Inert knowledge

Inert knowledge is a term used in cognitive and learning psychology. He referred theoretically existing knowledge, but that can not be applied in practice. Inert knowledge is indeed understood abstractly, but can not be transferred to new situations and not constructive (eg, to a solution ) can be used. There is a gap between knowledge and action. A well-known example is the lack of ability vocabulary of a foreign language that was learned in the classroom for the query to retrieve the specific communication situation.

Was first described inert knowledge (English inert knowledge ) in 1929 by Alfred North Whitehead:

" [T ] heoretical ideas shoulderstand 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 trouble of keeping knowledge alive, of Preventing it from becoming inert, Which is the central problem- all of education "

Declaration variants

There are three explanations for this phenomenon variants

• Metaprozesserklärung: The knowledge is available but is not applied because the metacognition (knowledge about one's own knowledge and about their own thought processes ) does not work sufficiently.

• Structural deficit Explanation: The existing knowledge is not structured enough and therefore not accessible enough to be applied to (see also Operational knowledge and contextual knowledge ).

• Situatedness Explanation: knowledge is always " situated " ( context-specific ), which it therefore be that transfer to new situations make difficult.

Causes of inert knowledge

As, its occurrence is considered a major cause of Inert knowledge as a known problem classes, the so-called Nuremberg Funnel method is identified, the central assumptions include are:

Avoid sluggish knowledge

Inter alia, on the basis of findings cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology one is now taking that successful learning should be different place if the understanding of knowledge is the goal, and not only the knowledge of information alone: " To understand is to build an interpretation that works in situations. " This was the basic assumption of the Nuremberg funnel method, knowledge could be improved by language convey directly from teacher to student in question. The new paradigm is that knowledge is not communicable. Instead, it is the teacher's job to help the student in the process of constructing self- knowledge and at the same time to overcome the receptive attitude, which is also considered to be causally inert for the emergence of knowledge. This is achieved through the design of situated learning environments such as in the form of simulations and business games. Thus the instructional content will be associated with specific everyday situations, so as to convey an application- oriented knowledge, which then can be translated from theory into practice:

"Knowledge, which is mediated by learning by doing in this way, thus remains no inert knowledge, but can be actively implemented and adapted to changing requirements. "

Current research on dull knowledge is performed by Heinz Mandl, Ludwig- Maximilians- University of Munich va.