Inert Knowledge

INERT KNOWLEDGE is a concept described by Alfred North Whitehead in 1929.  It is the idea that some knowledge can be expressed but not used.  In other words it cannot be applied to real-life problem solving situations.  For example a student can learn foreign language vocabulary in the classroom, but when it comes time to use it in a conversation outside of the classroom they cannot.  Often times teaching methods such as reading, lecture, and other similar strategies produce knowledge which the students cannot transfer or use because they don't know how to apply it because of the context in which it was learned.  This concept is very applicable in the classroom because it shows that we need to teach students using methods that will allow them to transfer that knowledge to problems and situations outside the classroom.  Otherwise what is the point of having the knowledge if it can't be used except in specific situations and settings such as a classroom?

"Theoretical ideas should always find important applications within the pupil’s curriculum. This is not an easy doctrine to apply, but a very hard one. It contains within itself the problem of keeping knowledge alive, of preventing it from becoming inert, which is the central problem of all education."