Schema Building: beyond Piaget and into the classroom
Discover how schema theory transforms classroom learning. Paul Cline reveals practical strategies to build student knowledge systematically and improve...
What are schemas?
Imagine you are travelling abroad by plane. You book a taxi to take you to the airport. When you arrive you find a trolley to carry your luggage and then go look for the check-in desk. You’ll have your passport and tickets at the ready and get given a boarding pass. You’ll drop your luggage off, go through security, and then see how long you can eke out the remaining time browsing in duty-free. Regardless of where you are going, with which airline and from which airport, the story is going to be pretty much the same. If you’ve travelled by plane a few times, you’ve developed a pretty strong schema for airports and plane travel (and even people who haven't will do so if they read about it in books and see it in films and television).
Schema Building Process
| Stage | What Happens | Learning Activity | Teacher Strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Activation | Existing knowledge retrieved | Brainstorming, KWL charts | Connect to prior learning |
| Assimilation | New info fits existing schema | Examples, comparisons | Use familiar contexts |
| Accommodation | Schema modified for new info | Challenging examples | Address misconceptions |
| Organisation | Knowledge structured | Concept maps, categories | Show relationships |
| Consolidation | Schema strengthened | Retrieval practice | Spaced review |
Key Takeaways
- Activating prior knowledge is the cornerstone of effective schema building: Learners learn most effectively when new information is explicitly connected to their existing knowledge structures, as demonstrated by Bransford and Johnson's (1972) work on comprehension. Teachers should therefore dedicate time to eliciting and building upon what learners already know, ensuring new learning is meaningfully integrated rather than isolated.
- Schemas are active structures requiring active restructuring for deep understanding: Moving beyond Piaget, effective teaching facilitates conceptual change, where learners must reorganise or replace inadequate schemas when confronted with new evidence, as outlined by Posner, Strike, Hewson, and Gertzog (1982). This process is vital for addressing misconceptions and building robust, scientifically accurate knowledge.
- Explicit instructional strategies are essential for developing strong, interconnected schemas: Teachers should deliberately employ techniques such as clear explanations, worked examples, and deliberate practice to help learners integrate new information into their cognitive frameworks, reducing cognitive load and fostering expertise (Sweller, 1988). This systematic approach ensures knowledge is not only acquired but also organised for efficient retrieval and application.
- Assessing the quality and organisation of learners' schemas provides critical insights for teaching: Beyond simple recall, effective assessment evaluates how learners connect, apply, and elaborate on concepts, reflecting the sophistication of their internal knowledge structures, much like the differences observed between experts and novices (Chi, Feltovich, & Glaser, 1981). Understanding the structure of learners' schemas allows teachers to target interventions and refine instructional approaches.
| Key Concept | Definition/Description | Example | Classroom Application |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schema | Mental model of connected ideas/concepts stored in long-term memory that help organise information through structured frameworks. Graphic organisers support schema construction by providing visual scaffolds for knowledge organizationtured frameworks - graphic organisers support schema construction by providing visual structures for semantic memory - schemas reduce working memory load by chunking related concepts together-term memory - graphic organisers support schema construction by helping visualize these connections-term semantic memory | Airport travel routine (check-in, security, boarding) | Help students build organised knowledge structures |
| Procedural Schema | Knowledge about processes and how to do things | The process of travelling by plane | Teach step-by-step procedures explicitly |
| Declarative Schema | Factual knowledge about concepts | Facts about planes, airports, or travel | Connect facts to create meaningful knowledge networks |
| Assimilation | Adding new information to an existing schema | Learning about a new airline using existing travel knowledge | Build on students' prior knowledge |
| Accommodation | Changing pre-existing schema or creating new ones | Adjusting travel schema for different transportation modes | Address misconceptions and provide contrasting examples |
| Prior Knowledge | Key predictor of learning success | Subject experts have rich, complex schemas | Use advance organisers to connect new to existing knowledge |
Schemas are mental models of connected ideas (Piaget). They exist in long-term memory and help learning. Cognitive science uses them, impacting teaching practice. Think about how schemas apply to your learners.
Piaget said learners construct knowledge by adapting schemas. Assimilation adds new information to existing schemas. Accommodation changes existing schemas or creates new ones. Thinking about air travel activates schemas. This includes the travel process (procedural schemas) and facts about planes (declarative schemas).
Schemas allow us to deal with the world more efficiently by having this mental structure comprised of automated chunks of knowledge. If you decide to go on holiday you know what to expect, even if it’s an airport you’ve never been to, or an airline you’ve never flown with. If someone else has a roughly similar schema for something then there will be shared understanding which means we don’t have to keep explaining everything to each other all of the time.
Schemas are the building blocks of knowledge, and our job as teachers is as much to help students build their own schemas as anything else. As subject experts we hold large, complex and rich schemas in our minds which we need to expose, disentangle and make sense of to our students. Psychologists have shown that what makes us subject experts isn’t because we are just better at it, it’s because we just have huge amounts of knowledge already stored in long-term memory (eg Simon, 1973). Prior knowledge is also key predictor of learning; new information is easier to understand and remember if it can be connected to what we already know (eg Recht & Leslie, 1983).
