Inert Knowledge: The Problem of Knowing Without Understanding
Inert knowledge is information that a person knows but doesn’t fully understand, which means that they can only recognize, express, or use it in very limited ways. As such, in the following article you will learn more about inert knowledge and see what you can do about it in practice.
Examples of inert knowledge
Inertive knowledge in the context of language learning: Grammatical rule that someone memorized, without understanding what the rule actually means or knowing how to use it when speaking the language
- Vocational school: Students learn ideas about society and self in history and social studies but make no connections to today’s events or family life
- Students learn concepts in science but make little connection to the world around them
- Problems of knowledge acquisition and negative transfer are predictable when the structure of the task is varied: new surface variations result in low performance even when the deep structure is the same
Associated conceptualization and techniques
In some cases, the concept of inert knowledge is conceptualized in a narrower sense than the one described here.
- A common conceptualization is described as follows: “Laboratory studies often use a two-stage (A-B) transfer paradigm in which participants receive: (A) one or more cases to evaluate under a study task, and (B) a new problem that (unbeknownst to the participant) can be solved using the relational principle presented in (A).”
When is knowledge considered inert?
When someone’s knowledge is inert, they don’t understand what it means, what its implications are, or how it connects to other relevant knowledge
- They can’t recognize it when it’s presented in ways or contexts that are even slightly different than what they’re used to
- Inertia as pathology describes those states of mind where people come to know something but simply can’t go beyond the facts, can’t synthesize them, think with them, or apply them in another situation
- Active knowledge can be viewed as knowledge that a person can also use in more sophisticated ways, which involve higher levels of abilities and thinking
Difference between Knowledge-Telling and Knowledge-Building
Knowledge-telling involves relatively shallow engagement with study material, generally by only going over it with little analysis or reflection
- While reading material repeatedly to memorize it, this is common, knowledge-building involves relatively deep engagement
- Exploring the material from various angles, highlighting key points, drawing connections, and asking open-ended questions
Types of knowledge
The revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy, which can be used in the classification of inert knowledge, deals with two dimensions of learning: The cognitive process dimension and the knowledge dimension
- There are four different types of knowledge included in the taxonomy: Factual, Conceptual, Procedural, Metacognitive and Self-knowledge
- Factual knowledge: knowledge of the basic elements that students must know to be acquainted with a discipline or solve problems in it
- Conceptual knowledge.
- Procedural knowledge – how to do something; methods of inquiry, and criteria for using skills, algorithms, techniques, and methods; knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms
- Meta Cognitive knowledge – knowledge of cognition in general and knowledge of one’s own cognition
Avoiding inert knowledge in education
There are two main approaches you can use in education to avoid inert knowledge: teach in a way that encourages the development of active knowledge or encourage people to learn and develop active knowledge
- The ultimate purpose of education is to help students go well beyond the limitations of any formal instruction, and inertia should comprise a serious domain of institutional inquiry for higher education.
Conclusion
To transform existing inert knowledge into active knowledge and avoid developing inert knowledge in the first place, you should engage with relevant information in a deep manner
- Try to understand, apply, analyze, and evaluate it, as well as use it to create new things
- Examine examples of the knowledge in various contexts
- Explain it to others
- Use it in practice
How to Identify Inertia
Identify inert knowledge by checking what kind of operations the person who has the knowledge can perform with regard to it
- To help determine whether knowledge is inert, ask relevant guiding questions
- How well do you recognize it?
- Can you identify it when it’s presented in a different context that you’re used to? What well does it explain in an intuitive way to someone unfamiliar with the field? How well can you apply it in real-world situations
- Analyze it and identify potential issues with it?
How to avoid and transform inert knowledge
There are three main goals: Transforming inert knowledge into active knowledge, Preventing active knowledge from becoming inert, and Avoiding the development of inert knowledge in the first place.
- Ensuring engagement with the relevant knowledge is deep, meaning that it involves a range of complex cognitive processes, such as application, analysis, and evaluation, is crucial.