What role do knowledge and comprehension play in the classroom? Unlock the hidden secrets of the first two levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Thinking About Knowledge and Comprehension

Knowledge and comprehension are the first two levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy:

Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation

Before we dive in and start looking at these in detail, here’s set of keywords for each, giving a sense of the range of different, yet related, cognitive processes that fall under their umbrellas:

Knowledge Keywords

Arrange, Define, Describe, List, Match, Memorise, Name, Order, Quote, Recognise, Recall, Repeat, Reproduce, Restate, Retain.

Comprehension Keywords

Characterise, Classify, Complete, Describe, Discuss, Establish, Explain, Express, Identify, Illustrate, Recognise, Report, Relate, Sort, Translate.

Thinking About Knowledge as a Starting Point for Learning

Knowledge means being able to recall pieces of information.

This information is often in the form of words.

Those words may be recalled verbally or in writing.

(We do also have knowledge of things like skills, of how to do things, and of experiences. Some of this we can recall by showing. Much we recall through language and, therefore, the associated words.)

Without knowledge of the words connected to a topic, as well as words more generally, it is difficult, perhaps impossible, for learners to think further about a given question.

This is because they will struggle to articulate themselves, having no means to do so.

Articulation could come through other means – gesture and image for example – but this will be necessarily imprecise and, being a different form to that of language, will have less scope and relevance.

To begin the study of any topic then, learners need to know things.

This means that knowledge is always the starting point of individual lessons and schemes of work.

However, this starting point has two sides to it.

First, there is the knowledge we identify that learners need to know to be able to engage with the topic and make progress (sometimes this is specified for us by the curriculum).

Second, we have the knowledge that learners already possess, and that relates to the topic in question.

When we start planning a lesson, we must think about both these things.

When we start teaching a lesson, it is always helpful to gauge learners’ existing knowledge early on.

Here are five simple ways to do this:

Ask learners to list everything they know about the topic.
Ask learners to create a spider diagram about the topic.
Ask a series of open questions through which learners can articulate and discuss their existing knowledge.
Ask learners to work in pairs. Each learner has one minute to explain everything they know about the topic to their partner. Meanwhile, the teacher circulates and listens.
Ask learners to predict what they think the lesson will cover, based on what they already know about the topic, and to then explain or defend their predictions.

In each case, our aim is to elicit information about the knowledge learners already possess.

We can then teach and plan lessons that more accurately meet the needs of our learners.

For example, we might be teaching a Religious Studies lesson on the topic of Christian ethics.

Finding out in advance, or at the start of the lesson, what learners already know about Christianity, ethics and Christian ethics will help us avoid repetition and to immediately begin building on existing knowledge, rather than rehashing old ground.

Knowledge as the starting point always has these two elements we must consider:

What learners need to know (learn) as the basis for subsequent learning.
What learners already know, in relation to which we can situate new knowledge.

Highly effective teaching involves learners making significant, sustained progress.

This is easier to achieve if we have a clear sense of the knowledge learners need to acquire and the knowledge they already possess.

Failure to take account of either of these means our planning will probably be less closely focused on the learners in front of us, and the accurate opening up of the area of the curriculum with which we are concerned.

A useful way to assess and track learner knowledge is through a knowledge audit.

Here, we give learners a breakdown of all the elements of a topic we intend to look at.

Next to each element we place five columns, labelled 1-5:

1 = no knowledge.
2 = a little knowledge
3 = some knowledge
4 = a good amount of knowledge
5 = detailed, in-depth knowledge.

At the start of a topic, learners take a coloured pen and go through the audit, marking where they think they are at in relation to each piece of knowledge.

We then take learners back to this sheet during the topic.

Each time, we ask them to use a different coloured pen to do their audit.

This means we and they can instantly see the progress they are making in accumulating the necessary knowledge.

And this is useful information for us and for them.

Thinking About Comprehension as a Starting Point for Learning

Comprehension refers to our ability to understand the knowledge we have acquired.

Knowing something does not mean we understand it.

The history of love is proof positive of this fact – as poets have told us for hundreds of years.

(Knowing we’re in love doesn’t by necessity mean we understand love.)

Bringing forth a prosaic example, consider the learner who can recite a poem, having learnt it off-by-heart.

We might ask them what the poem means only to find them staring blankly at us.

They do not know what it means.

They only know what the words are, the order in which they come, and the manner in which they should be articulated.

Comprehension follows from knowledge (it cannot come before it because it is the knowledge which we are comprehending) but it does not follow by necessity.

Work needs to take place.

Learning needs to happen.

As a result, we must be careful when assessing learners’ prior knowledge that we do not mistake knowing for understanding.

To ascertain the status of the knowledge learners already possess – whether it is simply recall of facts or whether it includes the ability to explain and exemplify those facts – we will need to ask slightly more complex questions or set slightly more challenging tasks.

Here are five examples of how you can do this at the start of a lesson, with the intention of assessing the degree of understanding learners possess:

Ask learners a series of comprehension-based questions such as ‘Can you explain x?’ or ‘What would you say X means?’ or ‘Why might X be relevant to our topic?’
Ask learners to recall what they know and to then select what they believe are the three most important pieces of information.
Ask learners to work in pairs. One learner should pretend they know nothing about the topic. The other should explain what they understand about it. Then learners swap over and go again. Meanwhile, the teacher circulates and listens.
Ask learners to make a list of what they know about the topic and then to come up with five questions they would like answered to help deepen their understanding.
Ask learners to interview each other to find out what they already know and understand about the topic. Display exemplar questions on the board for them to use. Circulate and listen to the conversations learners have.

Compare these tasks to those outlined in the previous section on knowledge.

You will immediately notice the difference in complexity.

You will also see how the latter explicitly rest on the former – reinforcing this idea that comprehension can never come before knowledge, only after.

As with knowledge, if we have a clear sense of what our learners understand about the topic we are teaching, we can plan and deliver lessons that facilitate greater progress.

This is because we can avoid revisiting familiar ground and will not waste time trying to establish comprehension that is already present in the minds of the learners in front of us.