Importance of Background Knowledge & What We Can Do To Level the Playing Field for Students

The learning gap is wide between privileged and underprivileged students. Some students enter the classroom in September already at a disadvantage to learn upcoming material. This is because factors outside the classroom affect how well a student can learn new information. Of course there are many things that contribute to how easy or hard it is for a child to learn but in this post I specifically focus on the factors that affect a student's background knowledge, which ultimately, affects how quickly and deeply a student can learn. I will also focus on what we, as educators, can do in the classroom to help level the playing field for students. 


Factors such as socioeconomic status, environment, family culture, etc. affect what a child will experience in his/her life. For example, a child from a family that makes a decent income may be able to travel more, participate in extra curricular activities and go places like the aquarium more than a child from a low income family. Many other scenarios can be included here but the idea is that a family's situation affects the experiences a child can have.

As children have different experiences, their background knowledge expands. For example, after going to an aquarium, a child will know more about ecosystems, the appearance of underwater creatures, as well as, some animal behaviors. This doesn't even include all of the knowledge a child will accumulate that was never intended. From the moment they leave the house, they are absorbing information from their surroundings. They are watching human interaction. They are hearing new vocabulary. The list can go on and on and these experiences add up!

When a child gets to class, this background knowledge is going to play a very large role in learning! The child with more background knowledge will be quicker to comprehend what is being taught and can spend more time thinking deeper about the content. I can't help but connect this to Depth of Knowledge. It seems that a child's amount of background knowledge directly relates to how easy or hard it is to reach different depths of knowledge! Students who have less background knowledge may spend more time in level one or level two where as a student with more background knowledge may be able to spend more time at level three or four.

Webb, N. L. (2005, July 24). Depth of Knowledge Levels. 

Retrieved from http://qualityassessment.pbworks.com/w/page/45823516/Webb's%20Depth%20of%20Knowledge

Example Scenario
Imagine two fourth grade students, Cory and Shawn. Both students are in Mrs. Hodges' 4th grade class. 

Cory lives with his single mother in a nearby apartment. His mother had Cory when she was young and was never able to get her high school diploma. She works hard as a waitress and can't get home until late. This means that Cory has to take the bus after school and waits for his mom at home. The apartment they can afford is located in a high crime area and therefore, Cory can't go outside unsupervised. He spends his time playing video games and watching TV. By the time his mother gets home, it's time for Cory to go to bed. Occasionally, Cory and his mom get out of the apartment to do something fun but being a single mom is difficult and they don't have a lot of extra money to spare. 

Shawn lives with his mom and dad in a suburban neighborhood. His father doesn't make a ton of money but makes enough to live comfortably and allow Shawn's mom to be a stay-at-home mother. Because Shawn's mother is a stay-at-home mom, she is able to pick him up from school. Sometimes Shawn's grandparents are also able to help out. This allows Shawn to participate in many after school activities. On the weekend, his family goes on hikes in the mountains and loves to camp. About once every year or two, they are able to travel and explore other parts of the country. 

In class, Mrs. Hodges is teaching about Lewis and Clark and their encounters with native tribes. Imagine how different this learning experience would be for Cory vs. Shawn. 

Cory is listening to what's being taught and is able to grasp the literal interpretation of the content, as well as, decode some of the new vocabulary. Shawn, however, is able to connect much of his prior knowledge to the stories of Lewis and Clark which allows the decoding process to happen quicker for him. This allows him to focus his attention on some deeper thinking. He's able to reflect back on his own experiences of nature and traveling to unfamiliar places. This helps him analyze the situations while making fairly accurate predictions and inferences.

Cory is putting in effort and is learning but his lack of background knowledge is making it hard for him to catch up to what Shawn is able to do.

So... What can teachers do to level the playing field?

There is no magic bullet to solve this problem. However, there are things we can do to help students gain more background knowledge. Please comment below if you have more ideas you can contribute!

