Abstract

This chapter addresses the role of knowledge in learning. To do so, it is necessary to examine how knowledge is represented in memory, what kinds of knowledge we hold in memory, and how we use that knowledge to think, solve problems, and self-regulate our learning. This chapter is divided into five sections. The first section briefly discusses historical perspectives on knowledge acquisition and representation, and how these views have changed over the past century. The second section considers how knowledge is represented in memory and provides a taxonomy of different kinds of knowledge. The third section focuses on the acquisition of knowledge as the learner moves from novice to expert. This section reviews characteristics of experts, stages in skill acquisition, and different models of the development of expertise. The fourth section discusses four emergent themes and implications for education, and the fifth provides a summary and three main conclusions.