1.10 Foundational Skills: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application

1.10 Foundational Skills: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application mjb116

Foundational Skills

"You must crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run."

-Unknown

What foundational subskills must we develop? In the field of Geospatial Intelligence, what are the building blocks that form one’s basis of understanding, and what kinds of actions do we need to demonstrate to experience growth and learn and demonstrate knowledge?

Foundational critical thinking skills are knowledge, comprehension and application
Bloom's Taxonomy Foundational Skills
Credit: Bloom's Taxonomy by Corydave from Wikimedia Commons is licensed under the  Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

The foundational skills pictured above must be mastered before an individual can master higher-order thinking skills in the future. This often involves the memorization of basic facts and behaviors related to the subject at hand. This brings us to you, the student, interacting with online content. As the adage says, “you get out of it what you put into it.” So having a broader sense of "where you are coming from and where you’re going” can be empowering as you manage your own educational experience. This sort of reflective practice helps you be aware of your own thought processes and development so that you are in greater control of your own destiny. This self-understanding can be defined as your own metacognitive knowledge. Having metacognitive knowledge also helps you in future roles when you are asked to contribute in a team environment or when you’re helping a newer colleague onboard into a new role in an organization.

1.10a Knowledge

1.10a Knowledge mjb116

Knowledge

I sometimes hear some of my younger colleagues or students contending that rote memorization is an outmoded learning approach in our modern technological era, where we have knowledge at our fingertips via a Google search on our phone. I strongly disagree with this.

Child learning about text from adult
A child learning about written text from an adult 
Credit: woman teaching girl by Jerry Wang is licensed under Unsplash and is free to use.

Consider a child learning to read. The first thing they must master is memorization of the alphabet. Children learn (memorize) their ABCs through repetition and song (did you learn to sing your ABCs?). Being able to recite the alphabet, however, does not mean you comprehend that the letters represent sounds and have meaning. Learning to count is the formation of knowledge about numbers, their quantity, and numbers in sequence.

A learner at this stage in their development can be observed demonstrating:

  • observation and recall of information
  • knowledge of dates, events, and places
  • knowledge of major ideas
  • mastery of subject matter

Verbs that demonstrate knowledge:

list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where, etc.

1.10b Comprehension

1.10b Comprehension mjb116

Comprehension

Consider our pupil once again. They have memorized their letters and numbers. They now need to understand that these letters and numbers have meaning. Letters have certain sounds. Numbers represent a numerical value such that one equals one star but three equals three stars and is more than one.

quantities of 1, 2, 3 stars
Quantities of 1, 2, 3 stars
Credit: M. Corson © Penn State is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 

A learner at this stage in their development can be observed demonstrating the ability to:

  • understand information
  • grasp meaning
  • translate knowledge into new context
  • interpret facts, compare, contrast
  • order, group, infer causes
  • predict consequences

Verbs that demonstrate comprehension:

summarize, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend

1.10c Application

1.10c Application mjb116

Application

Our student is progressing nicely. The next step is application, or applying their knowledge and comprehension. As our pupils string letters together into words and then sentences, they are beginning the process of learning to write. As they take numbers and add, subtract, multiply, and divide them, they are calculating new values. The next thing you know, they are doing calculus and inventing artificial intelligence. Hopefully, having mastered these foundational skills, they will use their higher-order thinking skills to make good decisions.

person applying knowledge by writing diagrams on chalkboard
Person at chalkboard making diagrams
Credit: Physics Teacher by Tra Nguyen is licensed under Unsplash and free to use.

A learner at this stage in their development can be observed demonstrating their ability to:

  • use information
  • use methods, concepts, and theories in new situations
  • solve problems using required skills or knowledge

Verbs that demonstrate application:

apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover

1.10d Check on Learning Foundational Skills

1.10d Check on Learning Foundational Skills mjb116

Knowledge Check

These two pages offer a chance for you to apply what you've learned about Bloom's Foundational Skills. Consider some of the terms and verbs that will serve as building blocks as you become adept and fluent in thinking critically. Demonstrate your understanding of the levels for foundational skill development according to Bloom's Taxonomy.

1.10e Check on Learning Foundational Skill Terms

1.10e Check on Learning Foundational Skill Terms mjb116

Knowledge Check