knowledge

1. the state of being familiar with something or aware of its existence, usually resulting from experience or study.
2. the range of one’s understanding or information. In some contexts the words knowledge and memory are used synonymously.

American Psychological Association

Knowledge is likely what many people think of when they consider what happens in a classroom. Teachers share knowledge with learners. Learners demonstrate the knowledge they have acquired. Moreover, Bloom’s Taxonomy, a framework for the levels of understanding, places knowledge as foundational to understanding (Harvard, n.d.). Learners must be able to recall and understand information before they can apply, analyze, evaluate, and create that knowledge.

When we think about knowledge in a competency-based education model, the definition expands beyond what a learner knows. Marzano and Kendall (2007) describe three distinct domains of knowledge. The first is information. Information is declarative knowledge, such as facts, vocabulary, principles, and generalizations. The second is mental procedures. Mental procedures reflect cognitive skills and processes a learner executes in the mind, such as applying a mathematical algorithm, using a writing strategy, or analyzing an argument. The third is psychomotor procedures. Psychomotor procedures are skills that require physical execution, such as performing a lab technique, operating equipment, or demonstrating a physical skill in a vocational or athletic context. Competency-based education is particularly well-suited to address all three, because it asks not just what a learner knows, but how well they can think with that knowledge and what they can physically do with the knowledge they have.

Student Outcomes Focusing on Knowledge

Each course in our program has a range of outcomes that assess knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors. The following two statements are examples of knowledge-focused outcomes:

The learner will explain how God’s faithfulness in the past helps modern-day believers be faithful to him.

The learner will understand how to achieve a health-enhancing level of fitness.

Note that each of these outcomes focuses not on what the professor does, but on what the learner knows. It is important that our outcomes are centered on the learner, because the program is designed to evaluate and record learners’ achievements, not the faculty who teach the courses.

Assessment Strategies

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to assessment. One might assume that knowledge-focused outcomes are assessed with objective tests, but that only captures the information or declarative knowledge a learner has acquired. Rather than rely on objective exams to assess learning, the instructional designers and subject matter experts work to incorporate authentic assessments into the course whenever possible.

For example, the outcome that asks learners to explain how God’s faithfulness in the past helps modern-day believers be faithful to him is not evidenced by an objective exam. Instead, learners demonstrate their knowledge by writing a two-page paper that addresses three questions:

• Explain one concrete example of God’s faithfulness to his people from each book: Joshua, Judges, and Ruth.
• In a paragraph, describe why God is faithful to his people.
• In a paragraph or two, explain how God’s faithfulness in the past helps modern-day believers, like your students, be faithful to him.

The connection between Scriptural references and application to the students who are cared for in our elementary schools moves from abstract knowledge of faith to applied knowledge as a Christian educator.