Three Categories of Instructional Practice

The paradigm contains three categories of instructional practice: Recall Knowledge, Application Knowledge and Procedural Knowledge. The three categories have a hierarchical relationship. The lowest-order cognitive process of Recall Knowledge is involved in learning the higher-order process of Application Knowledge, and Recall and Application Knowledge are involved in learning the highest-order process of Procedural Knowledge. There is a wide range of complexity within each category.

Recall Knowledge refers to retrieving information encoded in long-term memory in much the same way it was presented as a sensory input.

Application Knowledge refers to recognizing whether novel objects and actions are examples of a generalization (or principle, or theorem, or schema, etc.). It involves transfer from previously encoded information to novel information that is presented. Novelty refers to examples and non-examples of a generalization the student has not seen before, ones not previously associated with the generalization. For instance, novel examples and non-examples of the generalization photosynthesis might be pictures of various animals and plants that the student has not previously been told are examples or not of photosynthesis, and is asked to identify whether each is an example or not, and to justify each choice. Research indicates that much science instruction intended for Application Knowledge amounts to nothing more than memorizing facts (which is Recall Knowledge), and that students do not believe those memorized rules apply to the real novel world [1].

Procedural Knowledge refers to enacting the action steps that are appropriate for solving a novel problem. It involves transfer from previously encoded information to novel information presented as a problem to be solved. A novel problem is a version of a problem students have not been asked to solve before. It might be as simple as a problem for two-place addition in columns containing numbers that are different from the numbers in the problems students have been asked to solve before. The teacher does not name the type of problem it is. Students must be able to recognize the kind of problem it is, otherwise it would not be a novel problem. Procedural Knowledge ranges from conscious and labored, step-by-step enactment to unconscious, automatic enactment of action steps. Inadequate instruction for Procedural Knowledge is seen in the evidence that graduates from college engineering programs are frequently unable to apply much of the knowledge they presumably learned when they are asked to solve actual engineering problems they encounter outside of school [2], which are novel problems for them.

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1 Songer, N.B. & Linn, M.C. (1991). How do students’ views of science influence knowledge integration? Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Vol. 28, 761-784.

2 Polson, P.G. & Jeffries, R. (1985). Instruction in general problem solving skills: An analysis of four approaches. In J.W. Segal, S.F. Chipman, & R. Glaaser (Eds). Thinking and learning skills, (1). (pp. 417-455). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.