Tacit Knowing and Education :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Tacit Knowing and EducationHow is still knowing or tacit knowledge utilized in the classroom? This has been my question since discovering the term coined by Michael Polanyi and reading the excerpt of The Tacit Dimension. I have reflected on my controls in a second gear grade classroom and observations of students being able to or not being able to refer to the tacit dimension in the classroom. In rethinking through Polanyis assertion that we can know more than we can tell, I will review ways in which students (children and adults) use intuition and other forms of tacit knowing in the classroom. I will also speak to the evil effects of particular school reforms such as the No Child Left Behind Act, which diminish the students ability to use tacit knowledge in the classroom.What is tacit knowing/knowledge? It is something that is implied or indicated but not actually expressed. It is what we already know by way of previous experience, or, habituation that has become second nature. This is not a far-fetched idea. If we go back to Platos Republic, even he believed that humans have the capability to know the right thing to do because we were born with that randomness already in our minds. A life of study was a way to reflect on this knowledge and use it for the good of all.Children respond to material in the classroom using tacit knowledge. All we learn in some way relies on us connecting it somehow to something we already know. Tacit knowledge requires a synthesis of previous experience into the inner workings of the mind and memory. Certainly, other educational theorists saw the importance of this in the classroom. Some ways children use tacit knowledge is in the different interactions between other children and to adults, crying in the classroom to signify pain, confusion, and anger, etc. John Deweys Experience and Education speaks specifically to this concept. both experience is a moving force. I equate tacit knowing to having previous experiences. Regardl ess of our being conscious of the importance of an event, our mind holds on to that experience and becomes a knowledge that we can utilize in the future. Can tacit knowing be utilized in the classroom? It is my opinion that it is becoming progressively more difficult, particularly in public schools that must adhere to the strict testing of children for the sake of compliance to the No Child Left Behind Act, to hope on previous knowledge to help students learn in the classroom.