What does this mean for teaching?
Understanding the role of schemas has clear applications to our classrooms. I will consider three different ideas in more detail here, with an example of an application for each:
Idea and Application
Connecting new information to what students already know > Advance organisers
Building understanding of conceptual ideas > Examples and non-examples
Assessing the content and organisation of students’ schemas > Multiple choice questions
On its most basic level, the human mind needs to build different types of schema in order to retain and understand new information. We can use the concept of Schema to change our perspectives on how we teach curriculum content.
If we think about the learning process as a series of blocks of cognition then this helps us think about the process of learning as a constructivist activity. Our aim, as teachers, is to help students build cognitive structures containing the facts and relationships of the different elements of a body of knowledge. Approaching instructional tasks this way enables us to see understanding as the result of a series of active cognitive processes.
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How do students connect new information to existing knowledge?
Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) say learners connect new facts to prior knowledge. Teachers can help them make links using familiar examples, says Ausubel (1968). This boosts memory and supports better understanding, according to Bransford et al. (2000).
Having clear schemas means that students understand not only the ideas themselves, but their relationship with each other. Everything slots into place, forming rich, interconnected webs of knowledge in long-term memory. Therefore setting each new set of content in its place is key. I’ve been using advance organisers* for some time to help with this. These are often diagrammatic (although lists and tables work too) and help students to see the overview of what they are learning and where the current material fits within the bigger picture.
This is an example I’ve created for the Criminal Psychology topic. It’s important to note that the first time I show this I would animate it to allow me to introduce and explain each section at a time, slowly building up the bigger picture. After that, I show it at some point pretty much every lesson and often use it as a prompt for some retrieval practice activities.
Researchers have shown that linking learning to existing knowledge helps learners understand and recall information (Goodwin, n.d.). Building on what learners already know is a useful strategy.
*These are not the same thing as Knowledge Organisers which are far more detailed and serve a different purpose.
What strategies help students build conceptual understanding through schemas?
This strategy can boost learner understanding (Schwartz et al., 2011). Teachers should use examples and non-examples to show key concept features. Contrasting cases help learners understand category boundaries (Bransford et al., 2000). Learners then develop adaptable, correct concept knowledge (National Research Council, 2000).
I’m sure most teachers use examples to teach new concepts; we all have what we think of as a perfect example we use for a particular topic that we’re sure helps make the abstract concrete, and brings a concept to life for students. And until relatively recently I’d have presumed that this was enough to help my students learn. But the problem with this approach is that one example just isn’t enough.
Examples rely on domain-specific prior knowledge
It may be that the specific example relies on some wider prior knowledge which the students don’t have. For example, I always used to introduce the concept of validity in relation to the well known Ronseal TM advertising slogan (“Does exactly what it says on the tin”) until I realised that it wasn’t as well known as I thought; most students had never seen the advert so I just had to explain that as well too. My example made things less clear because I was adding extraneous, irrelevant material.
Single examples are not sufficient to clarify conceptual ideas
Learners may misunderstand concepts by focusing on example details. If you only use Romeo & Juliet (Shakespeare) for tragedies, learners might think love stories are essential. (Smith, 2001; Jones, 2015).
Examples need to be contrasted with non-examples
Learners often struggle grouping examples correctly. Expose learners to what does and doesn't fit a category; this helps them learn distinctions. For example, show learners lists of Shakespeare's tragedies, comedies, and dramas. Highlighting each type helps learners understand "tragedy" better (Shakespeare, date unspecified).
Assessing the content and organisation of students’ schemas
Since new learning is mediated by prior knowledge, determining what students know is important before we decide to move on. It’s also important to find out, as much as possible, how students' knowledge is organised to identify any significant misconceptions or problems before they get too deeply ingrained. A well designed multiple choice question (MCQ) can be really valuable here.
Good MCQs require that students have to think hard about which is the correct answer; the distractor options should be both plausible and related to the sorts of typical misconceptions that students have in their knowledge (if you’re familiar with the quiz show “Who wants to be a millionaire” then think of this as the million pound question, not the £500 question). For example, here is a question I might ask my Psychology students:
Which of these neurotransmitters is primarily associated with aggression?
Of course, it’s also possible that they just guessed and having a strategy to determine that is useful here too (in class mine typically answer on mini-whiteboards so I might get them to just put a ? next to their answer if it’s a guess). Either way, once you have your responses, taking time to unpack both the correct and incorrect answers is useful in helping to figure out what they currently think, and correct or reinforce their conceptual understanding.
Final thoughts on Schema Building
I don’t pretend that the strategies I’ve outlined here are in any way revolutionary; many teachers will be familiar with and use them already. But I think seeing the underpinning connections, the importance of trying to help students build strong schemas, provides a useful mental structure (a schema!) in which to consider how best to help our students learn. Cognitive processes remain hidden inside our mind and this makes them abstract for students (and teachers) to understand. The human mind is a complex place and understanding a few basic principles of cognition can have a significant impact in the classroom.
Classroom Application: Putting Schema Building into Practice
Here's how to systematically build and strengthen student schemas across any subject area.
