Knowledge-in-Pieces—Andrea A. diSessa, David Hammer

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of a knowledge-in-pieces perspective on learning: the idea that knowledge consists of small cognitive units rather than large concepts. In the 1990s, diSessa (1993) introduced knowledge-in-pieces as an alternative learning theory to conceptual change and termed these small cognitive elements phenomenological primitives (p-prims). Unlike concepts, p-prims are ideas that are not formally learned; that are neither correct nor incorrect themselves, but can be appropriately or inappropriately applied in a given context; and that are activated in concert with other elements. Over time, other researchers then built on diSessa's work. For example, Hammer (2004) referred to these small cognitive elements as resources and identified resources both for learning physics and for epistemology. Understanding learning as small cognitive pieces that must work together to make sense of phenomena helps to describe the tenaciousness of alternative conceptions in science. It also resonates with the descriptions of learning and teaching put forth in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) used in the United States. As such, after outlining the development of knowledge-in-pieces perspectives on learning, we examine the implications that these have for how instruction is designed.