In this section we offer (1) a set of strategies to help instructors determine the extent and quality of students ’ prior knowledge, relative to the learning requirements of a course. We then provide strategies instructors can employ to (2) activate students ’ relevant prior knowledge, (3) address gaps in students ’ prior knowledge, (4) help students avoid applying prior knowledge in the wrong contexts, and (5) help students revise and rethink inaccurate knowledge.
Methods to Gauge the Extent and Nature of Students ’ Prior Knowledge
Talk to Colleagues As a starting point for fi nding out what prior knowledge students bring to your course, talk to colleagues who teach prerequisite courses or ask to see their syllabi and assignments. This can give you a quick sense of what material was covered, and in what depth. It can also alert you to differences in approach, emphasis, terminology, and notation so that you can address potential gaps or discrepancies. Remember, though, that just because the material was taught does not mean that students necessarily learned it. To get a better sense of students ’ knowledge, as well as their ability to apply it, you might also ask your colleagues about students ’ profi ciencies: for example, what concepts and skills did students seem to master easily? Which ones did they struggle with? Did students seem to hold any systematic and pervasive misconceptions? This kind of information from colleagues can help you design your instructional activities so they effectively connect to, support, extend, and, if needed, correct, students ’ prior knowledge.
Administer a Diagnostic Assessment To fi nd out what relevant knowledge students possess coming into your course, consider assigning a short, low - stakes assessment, such as a quiz or an essay, at the beginning of the semester. Students ’ performance on this assignment can give you a sense of their knowledge of prerequisite facts and concepts, or their competence in various skills. For example, if your course requires knowledge of a technical vocabulary and basic calculus skills, you could create a short quiz asking students to defi ne terms and solve calculus problems. You can mark these assignments individually to get a sense of the skill and knowledge of particular students, or simply
look them over as a set to get a feel for students ’ overall level of preparedness.
Another way to expose students ’ prior knowledge is by administering a concept inventory. Concept inventories are ungraded tests, typically in a multiple - choice format, that are designed to include incorrect answers that help reveal common misconceptions. Developing a concept inventory of your own can be time -intensive, so check the Internet to see whether there are inventories already available in your discipline that would suit your needs. A number of concept inventories have been widely used and have high validity and reliability.
Have Students Assess Their Own Prior Knowledge In some fields and at some levels of expertise, having students assess their own knowledge and skills can be a quick and effective — though not necessarily foolproof — way to diagnose missing or insuffi cient prior knowledge. One way to have students self - assess is to create a list of concepts and skills that you expect them to have coming into your course, as well as some concepts and skills you expect them to acquire during the semester. Ask students to assess their level of competence for each concept or skill, using a scale that ranges from cursory familiarity ( “ I have heard of the term ” ) to factual knowledge ( “ I could defi ne it ” ) to conceptual knowledge ( “ I could explain it to someone else ” ) to application ( “ I can use it to solve problems ” ). Examine the data for the class as a whole in order to identify areas in which your students have either less knowledge than you expect or more. In either case, this information can help you recalibrate your instruction to better meet student needs.
Use Brainstorming to Reveal Prior Knowledge One way to expose students ’ prior knowledge is to conduct a group brainstorming session. Brainstorming can be used to uncover beliefs, associations, and assumptions (for example, with questions such as “ What do you think of when you hear the word evangelical ? ” ). It can also be used to expose factual or conceptual knowledge ( “ What were some of the key historical events in the Gilded Age? ” or “ What comes to mind when you think about environmental ethics? ” ), procedural knowledge ( “ If you were going to do a research project on the Farm Bill, where would you begin? ” ), or contextual knowledge ( “ What are some methodologies you could use to research this question? ” ). Bear in mind that brainstorming does not provide a systematic gauge of students ’ prior knowledge. Also, be prepared to differentiate accurate and appropriately applied knowledge from knowledge that is inaccurate or inappropriately applied.
Assign a Concept Map Activity To gain insights into what your students know about a given subject, ask them to construct a concept map representing everything that they know about the topic. You can ask students to create a concept map, representing what they know about an entire disciplinary domain (for example, social psychology), a particular concept (for instance, Newton ’ s third law), or a question (for example, “ What are the ethical issues with stem cell research? ” ). Some students may be familiar with concept maps, but others may not be, so be sure to explain what they are and how to create them (circles for concepts, lines between concepts to show how they relate). There are a number of ways to construct concept maps, so you should give some thought to what you are trying to ascertain. For instance, if you are interested in gauging students ’ knowledge of concepts as well as their ability to articulate the connections among them, you can ask students to generate both concepts and links. But if you are primarily interested in students ’ ability to articulate the connections, you can provide the list of concepts and ask students to arrange and connect them, labeling the links. If there are particular kinds of information you are looking for (for example, causal relationships, examples, theoretical orientations) be sure to specify what you want. Review the concept maps your students create to try to determine gaps in their knowledge, inappropriate links, and the intrusion of lay terms and ideas that may indicate the presence of na ï ve theories or preconceptions.
Look for Patterns of Error in Student Work Students ’ misconceptions tend to be shared and produce a consistent pattern of errors. You (or your TAs or graders) can often identify these misconceptions simply by looking at students ’ errors on homework assignments, quizzes, or exams and noting commonalities across the class. You can also keep track of the kinds of problems and errors that students reveal when they come to offi ce hours or as they raise or answer questions during class. Paying attention to these patterns of error can alert you to common problems and help you target instruction to correct misconceptions or fi ll gaps in understanding. Some instructors use classroom response systems (also called “ clickers ” ) to quickly collect students ’ answers to concept questions posed in class. Clickers provide an instant histogram of students ’ answers and can alert instructors to areas of misunderstanding that might stem from insuffi cient prior knowledge.
