Abstract

Prior knowledge is one of the strongest contributors to comprehension, but there is little specificity about different aspects of prior knowledge and how they impact comprehension. This article introduces the Multidimensional Knowledge in Text Comprehension framework, which conceptualizes prior knowledge along four intersecting dimensions: amount, accuracy, specificity, and coherence. Amount refers to how many relevant concepts the reader knows. Accuracy refers to the extent to which the reader’s knowledge is correct. Specificity refers the degree to which the knowledge is related to information in the target text. Coherence refers to the interconnectedness of prior knowledge. Conceptualizing prior content knowledge along these dimensions deepens understanding of the construct and lends to more specific predictions about how learners process information. Considering knowledge across multiple dimensions is crucially important to the development and selection of prior knowledge assessments and, in turn, educators’ ability to capitalize on learners’ strengths across various comprehension tasks.

摘要

先验知识是理解的最强贡献者之一，但是关于先验知识的各个方面以及它们如何影响理解的特异性很少。本文介绍了文本理解中的多维知识框架，该框架从四个相交的维度上对先验知识进行概念化：数量，准确性，特异性和连贯性。金额是指读者知道多少相关概念。准确性是指读者的知识正确的程度。特异性是指知识与目标文本中的信息相关的程度。连贯性指先验知识的相互联系。沿这些维度概念化先前的内容知识，可以加深对结构的理解，并提供有关学习者如何处理信息的更具体的预测。从多个维度考虑知识对于开发和选择先验知识评估至关重要，反过来，这又对于教育者在各种理解任务中利用学习者的优势的能力至关重要。