Knowledge Building

Not a finished map. Not an accurate one in every detail. But a map built from everything they have experienced, heard, touched, wondered about, and tried to make sense of since the day they were born. Cognitive scientists call these structures schemas — organized networks of knowledge stored in long-term memory that shape how the brain receives and makes sense of new information. Research has demonstrated for decades that prior knowledge guides how learners comprehend new information, with reading comprehension itself described as “the interaction of new information with old knowledge” (Hattan et al., 2024) a bidirectional, ongoing process, not a one-way delivery. At Wayfinders, we take that finding seriously enough to build our entire instructional approach around it.

Here is the thing about schemas that most classrooms quietly ignore: available prior knowledge needs to be activated in order to affect learning (Brod, 2021). Simply presenting information does not mean learners connect it to what they already know. In a now-famous study, researchers found that comprehension and recall were dramatically stronger when learners were given relevant context before engaging with material — not after, and not withheld entirely. The knowledge was there. The activation was what made the difference. This is why Wayfinders does not begin with delivery. We begin with drawing out. Every mission, every investigation, every discussion starts by surfacing what students already carry — what they think they know, what they have experienced, what connections they are already making before we add anything new.

This matters even more when prior knowledge is incomplete or incorrect. When our prior knowledge is inaccurate, we are more likely to misinterpret, misunderstand, or even disregard new information (Cerbin, 2019) not out of stubbornness, but because the brain is doing exactly what it was designed to do: filter new ideas through existing frameworks. Research by Alvermann, Smith, and Readence found that when learners encountered information that conflicted with what they already believed, many prioritized their existing understanding over what was being taught. A misconception, especially one resulting from a strongly held belief or idea, is likely to be resistant to refutation because it requires that a student break mental connections that have likely been reinforced through repeated experience. Simply telling a child the correct version is rarely enough. What is required is a learning environment that gently surfaces what they believe, creates space for it to be tested against new evidence, and supports the revision of understanding over time — not just the addition of new facts on top of old ones.

This is also where every learner’s individuality becomes visible in a profound way. Students with well-developed schemas in a subject area learn new related content faster and more deeply than those starting from scratch (Main, 2021). Two students sitting side by side in the same lesson are having entirely different experiences, because they each bring different histories of exposure, different categories of experience, and different frameworks for organizing what they know. Instructors cannot escape the effects of students’ prior knowledge — but they can intentionally design experiences that foster learning by dispelling misconceptions and activating appropriate and accurate prior knowledge, opening the way to genuine understanding rather than surface-level compliance with instruction.

At Wayfinders, we design for exactly that. Educators here know their learners not just by where they land on a rubric but by the schemas they bring into the room. Missions are designed to make thinking visible — so that what students actually believe becomes the starting point for what they are about to learn. Discussion structures invite learners to voice their existing understanding, compare it with new ideas, and revise their thinking in real time. Complexity is added only when prior understanding is genuinely in place, because layering new knowledge on top of unresolved gaps or uncorrected misconceptions is a fast path to confusion — and a slow path to nowhere. We are not in the business of pouring information into empty vessels. We are in the business of helping learners build a more accurate, more connected, more navigable map of the world — one that grows with them wherever the journey leads.