The Three Types of Knowledge

According to Burnard* (1996), there are three different types of knowledge, they are not independent, but supportive of each other:

1. Acquaintance knowledge (Eg. I know Oxford well).  This knowledge can be further divided into two types based on its ‘directness’.  The first is (a) Knowledge about, e.g. I know about Mozart’s music, (b) Knowledge of, e.g. I know of music by Mozart.  Acquaintiance knowledge also called experiential knowledge are personal, subjective and affective; gained through direct encounter, which are the seeds of experiential knowledge; tacit, loaded with personal (often experiential) meanings; idosyncratic i.e. peculiar to an individual.
   
2. Ability knowledge or Practical knowledge:  These types of knowledge are based on our abilities and skills. (Eg. I know how to ride a bike).  Practical knowledge are demonstrable in psychomotor or interpersonal skills; the acquisition of skills; ‘knowing how’, the substance of smooth performance.
   
3. Propositional knowledge (Eg. I know that eagles are birds).  It is contained in theories/models; propositional –made up of statements & propositions; ‘text book’ or written down; knowing that something is the case; a bank of facts, theories and ideas.  Knowing this knowledge makes it a little easier (a) to be clear in knowledge statements and (b) to understand the different levels of knowledge statements.

The first two types of knowledge are very interesting, but it is the third one which the philosophers are interested in, because they are the knowledge upon, to put it in a generalized manner, our education system, our curriculum, i.e. the knowledge that is being imparted to our students in our various educational systems are based.

While googling through the topics, I came across someone who talk about Edmund Gettier (‘Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?’) who famously presented cases in which we want to say that someone has justified, true belief but not knowledge. I put a link to these ‘Gettier cases’ if you want to read it further.  The article also has more discussion on Propositional knowledge and Justified True Belief which you may be interested in reading further. (to read the article, click here)

* Burnard, P. 1996. Acquiring interpersonal skills - a handbook of experiential learning for health professionals. 2nd edition. London: Chapman & Hall.