What is it?
You’ve heard the expression a “place for everything, and everything in its place?” As we seek meaning our brains help us by grouping related facts and concepts together schematically. For each idea or concept we have a schema. Schema is sometimes referred to as a “mental model.” We may or may not be aware of the schema we hold for a given concept. Our schema is developed based on our prior knowledge and experiences. Here is what my schema for “fences” looks like:
I first encountered schema as a concept in a course called “Reading Across the Content Area.” The course goal was to provide teachers strategies for improving student reading skills. Research demonstrates that a reader’s comprehension of a text increases, if the reader has a framework or mental model (ie: schema) in place before reading a given text.
Related Applications:
Advance Organizers:
A major application drawn from the concept of schema is the use of advanced organizers. Advanced organizers create a bridge between old information and new information. Advanced organizers are used before exposing learners to new information. Note organizers do not refer to course content organization. Rather advance organizers focus on providing a link between a learner’s existing knowledge and understanding (schema) and the new concepts to be developed. Advanced organizers can be expository, comparative, narrative or graphic.
Layering:
Another application building on the concept of schema, is introducing a very basic organizational structure for a concept and then layering upon a learner’s understanding. An example from my own experiences with Junior Achievement (JA), JA begins educating young children about economics by starting with a story of a boy who wants to buy a tent (a narrative advance organizer). The boy needs money to buy the tent. He decides to make and sell lemonade in a lemonade stand. He saves the money he makes. By the end of summer he has meet his goal. The boy buys the tent he wanted. This simple story creates a very basic schema for commerce and savings. Supporting classroom activities reinforce and expand the basic concepts in the story. Once this very simple schema is in place, the economic concepts introduced can be revisited and more details added. Eventually, (the JA program extends over several years) the basic schema will be expanded, encompassing larger economic concepts as learners run a town of their own complete with civic and commercial activities. Layering upon a simple foundation slowly expands the original schema and also provides for repetition which reinforces memory and recall.
Experts and Novices:
Another interesting relationship to schema comes to mind when considering the differences between experts and novices in learning. Most novices have a schema that is not well developed, lacking in detail. Relationships are not obvious to novices as they struggle to place new information into a new schema. We all battle with limited working memory and cognitive overload. For a novice having a less developed schema and lots of new information increases the difficulty of learning new material. An expert who already has a well developed schema will see relationships more easily and be able to integrate new information into their existing schema with less effort. I like the visual representation of difference between novice and expert ability to organized information in Julie Dirksen’s Usable Learning Blog.
Schema is a deceptively simple idea from the world of psychology that provides insights and several application strategies for those creating learning experiences.
Your thoughts, experiences and comments are always welcome.