Technology Resources

Technology has many great resources that can help. However, be careful not to get too distracted with the excitement of some of these flashy resources. They can be really fun but it's important to keep the purpose of the activity in the forefront of our minds and use the resources intentionally.

Google Earth for Chrome - This is one of my absolute favorite resources! The possibilities are endless. 

• Let's say you are about to teach a unit on the Mayan Civilizations. You can have your students use Google Earth to go see and even walk around some of the Mayan ruins. Have them connect articles they are reading with what they see when they are touring the ruins.
  
• If you're about to teach geology, have your students explore land forms like deltas, volcanoes, canyons, deserts, etc. 
  
• Help your students connect with a story you are reading by exploring the setting. For example, if you are reading The Watson's Go To Birmingham, students can use Google Earth to learn more about the setting of the story from Flint, MI to Birmingham, AL. (Google Lit Trips is another option but I haven't had much experience with it)
• Google Earth now has an option called Voyager. This is REALLY neat! It's basically a collection of tours around the world. These tours are organized into categories like travel, nature, culture, sports, history, education and layers. One tour in the "culture" category is called, This is school. It actually takes you to different schools around the world. You can walk around the schools and text is provided so you can read more about what you are seeing. 

Another example is the "Layer" category. This shows you things like the age of the seafloor, the volcanoes around the world, current weather radar and more. 

• Google Earth has a feature called, "I'm Feeling Lucky." When you click this button, Google Earth takes you to a random place on the planet. Again, you can walk around the area or see photos taken from that location. I love the idea Ben Rossman had in the video below. His idea was to use this feature as a writing prompt for students. Students can click on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button and write a story with the setting that is selected. 

Online Virtual Field Trips, Tours and More

• Museum of Flight - You can explore airplanes! Just click on the airplane you want to learn more about. Then you can click on "step inside" to see 360 degree photos or take a 3D tour.
• AirPano - Explore the world with panoramic photos and more! Choose your destination and feel like you're there. They even have 360 degree VIDEOS! It looks just like you're watching a video from YouTube but you can move the view around. I am new to this resource but am loving what I see so far. You have to check this resource out because it has a lot to offer!
• Tour the White House, Egyptian Pyramids, Buckingham Palace, Mount Rushmore, Liberty Bell, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Empire State Building, The Louvre, Leaning Tower of Pisa, The Grand Ole Opry, Zoos Around the Country, The Great Wall of China, The Grand Canyon, Mount St. Helens, Mount Everest
• 7 Wonders of the World AND MORE! - 360 degree panoramas
• Global Trek - Provided from Scholastic. Students can plan a pretend trip to another city. At first it appears very similar to a travel website like Travelocity. Texts are provided to learn about the people, culture, area, etc. Students can even keep a travel journal.

Technology is not the only answer

Just reading, and reading a lot, is one really important way students can build background knowledge. In his book, Why Don't Students Like School?, Daniel Willingham goes into detail about this concept and relates it to brain research. Maybe a student can't travel the world and learn about different environments or cultures but that student can read about them. Yes... of course it's not the same as being able to experience these things first hand, but it's a start. We need to expose our students to a plethora of texts in a variety of forms and covering a variety of topics. We need to give them a chance to make more connections.

But also, as teachers, we can be more intentional with the books we read aloud or the books we display in our classroom. Take the time to think about what you will be teaching and select books that will help students connect to the upcoming material. I'm not saying to just pick out boring books because they relate but consider what a book can contribute to student learning. Choosing a book like Hatchet or My Side of the Mountain can show the importance of natural resources on human survival or decision making. You can then use some of these points to help students understand how geography affects peoples lifestyle or development of civilizations.

I'm sure those of you reading this have even more ideas and examples both with and without the use of technology. Please share your ideas in the comment section below!



If you are interested in reading a much more detailed explanation on how the brain works, specifically on the importance of background knowledge, I'd highly recommend reading Why Don't Students Like School?, by Daniel T. Willingham. Willingham is a cognitive scientist and in his book he clearly explains what makes learning easier or harder for students and what that means for teachers.