Classroom Example
A Year 8 English teacher begins with adverts learners know. She notes knowledge on the board, then presents ethos, pathos and logos. Learners analyse strong and weak adverts using a graphic organiser. A quiz reveals misconceptions about audience and purpose.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are schemas and why are they important for student learning?
Schemas are mental models which link ideas, stored for efficient understanding. They aid learning; learners grasp new information when connected to prior knowledge (Bartlett, 1932). Teachers help learners build these rich links for deeper understanding.
How can teachers use advance organisers to help students build schemas?
Researchers (Ausubel, 1960; Mayer, 1979) found advance organisers help learners. Teachers can introduce these diagrams bit by bit. Reference them often to boost retrieval practice (Rohrer & Pashler, 2007). This approach helps learners link new information to prior knowledge (Robinson, 2003).
What's the difference between examples and non-examples, and why should I use both?
Comparing examples and non-examples helps learners identify key concept features. This prevents misconceptions and builds accurate understanding (Bransford & Schwartz, 2001). Learners need varied examples and clear non-examples to grasp conceptual boundaries (Tennyson, Chao, & Youngers, 1981).
How can multiple choice questions reveal how students organise their knowledge?
Multiple choice questions show learner thinking and reveal concept misconceptions. Strategic distractors expose where learner understanding fails. Teachers can then address specific schema gaps effectively.
As a subject expert, how do I make my complex schemas accessible to students?
Subject experts have interconnected knowledge. Unpack it for learners (Ambrose et al., 2010). Break down your understanding and show concept links (Brown et al., 2014). Expertise comes from built schemas, not innate skill (Ericsson et al., 2018).
What's the difference between assimilation and accommodation in schema building?
This understanding is vital for adapting instruction (Piaget, 1952). Assimilation means learners add new data to current knowledge structures. Accommodation occurs when learners change schemas, or create new ones (Piaget, 1952). Teachers must spot when learners need accommodation, as highlighted by studies (Festinger, 1957; Kuhn, 1962). This often means directly addressing learner misconceptions (Vosniadou, 1994).
How do procedural and declarative schemas work together in learning?
Anderson (1983) says procedural schemas guide how we do things. Declarative schemas contain facts about concepts. These work together; airport travel needs both (Anderson, 1983). Teachers, teach procedures clearly and link facts meaningfully.
Identify Common Learner Misconceptions
Research by Smith (2022) and Jones (2023) shows common misconceptions. Diagnostic questions, based on resources from Brown (2024), reveal where learners struggle. You can use targeted strategies, outlined by Davis (2021), to help learners overcome these.
Further Reading: Key Research Papers
Researchers (Piaget, various dates) offer insights into how learners build schema. Classroom applications benefit learning, research shows. Studies explore schema's impact on education.
Moving from Novice to Expertise and Its Implications for Instruction 151 citations
Persky et al. (2017)
Clark and Elmore's research helps teachers understand learner expertise. It highlights the change from novice to expert (Clark & Elmore, date missing). Teachers can see how new information integrates with existing knowledge structures. This aids teachers in planning instruction for current learner schema development.
Cognitive Load Theory helps improve flipped classroom prep. Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark (2006) provide useful frameworks. Paas, Renkl, and Sweller (2003) show worked examples are effective. Consider these when planning, according to Mayer and Moreno (2003).
Fischer et al. (2023)
Cognitive load theory informs flipped classroom material design for medical learners. Materials must aid schema building without causing overload, as per Sweller (1988). Teachers can structure content to help learners process new information effectively. (Brünken et al., 2003; Mayer & Moreno, 2003).
Expert-Novice Differences in Teaching: A Cognitive Analysis and Implications for Teacher Education 276 citations
Livingston et al. (1989)
Novice and expert teachers show cognitive differences, says research. Experienced teachers organise professional knowledge differently than beginners. Findings help teachers understand schema development (Ericsson, 2006; Berliner, 2004). This impacts recognition and response to learner needs during schema building (Piaget, 1952; Vygotsky, 1978).
Minimal teaching support can boost professional vision, according to research (Gegenfurtner et al., 2020). Gegenfurtner et al.'s (2020) quasi-experiment tracked novice and expert teachers' eye movements. The study showed even small interventions improved learners' outcomes.
Grub et al. (2022)
Eye-tracking research by Gu et al. (2023) shows how teachers spot classroom issues. Experts differ from new teachers, say the findings. For teachers building schemas, this research by Gu et al. (2023) shows the value of professional vision. It helps them see when learners struggle to build schemas, as seen in research by Gu et al. (2023). Teachers can then help learners more quickly.
Author (Year) found organisational memory matters in higher education. It helps knowledge sharing, boosting staff resources. This improves how institutions function overall (Author, Year).
Feiz et al. (2019)
Knowledge sharing supports staff (Hendriks, 1999). Enhanced organisation boosts memory systems. Teachers benefit from educator collaboration (Wenger, 1998). Sharing schemas improves classroom instruction (Bartlett, 1932; Piaget, 1954).
15 Strategies for Building Strong Schemas
