Knowledge: Meaning and Facets

STRUCTURE

• Introduction

• Objectives

• Understanding Knowledge – Definition of Knowledge

• Knowing and Knowledge

– Ways of Knowing and Forms of Knowledge

• Knowing and Knowledge: The Indian Way

• Forms of Knowledge

• Characteristics of Knowledge

• Facets of Knowledge Let Us Sum Up

Review Questions References

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nTRodUCTIon

The school is one of the agencies which write down, transact, and transform knowledge and thereby influence the lives of children who attend the school for a specified number of years. Schools facilitate and distribute knowledge among its inmates. Though human individual gets knowledge from every experience in life, the knowledge that a child receives in school decides his/her future life and place in the society.

Since teachers as professionals deal with knowledge, there is a need to understand the concept of knowledge itself.

Therefore, this chapter focuses on understanding the nature of knowledge and knowing, in general, and its manifestation in the school context, in particular. Reflective reading is a prerequisite to make meaning of the content presented in this chapter. Therefore, students, while ‘reading’ this chapter, need to be more reflective about the ‘content’ of knowledge and knowing.

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^bjECTIvES

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

• describe meanings of knowledge;

• understand the non-material and abstract nature of knowledge;

• formulate one’s ‘own’ meaning of knowledge;

• identify different facets of knowledge;

• classify knowledge into different forms and identify differ- ent ways of knowing;

• understand the nature of school knowledge and their cor- responding ways of knowing; and

• become conscious of critical role of culture in knowing in schooled context.

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ndERSTandIng

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^nowlEdgE

Knowledge is always concerned about knowing something.

This something could be natural objects, man-made things, events, processes, persons, their activities, their relationships and many others. All of these and many other ‘objects’ of knowledge may, collectively, be called as phenomena.

Therefore, knowledge always refers to comprehension

Knowledge: Meaningand Facets

of some or the other phenomenon. Knowledge is sum of human understanding of the world, be it physical, biological, social, mental and spiritual. In simple but generalised way, knowledge is sum of human understanding of material and mental reality – given and constructed. The acquisition of knowledge, or the build-up of knowledge, is by its very nature always refers to a process or the road from ignorance to knowledge, from not knowing things to knowing them. The transition from lack of knowledge to acquisition of the same is shaped by the human activity, which involves seeing lack of relation with a phenomenon to seeing the relation with phenomenon.

Knowledge, the noun, is used in different contexts and situations to convey different meanings to different people. Knowledge has different aspects, kinds and levels.

Knowledge, in common sense understanding, signifies all the human meanings, beliefs about matters of facts (things, objects, events), about relationships between facts, and about principles, laws, theories that are at work in the nature and society. Knowledge is understanding about the relationships; the relationship of the knower with the known. In other words, it is the relationship of the subject with the object. Knowledge is the result of knower’s active engagement with the object of knowledge. Knowledge and its intensity depend on the relationship between the knower and the known. Further, knowledge is understood in terms of enlightenment. The Indian tradition considers it as breaking the veil of ignorance. In practice, knowledge is a claim in the sense that the knower proclaims that he or she is aware of the phenomenon. This is to say that having knowledge of the phenomenon means both being aware of that phenomenon and also stating that the awareness is true. In the school context, knowledge is the sum of conceptions, ideas, laws, and propositions established and tested as correct reflections of the phenomenon.

Learning Check 1

1. Give examples of acquisition of knowledge from the daily life.

2. Differentiate between ignorance and knowledge.

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DeFinition oF KnowLeDge

Many believe that the knowledge cannot be defined. The problem of definition of knowledge is ongoing and is a never ending debate among philosophers. Knowledge, says Prichard (1976, P. 100), ‘is sui generis, and, as such, cannot be explained’. Since knowledge is sum total of definitions and explanations of phenomena, it is not possible to define knowledge. In spite of this difficulty, philosophers have made attempts to define knowledge.

The most accepted definition of knowledge is that it is a justified belief. In one of his dialogues, Theaetetus, Plato examined three definitions of knowledge that were widely in circulation at that time. The three definitions of the knowledge are (as given in Encyclopedia of Philosophy):

1. Knowledge is Perception or sensation;

2. Knowledge is True belief, and

3. Knowledge is True belief accompanied by a rational account of itself or ground.

After thorough examination, Plato defined knowledge as,

‘justified true belief’. According to Plato’s definition, human knowledge, in order to be given the ‘status’ of knowledge, should fulfill the condition of being a belief – true and justified.

John Locke, the founding father of empiricism, and who defined ‘mind as tabula rasa’, surprisingly defined knowledge as “the perception of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas”. For pragmatist Dewey (2010), knowledge denotes an

‘inference from evidence’.

The National Curriculum Framework–2005, while placing the experience of the knower at centre, also defined knowledge. According to it, “Knowledge can be conceived as experience organised through language into patterns of thought (or structures of concepts), thus creating meaning, which in turn helps us to understand the world we live in. It can also be conceived of as patterns of activity, or physical dexterity with thought, contributing to acting in the world, and the creating and making of things. Human beings over time have evolved many bodies of knowledge, which include a repertoire of ways of thinking, of feeling and of doing things, and constructing more knowledge (P.25).”

The process of understanding the meaning or defining knowledge direct us to identify, at least, three aspects associated with knowledge. These aspects are:

Knowledge: Meaningand Facets

1. Processes involved in knowledge acquisition/generation/

construction; this eventually enters into the domain of ways of acquisition/generation/construction of knowledge; to be precise it is ways of knowing;

2. Forms of knowledge; since knowledge is sum of human understanding, there ought to be different forms of understanding or types of knowledge; and

3. Purpose of knowing/knowledge. The purpose of knowing is different in different contexts.

Therefore, instead of labouring in understanding or defining knowledge in its product form, it may be appropriate to focus on knowing – the process, which explicates and explains and, to a large extent, determine the meaning and also nature of knowledge.

Activity 1

1. Collect various definitions of knowledge, and analyze the differences and similarities among them.

2. Think of various goals and functions of knowledge in different contexts. Discuss it with fellow student teachers.

3. Organise a group discussion to deliberate on the various forms of knowledge and their uses.