A Quote
“Much of what we understand about knowledge is filtered through the idea of education. Explicit knowledge, as we have seen, lends itself well to the process of teaching - that is, transferring knowledge from one person to another. You teach and I learn. But tacit knowledge, which grows through personal experience and experimentation, is not transferrable - you can’t teach it to me, though I can still learn it. The reason for the difference is that learning tacit knowledge happens not only in the brain but also in the body, through all our senses. It is an experiential process as well as a cognitive one.
Source: Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, A New Culture of Learning, p.77.1
A Thought
It’s a common enough occurrence. A teacher gives an explanation and then asks if anyone has any questions. No hands go up, no questions are asked.
What is the tacit understanding here? There are a few options:
Everyone gets it
Everyone is bored
No-one listened
The ones who don’t get it are too shy to say so.
How do you know which ‘reading’ is right? It’s unlikely the students will explicitly tell you.
Tacit knowledge is crucial in helping us understand how we relate to others. For example, its development helps us read a room so we can interpret what our students need from us.
We develop tacit knowledge through the emotions and feelings we have when we’re involved in doing something.
You get better at ‘reading’ things the more experience you have of those things. Our gut, our intuition, sharpens.
When I started teaching, I had a bunch of skills and strategies I had been taught (explicit knowledge about how to teach) but I didn’t have the tacit knowledge required to ‘feel’ when things were sticking, or not. I needed more experience.
Students are the same.
If their school experience is focused on, perhaps even dominated by, the acquisition of explicit knowledge (back to basics!) they miss out on the experiences needed to develop the tacit knowledge that allows them to use that explicit knowledge effectively.
An Action
Look at your plan.
How much of the lesson/day/week are students spending acquiring explicit knowledge?
How much of the lesson/day/week are students spending developing tacit knowledge?
Both are important.
This is a book well worth reading for those interested in future-focused learning. The link will take you to the website, with a selection of readings and ideas from the authors.