imported>GhostInTheMachine: Changing short description from "The unexpressed knowledge" to "Information which one can express but not use"

2024-12-15T08:41:50Z

Changing short description from "The unexpressed knowledge" to "Information which one can express but not use"

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{{Short description|Information which one can express but not use}}
'''Inert knowledge''' is information which one can express but not use. The process of [[understanding]] by learners does not happen to that extent where the [[knowledge]] can be used for effective [[problem-solving]] in realistic situations.<ref>Mary L. Gick and Keith J. Holyoak (1980): ''Analogical Problem Solving.'' in: Cognitive Psychology 12:306–355.</ref>

The phenomenon of inert knowledge was first described in 1929 by [[Alfred North Whitehead]]:<ref>Alfred North Whitehead (1929): ''The Aims of Education and Other Essays''. New York: The Free Press.</ref>

{{Quote|"[T]heoretical ideas should always find important applications within the pupil’s curriculum. This is not an easy doctrine to apply, but a very hard one. It contains within itself the problem of keeping knowledge alive, of preventing it from becoming inert, which is the central problem of all education."|Whitehead 1929}}

An example for inert knowledge is vocabulary of a foreign language which is available during an exam but not in a real situation of communication.

An explanation for the problem of inert knowledge is that people often encode knowledge to a specific situation, so that later remindings occur only for highly similar situations.<ref>Brian H. Ross (1984): ''Remindings and Their Effects in Learning a Cognitive Skill.'' in: Cognitive Psychology 16:371–416.</ref>

In contrast so called [[conditionalized knowledge]] is knowledge about something which includes also knowledge as to the contexts in which that certain knowledge will be useful.

==References==
<references/>

{{Alfred North Whitehead}}

[[Category:Educational psychology]]
[[Category:Knowledge]]
[[Category:Alfred North Whitehead]]

Inert knowledge - Revision history

imported>GhostInTheMachine: Changing short description from "The unexpressed knowledge" to "Information which one can express but not use"