see what has been covered, and also to review and test the key content periodically.
It might seem obvious that this is important, but while some educators call for a knowledge-based curriculum, others argue that we obsess too much over content, and should instead emphasise skills.
Indeed, the value of knowledge has taken some heavy criticism over recent years, with certain education systems trying to move away from content-heavy curricula and to instead promote critical thinking, creativity, and the like.
Finland and Scotland are examples of this trend, although England have retained and even increased their emphasis on content knowledge at school level.
There are arguments for a better balance between knowledge and skills, though; heavily skills-focused curricula can neglect the value of knowledge, and in practice, skills such as creativity are not fully transferable unless there is domain-relevant knowledge in place.
Recent research has suggested that the best way to promote knowledge is to practise it, while the best way to promote skills is to practise both skills and knowledge together.
Both matter; neither can be taken for granted.
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This is one of a series of shortform education articles. You can download a simplified summary of my ‘A–Z of Educational concepts’ here.
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