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Components of Personal Knowledge: Characterising the Learner’s Conceptual Resources

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Modelling Learners and Learning in Science Education

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Abstract

This chapter explores the many different terms used in the science education literature to refer to potential features of learners’ knowledge - terms such as alternative conceptions and p-prims. The analysis earlier in the book is used to consider to what extent the range of different labels for different types of knowledge components are justified. A model is presented of a typology of the major types of knowledge component represented in a learner’s cognitive structure. Major divisions include that between implicit and explicit knowledge components, and that between propositional and iconic knowledge. A distinction is made between terms used to refer to system resources and terms better used to refer to the subjective experience of accessing those resources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Keith S. Taber

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  1. Keith S. Taber
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Taber, K.S. (2013). Components of Personal Knowledge: Characterising the Learner’s Conceptual Resources. In: Modelling Learners and Learning in Science Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7648-7_11

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