Two Dozen Reasons Why Background Knowledge is Important
By Jennifer Cromley, Literacy Leader Fellow,
National Institute for Literacy

Background knowledge improves students' memory
1) Background knowledge helps get information into short-term memory.
2) Background knowledge stored in mental models frees up working memory.
3) Background knowledge helps get information into long-term memory.
4) Background knowledge helps students imagine a situation in their minds, which helps them remember.

Background knowledge helps students understand what they read
5) Background knowledge about word sounds (called phonemes) helps students make sense of what they hear and read.
6) Background vocabulary knowledge helps students make sense of longer sentences.
7) Students with more, better organized background knowledge understand what they read better.
8) Background knowledge helps students understand maps, graphs, and other graphics.
9) Background knowledge helps students read for meaning, which helps get information into memory.
10) Students read faster, understand more, and draw more logical conclusions in familiar subject areas.
11) Background knowledge gives adult literacy students a basis for understanding much more sophisticated reading materials than children at the same grade reading level.

Background knowledge helps students think better and do better at solving problems
12) Background knowledge helps students know what to notice in a problem.
13) Background knowledge is stored in mental models that affect what we see and hear.
14) Students answer questions more logically in areas where they have background knowledge.
15) Background knowledge about types of problems helps students solve problems.
16) However, background knowledge that includes misconceptions can get in the way of learning.
17) Having background knowledge allows students learn from analogies.
18) Background knowledge helps students understand metaphors and figurative language.
19) A lot of background knowledge is specific to different topic areas so students need to get background in many subjects.
20) Students can transfer knowledge better from one subject to another when they have a good understanding of the subject they are transferring from.

Background knowledge affects students� use of strategies
21) Background knowledge helps students learn strategies, because they must have something to use the strategies on.
22) New knowledge forces students to learn new strategies.

Background knowledge helps students know what to notice
23) Experts have more subject knowledge than beginners, which helps them notice patterns.
24) Background knowledge helps students see what is important in a situation and what is trivial.


� 2003[email protected]


Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1