Diagramming prior knowledge in the classroom

Arthur Thomas Conroy

doi:10.13021/g8kw30

Abstract

Engaging the student’s prior knowledge is considered by educational researchers to be an important part of constructing a strong foundation for new learning. Diagrams are one technique used in the classroom. Jill Larkin and Herbert Simon described the computational advantages of diagrams over text when used to communicate information in their 1987 article entitled “Why a Diagram is (Sometimes) Worth Ten Thousand Words.” This presentation describes a novel abstract diagramming technique designed to be facilitated in the classroom. Using paper and crayons, the participants create three diagrams that represent the externalization of their own prior knowledge of concepts in a domain of study. The presentation illustrates how differences in prior knowledge can be visualized using diagrams with greater speed in less time than the traditional use of text-based descriptions. The student diagrams were shown to contain a hidden conceptual topology, one that is described by Egenhofer in his 1991 article entitled “Reasoning About Binary Topological Relations.” This topology is recommended as a framework for structuring and facilitating student collaboration and sharing of prior knowledge and new learning.

Highlights

Engaging the student’s prior knowledge is considered by educational researchers to be an important part of constructing a strong foundation for new learning
The survey of existing research related to the challenges of engaging prior knowledge led to the discovery of a gap in the literature concerning the use of diagram elicitation techniques in adult learning settings
The abstract diagramming technique made visible the incoherence of unconsciousness prior knowledge when framed within a conceptual space – the abstract diagram

Summary

The Original Prototype

The human communications that transpire in the classroom are in the abstract, cognitive schemas originating from deep within the unconscious mind. The use of abstract shapes in the form of a visual language serves to make this communication, normally hidden from view, visible in a very sensory way. The original prototype of the visual language used an experimental technique that required university graduate students to create three diagrams using butcher block paper, glue sticks, and cut-outs of geometric shapes (Klunk, 2009). Each student was instructed to use the materials to create an answer to each of the three questions, all in the form of diagrams, made from the geometric shape pieces, and instructed to glue the shapes to the butcher block paper. The visual language made it easy to externalize and illustrate to participants how very different their worldviews appeared when represented as abstract diagrams

The Nature of Conceptual Coherence in the Classroom

The Visible Nature of Incoherence

Mediating Incoherence in the Classroom

Diagramming in the Wild

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Eliciting Diagrams

Framing the Differences of Prior Knowledge

Diagrams of Project Management Concepts