Coming to Terms: How Researchers in Learning and Literacy Talk About Knowledge

TLDR

Knowledge‑related terms have proliferated, often duplicating, subsuming, or contradicting each other in the literature. The article proposes a conceptual framework to organize, clarify, and define selected knowledge constructs and their interrelations. The authors review the literature and then construct the framework to clarify terms and their associations. The framework is positioned as a foundation for future research in cognition and learning.

Abstract

Terms used to designate knowledge constructs have proliferated in the literature and often seem to duplicate, subsume, or contradict one another. In this article, we present a conceptual framework for organizing and relating terms that pertain to select knowledge constructs. We begin with an examination of the literature. Based on that review, we build a framework that is intended to clarify terms, and the associations among them, and to articulate definitional statements for these knowledge terms. Finally, we consider the importance of this theoretical undertaking for future research in cognition and in learning.