Complex Declarative Learning [chapter]

Linda Bol, Douglas J. Hacker, Andrew Mattarella-Micke, Sian L. Beilock, Norbert M. Seel, Claus Andreas Foss Rosenstand, Lowell Dean Tong, Christian Burke, Ann N. Poncelet, Shawn Ell, Monica Zilioli, Fabian A. Soto (+190 others)
2012 Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning  
How do people acquire a complex body of knowledge, such as the history of the Panama Canal, the structure of the solar system, or the explanation for how the human circulatory system works? Complex learning takes longer than a few minutes and requires processes that are more complicated than the associative processes needed to memorize pairs of words. The materials that support complex learning -such as texts, illustrations, practice problems, instructor feedback --presented in classrooms and
more » ... sewhere, are often difficult to understand, and might require extensive processing. For example, learning about the human circulatory system requires many component processes, such as integrating information from several sources, generating inferences, connecting new information with existing knowledge, retrieving appropriate analogies, producing explanations, coordinating different representations and perspectives, abandoning or rejecting prior concepts that are no longer useful, and so forth. Many of these component processes are still poorly understood, so that we have even less understanding of the complex process of learning a large body of knowledge. Complex knowledge can be partitioned into two types: declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. Declarative knowledge has traditionally been defined as knowledge of facts or knowing that; whereas procedural knowledge is knowing how (Anderson, 1976; Winograd, 1975) . Declarative knowledge is descriptive and use-independent. It embodies concepts, principles, ideas, schemas, and theories (Ohlsson, 1994; . Examples of declarative knowledge are the laws of the number system, Darwin's theory of evolution, and the history of the Panama Canal. The sum total of a person's declarative knowledge is his or her understanding of the way the world, or some part or aspect of the world, works, independently of the particular tasks the person undertakes. Procedural knowledge, such as how to operate and troubleshoot a machine, how to solve a physics problem, or how to use a computer text editor, is prescriptive and use-specific. It consists of associations between goals, situations, and actions.
doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_295 fatcat:hr2ly5ok6nadfc7c5wyfw4zlom