Declarative, Procedural, Conceptual Knowledge - Oh My!

Watching people learn (and sometimes helping in the process) is fascinating to me. That’s why I joined Mathnasium and prior to that had a career in corporate training and performance improvement. I was recently reminded of an interesting connection between those career steps – the relationship between declarative, procedural and conceptual knowledge.

A friend recently voiced concern about a senior loved one she had visited. My friend asked where the mugs were in the kitchen and her loved one had a difficult time explaining it. That’s an example of a request for declarative knowledge – stating facts. After a couple years of relative isolation during the pandemic, it’s no wonder he lost some of the ability to tell people where to find things – he hadn’t had to do much of that for a while.

On the other hand, he uses procedural knowledge every day when he makes a pot of coffee and pours a cup. He knows how to complete the steps of the procedure. Not only that, he understands that it makes sense for him to make coffee in the morning rather than late at night, and he knows how to turn the machine off and handle the hot beverage safely. He understands the context around coffee, and that demonstrates conceptual knowledge. He gives us a great example of a situation where someone may have 1, 2 or all 3 types of knowledge about a subject.

When kids learn math, we need to dig in similarly to see what knowledge they have and/or lack. For example, reciting multiplication facts demonstrates declarative knowledge. It is an important foundation. Using those facts in an algorithm to solve a 4-digit by 3-digit multiplication problem exemplifies procedural knowledge – the ability to follow the procedure. We see learners’ conceptual knowledge at work when they recognize how to use that algorithm to calculate the quantity of carpet required to cover the floor of a rectangular room.

For any given topic, students may have and/or need only some of those 3 types. When we have that frame, we may be able to help them more effectively in the learning they do need!