Knowledge is a term with which we are all familiar. Yet how easily can we differentiate knowledge from data, information, understanding or wisdom?
Merriam-Webster provides one definition of knowledge as:
the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association.
That roughly corresponds with the definition proposed by the renowned systems thinker. Dr. Russell Ackoff, who is credited with defining knowledge within a hierarchy. Below, I explain the hierarchical terms within an educational context.
Data - raw quantitative or qualitative facts with no inherent meaning. Imagine opening a document listing all of a school's student test scores. Data is composed of the many numbers, codes, and names that have no immediate relevance.
Information - data that has been filtered or processed to represent a relationship. For instance, taking the same example of a document of student test scores, we can narrow the field of vision to the math scores of a specific student, Mark. We have now gathered information, essentially test scores that we find meaningful because of its relationship to Mark and math.
Knowledge - information that is given context based on patterns and/or experience. From Mark's math test scores, his math teacher may observe that his math performance significantly improves during the first week of every month. The math teacher 's knowledge resulted from placing Mark's test information in the context of a pattern.
Understanding - synthesizing knowledge to arrive at the underlying reason for a pattern. Mark's mother, after a parent-teacher conference, realizes that Mark's math performance improvements are timed with his grandfather's monthly visits when he tutors Mark in math. By linking her knowledge of the visits with Mark's testing pattern, Mark's mother has gained an understanding for Mark's monthly math improvement spurts.
Wisdom - evaluating understanding to determine underlying principles or processes. Understanding why Mark's grandfather's visits help Mark's math performance requires wisdom to discern whether Mark is influenced by the additional adult attention, his grandfather's presence, or even the books that Mark's grandfather brings along with him. Wisdom enables decisions for the future. In Mark's case, wisdom would enable his mother or teacher to make better decisions to help him consistently improve his math.
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