Activating Participants’ Prior Knowledge

Adult learners bring their knowledge, experiences, skills, beliefs, and attitudes with them into the classroom. Participants use their prior knowledge to help them to process new information. They try to fit the new information into their current understanding. When they can connect old and new, the new information moves from their working memory into their long-term memory.

Since prior knowledge is so important for participant comprehension and retention, it is a good idea to help participants make connections at the start of a lesson. The information you get from tapping into participants’ prior knowledge is also useful to you, the instructor. Use that information to help decide the pace of your instruction, organize group activities, and determine whether participants with less experience need extra help. Take the time to draw out participants’ memories, ask questions to determine if some participants have misunderstanding that needs to be corrected.

Activating prior knowledge can be as simple as asking some basic questions, for example:

  • What do you already know about this topic?
  • What have you read about this topic?
  • What are your experiences in this field?

Several more techniques you can use to prime participants to learn include the following:


Example

Jonathan McDade created a matching activity for his NHI “Instructor Development Course” training presentation, “Risk-Based Stewardship and Oversight.” The activity was designed to activate participants’ prior knowledge. It also gave him an idea of how familiar participants were with basic stewardship and oversight terminology. Figure 5 displays the matching activity slide.

PPT slide
                                Title: Assess Your Current Understanding of Key S&O Terms (image of puzzle piece with RBSO Fundamentals on it)
                                (Matching activity with four terms in a column on the left and a list of definitions on the right)
                                
                                Column 1:
                                1. Stewardship:
                                2. Oversight:
                                3. Risk
                                4. Risk Management
                                
                                Column 2:
                                a. A process to assess risks and allocate resources to manage them
                                b. Ensure efficient and effective use and management of highway program funds
                                c. The effect of uncertainty on our program and objectives
                                d. Ensure programs and projects comply with federal laws and regulations
                                
                                (slide number 1-3)

Source: McDade (2018).

Figure 5: Example prior knowledge activation activity slide