Learning by doing, knowing by serving: A knowledge operationalisation model

Educational programmes in higher education institutions (HEIs) that connect a student’s real life with prior knowledge, has the prospective to create meaningful learning milieus in which students could develop their creativity, problem solving and innovation skills. One opportunity that combines a focus on curriculum outcomes,  real-world engagement and high-impact learning, is service learning community projects (SLCPs). SLCPs combine academic study with community service, focusing on fostering meaningful outcomes for communities while achieving academic goals for students. The aim of service-learning design in an HEI, is to ensure that academic course content and experiential learning create knowledge that students can access and apply in new situations. A knowledge operationalisation model (KOM)¹ for SLCPs can ensure that service learning effectively transforms knowledge and generates new knowledge through experience into competencies and operational know-how.

Knowledge conversion and education

The aim of service-learning through experience is to increase knowledge and provide a service to the larger community. The role of an HEI in this instance includes the development of cross-boundary knowledge and requires new approaches to knowledge generation and transmission as students must be able to apply knowledge in and outside academic structures. The management of knowledge in this instance is intrinsically connected to knowledge sharing between individuals, as well as the collaborative processes involved. However, personal knowledge can only be created by the individual and in order to create knowledge, an individual needs to perceive a sufficient amount of information. Nonaka and Takeuchi defined a knowledge conversion model (SECI model)² that is based on the fundamental assumption that knowledge is created and expanded through social interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge.

From an educational perspective, through increasingly more complex and abstract mental levels, Bloom’s taxonomy³ within the cognitive domain. The six levels, each of which is built on a foundation of the previous level, include: the recall of prior learning (remembering), comprehension of the meaning of facts (understanding), using information (applying), drawing connections among ideas (analysing), justifying the merit of information (evaluating) and producing new or original outputs (creating). Design, in this context, is an evaluation process outcome as a result of analysis. Therefore, evaluation leads to the main objective of the whole process which is to create!

A knowledge operationalization model

In order to design the KOM, we considered Bloom’s taxonomy and SECI. Knowledge is continuously converted and created (spiral of knowledge) as students practice, collaborate, interact, and learn. Students firstly acquire new personal knowledge when an overview of the topic of study is observed. An incoherent and disorganised mixture of data and information is formed in the student’s mind while listening, watching, reading and sensing. Once different tasks are completed and actions performed in order to organize all pieces of information and connect them with each other and the outcome, initial knowledge is formed. A student’s initial knowledge is then enlarged as own opinions are formed during discussions regarding the topic of study. Lastly, the newly formed knowledge is considered and evaluated in the context of other existing knowledge and personal experience, hence forming a student’s own unique world-view as shown in Figure 1.

The knowledge operationalisation model (KOM) is depicted as an expanded spiral with the learning stages indicated on the spiral and the knowledge conversion stages in the centre.

• Stage 1, seeking, the knowledge operationalisation cycle is initiated with prior knowledge held by a student.
• Stage 2, absorbing, conversion of tacit knowledge among individuals through shared information and experiences takes place.
• Stage 3, doing, facilitate the articulation of tacit knowledge as explicit knowledge through collaboration with others using conceptualisation and extraction.
• Stage 4, networking, collected information is enriched by re-configuring it or enhancing it by sorting, adding, combining or categorising it so that it becomes more usable.
• Stage 5 reflecting, the knowledge operationalisation cycle is concluded with increased understanding through the process of creating the student’s own tacit knowledge.

By superimposing Bloom’s taxonomy to the 5 stages, we are able to capture the complexity of learning in a more tangible manner within the context of experiential learning.

1. The first level of the Bloom’s taxonomy refers to the recall of information. This retrieval of information can refer to conceptual knowledge or recollections from previous experience. Within the context of the KOM, this taxonomic level would directly relate to Stage 1: seeking, seeing as the remembering of information would be the catalyst to the initiation of the cycle. Recall or remembering requires a framework of prior knowledge to already be established upon which can be drawn, and said framework is not necessarily complex, dense or sophisticated, or always relevant to the learning taking place. As the spiral develops and the cycle continues, the seeking and recalling of knowledge, transitions into the absorption of knowledge.
2. Upon the first taxonomic level of remembering, Bloom anchored the next level of understanding, which is directly related to- and dependent on the remembering (and by extension the seeking) of information within the required prior knowledge framework. The successful absorption of knowledge is dependent on the level, or lack of, understanding. During this stage of the cycle, a lack of- or failure to understand can cause new knowledge to be lost as it fails to be properly absorbed and this will also impact the ability to effectively recall partial, prior knowledge at the beginning of the next phase or cycle of learning. However, should the understanding of newly acquired knowledge be qualitative in nature, the absorption (and later use or expansion) thereof will be all the more successful.
3. Whether Stage 2 was successful or not, the transition into the third stage of doing continues when what was understood, now needs to be applied and articulated as explicit knowledge. The stage of doing therefore, also correlates with the third taxonomic level of application as identified by Bloom. It must be stressed that the application of knowledge through doing, is not a singular occurrence, but rather numerous events with which the new knowledge acquired through Stages 1 and 2 can be applied across a span of time in a multiplicity of ways. It must also be noted that not all new knowledge will be applied or used, but only what is appropriate or applicable need be accessed.
4. When transitioning into the fourth Stage: networking, of the KOM, what was applied previously can now closely be examined and compartmentalised. Knowledge that was not absorbed during Stage 2, or knowledge that was misunderstood, can also be corrected at this point. It is also within this phase of the KOM, that the related taxonomical level of analysing will add value to its process. In order for newly acquired knowledge that has now been recalled, absorbed and applied, to be re-applied or adjusted, the close analyses of its contents as described by Bloom, needs to take place.
5. We identified the fifth taxonomical level of evaluation as a transitional component rather than a counterpart of the fifth Stage of the KOM. Within this level, the careful evaluation of all new knowledge that has been acquired takes place. Although anchored, and dependent on, the analysis present in the previous level, the evaluation of knowledge seeks to closely inspect the results of the analysis and determine if any irrelevant, unnecessary or incomplete components need be discarded.
6. With this process of evaluation acting as transitionary medium, the sixth Stage of the KOM: reflecting, ensues. It is at this point where the final taxonomical level of creation aids in the culmination of the KOM and the learning cycle. Now that learning has taken place across a variety of levels and dimensions, the creation of unique-, personalised- and tacit knowledge concludes one cycle and may initiate another and fulfil the initial requirement of prior knowledge needed in order to recall/seek as identified above.

Conclusion

It must be noted however, that learning is a vastly complex and personal process that manifests uniquely within each individual and context and is dependent on a myriad of variables. However, this model was constructed and integrated with Blooms’ taxonomy to aid in the interpretation of the learning process of a specified situation within the context of service-learning. It must also be stressed that multiple learning processes can take place simultaneously and one can progress or digress at any point in the cycle. Therefore, this may also add value to learning and development teams in organizations where experiential training interventions are designed.

Header image source: Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash.

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