Education Shortform
Schemas
In, well… kind of a short summary form!
A longer summary post this time, because S is for schemas — structures of knowledge. Important!
What is a schema, anyway? I discussed knowledge in an earlier post, but schemas are more about how this knowledge organised in the learner’s mind. A schema is a set of ideas or a pattern of thought about a particular concept or situation, including a set of relevant facts, experiences and emotions. (Note that ‘schema’ is singular; the plural is more often nowadays stated as schemas rather than the Latin schemata).
For example, we may have a schema about school, a schema about parties, and so on. Schemas involving what to do in social situations are often termed ‘scripts’.
These schemas can subdivide as a learner’s knowledge becomes more sophisticated, and they begin to appreciate subtle distinctions that they were previously unaware of (perhaps helped by interleaved learning). For example, a child may know that there is a type of insect called a beetle, but as they get older they learn that there are many different types of beetles.
Another example which helps to show the nature of schemas is learning about genres of movies/books. What exactly is a horror movie or a mystery novel, for example? Our schemas for these genres develop through experience, and no two people will have exactly the same understanding.
However, having that schema knowledge affects new things. If you are an expert on mystery novels, that is going to affect your reaction when you read a new mystery by a debut novelist.
The key idea here is that information is not stored as separate items in the mind (as would be the case for data in computer storage), but is linked together meaningfully.
It’s not just information, either. Going back to developmental psychology, schemas are developed in childhood via interacting with the world, and they contain sensations and actions, too. Our schema for a plane journey, for example, includes ideas about how and where to check in or store luggage.
Old knowledge affects new learning, so things are better remembered if they are well understood. However, this also means that incoming information can be distorted if it is not well understood, or because we are influenced by our expectations (which in turn can be biased by our culture).
The schema concept also explains some of the problem behaviours resulting from thought processes, because schemas lead to beliefs. If some of a person’s schemas (perhaps about their own abilities, their appearance, their future prospects, etc) are distorted in some way, this will affect their future thinking, meaning that they may not think and act rationally.
For example, someone who believes that they are stupid may decide not to study or do an exam because they incorrectly believe that there is no point. In short, it is important that schemas are accurate.
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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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