Chapter 2 - Learning and Remembering: The Basis for Personal Knowledge Construction

Abstract

This chapter discusses the basics of personal knowledge construction by learning and remembering. It illustrates classroom learning, remembering, personal knowledge construction, academic problem solving, developing a problem solving environment, and promoting personal knowledge construction. Emphasis is placed on the construction of personal knowledge at the psychological level of analysis called constructivism. Acquisition is the study of how new information is acquired. The discrepancy between personal and formal knowledge defines the nature of classroom learning. Remembering is the conscious awareness of memory processing that involves memory search and retrieval. Affordance is a reciprocal relationship between a person and his or her environment. Domain knowledge is a more formal subset of content knowledge, a realm of knowledge that broadly encompasses a field of study or thought. Declarative knowledge involves knowledge of facts, concepts, vocabulary, and other bits of information that are stored in memory. Procedural knowledge is demonstrated when a student can combine, incorporate, or assimilate declarative knowledge so that it can be used procedurally. From a student's perspective, assessment involves the need to successfully gain access to and use prior knowledge that is stored in long-term memory.