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Book: Social Practices in Higher Education

Chapter: A Knowledge Framework Approach to Linguistic Research and Teaching

DOI: 10.1558/equinox.39910

Blurb:

The Knowledge Framework (KF) is a heuristic that allows educators, materials/curriculum developers, and researchers to explore in creative ways the integration of language, content, thinking skills, and key visuals. Grounded in Systemic Functional Linguistics, the KF revolves around the concept of an educational activity or social practice. Participating successfully in an activity or social practice involves both doing (actions or practice) and knowing (theory or understandings that inform what we do). The KF heuristic is drawn as a set of six boxes, with the bottom three relating to the top three in this doing/knowing relationship. This chapter begins by documenting the history of the creation of the KF and continues with a detailed description of the heuristic and its value when teaching, especially teaching English language learners. Following this, the existing literature is summarized according to its use in the various content areas, offering what is likely the most comprehensive review to date of the available literature on the KF. The chapter ends with a snapshot of each of the chapters in the current volume.

Chapter Contributors

  • Tammy Slater (tslater@iastate.edu - tslater) 'Iowa State University of Science and Technology'