What are the different types of knowledge?
What comes to mind as soon as you read the term “knowledge”? Do you see a math problem written on a chalkboard? You’re concealing a secret for a pal, is that right? The recipe for your preferred dish? the most recent political developments? You are not mistaken about whatever you conjure up in your head! Even the act of thinking about knowledge, or metaknowledge, is a distinct category in and of itself.
“Knowledge is broken down into many different categories—some broad, and some very specific—including explicit, implicit, tacit, procedural, contextual, and embodied knowledge, among others.”
It may seem difficult to divide up the knowledge that is stored and sent through your more than 80 billion neurons and over 100 trillion synapses, but more experienced individuals have previously classified the intricacy of knowledge in a variety of distinct ways. Although several categories overlap and there isn’t a single, generally recognized knowledge structure, the following article ought to give some clarification.
So, let’s look what are the different types of knowledge.
Types Of Knowledge
Generally speaking, there are two types of knowledge—”Explicit knowledge” and “Tacit knowledge”.
“Explicit knowledge” is something that can be completely shared through words and numbers and can therefore be easily transferred. This knowledge takes many forms that you recognize, such as mathematical formulae, laws, scientific papers and texts, operational manuals, and raw data.
Contrarily, “Tacit knowledge” is completely private, unstructured, and famously hard to convey or articulate. Instincts, perceptions, intuitions, behaviours, routines, habits, reactions, and physiological sensations can all be ways that this is represented. Our ideas and personal values, an ever-evolving and more abstract body of information that influences how we view and navigate the world are likewise influenced by this sort of knowledge.
There are other additional sorts of knowledge, many of which will be covered in more detail later, but they fall under those two main categories.
Explicit Knowledge
Explicit knowledge is essentially a statement that is easily verifiable as true or incorrect. The fact that the English alphabet has 26 letters, for instance, is a true statement of explicit knowledge. Similarly, since Force = mass*acceleration is a basic rule of physics, it is a truthful statement that conveys our understanding of the universe. Explicit knowledge may be correctly communicated using words, figures, and symbols without being misunderstood. But the moment it is read, heard, or understood, there is a chance of misinterpretation because of variances that could exist in the receiver’s past knowledge!
Tacit Knowledge
More specifically, tacit knowledge is information that is directly learned via practice and experience and cannot be conveyed using facts and symbols alone. The ability to tie your shoes, ride a bike, play an instrument, or chop wood are all examples of tacit knowledge. There is frequently a tipping point when something you are learning becomes automatic and ingrained in your memory. When you first start learning how to accomplish these tasks, it could seem challenging, if not impossible. After that, you might not even need to think about the knowledge because it will likely come to mind subconsciously when, for instance, the hammer has to be used on a nail.
Contrary to explicit knowledge, this kind of knowledge is challenging to record or convey in numbers and figures. Instead, tacit knowledge is the information that we frequently overlook! Verbalization can help to some extent in the transfer of this knowledge, but in the end, it is up to the person to practice and internalize the material.
This understanding is frequently found in generations that have always grown up around computers and appear to understand how gadgets and gizmos function naturally.
This category also includes emotional intelligence. It takes work to be able to speak, empathize, listen, and be regarded as a communicator, but once those talents are developed, exhibiting emotional intelligence may become automatic.
Since they are best learned and cemented by practice and firsthand experience, many of the parts that follow come under this wide and sometimes vague category of tacit knowledge.
Implicit Knowledge
This form of knowledge is one that might be recorded and communicated in writing, making it explicit knowledge, but it is frequently one that can be swiftly learned by firsthand experience and frequently with assistance from another person.
For instance, implicit knowledge can include where the neighbourhood grocery store is located. When a new neighbour asks where she can obtain groceries after moving in and you mention the supermarket two streets away, you are sharing implicit knowledge.
The majority of the time, this knowledge can be retained without practice or repetition, thus it is never necessary to make it clear outside of spoken language. The biggest distinction between implicit and explicit knowledge is that the former is frequently only learned through interaction with a knowledgeable individual.
Procedural Knowledge
Understanding how to use explicit knowledge is procedural knowledge. The ability to use explicit knowledge to solve an equation, use a new statistical tool, or create a rain-catchment system in your backyard is significantly more difficult to learn than the ability to learn it from a book, lecture, website, or DIY YouTube video.
Therefore, the knowledge we need to use explicit knowledge is procedural knowledge. Although it’s useful to know that there are 26 letters in the English alphabet, singing the ABCs demands procedural knowledge that you acquire early in life.
Similar to how you would need to practice several times after learning the parts and procedures of a scientific experiment before the “process” becomes efficient and correctly carried out. The Head of Surgery will have years of procedural knowledge to put into practice in the operating room, whilst a brand-new medical resident may have a specific understanding of heart surgery.
Contextual Knowledge
Some knowledge is unique to a certain environment or context, or it is particularly pertinent there. For instance, you can probably tell the difference between a street and a sidewalk in most areas of the globe, as well as whether a roadway is one-way, two-way, or two-lanes-wide.
However, if you are in America, you will be aware that drivers sit on the left-hand side of the automobile and that vehicles are driven on the right side of the road. However, if you were in London, you would be aware that vehicles drive on the left side of the road, and drivers sit on the right-hand side of the vehicle.
This is a form of learned knowledge that may be altered or impacted by your situation. Your comprehension and familiarity with a roadway and its functions vs international knowledge of road design.
Embodied Knowledge
There are many people in the world who are knowledgeable in many fields, as well as many items that “embody” knowledge. This is a rather abstract yet significant aspect of knowledge to keep in mind.
You may navigate to your destination using embodied knowledge, such as the locations of stop signs, lane dividers, turning lanes, curbs, exit signs, and mile markers, as you pull out of your driveway and get on the road. Each of these items embodies the knowledge of skilled engineers and designers.
The effective design of supermarkets and retail centres, as well as the orientation of parking lots and airport terminals, are all examples of places where this kind of information is prevalent.
People are frequently unable to benefit from or even identify such information without underlying knowledge, It is advisable to practice in empty parking lots or rural roads instead of busy highways because there are fewer variables and less of a requirement for embodied knowledge there. A rookie driver might not be able to observe all the subtleties of a highway to navigate it safely.
Expert Knowledge
Although it falls under one of the other categories stated above, this separation of knowledge is nonetheless crucial to comprehend. Expert knowledge, also known as domain knowledge, refers to a person’s exceptionally detailed and in-depth understanding of a certain subject or sector.
As a seasoned biomolecular engineer, you most certainly possess a degree of expertise and insight that is unmatched by most others, yet your general knowledge may be on par with that of everyone else.
Many people have some amount of this specialized knowledge, yet communicating it to others without the necessary background information and life experience may be challenging.
Distributed Knowledge
Another subcategory, but one that’s worth knowing about. The knowledge that must be shared across several actors or knowledge bases because it cannot be held by one person is known as distributed knowledge. For instance, building an office building is a very complicated operation that needs the knowledge and skills of several engineers, architects, regulators, and skilled workers. They all have the information necessary to build the office building together, but no one person could have and use all of that knowledge at once.
A Final Word
There are a great number of other fields of knowledge, many of which fall under these broad categories, thus this is by no means an entire list. There are many different types of knowledge, such as cultural knowledge, maternal knowledge, metaknowledge, and conceptual knowledge. Every person has a lifetime journey to explore and broaden their knowledge, but if you have a solid grasp of the key categories in this essay, you’re already well on your way! (ScienceABC)
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