Sometimes a child can read every word of a passage and still not understand it. Perhaps they’re reading about the Romans. They pronounce legion, empire and aqueduct correctly, yet when you ask what the passage means, they look at you puzzled. Often the missing piece is background knowledge.
However, give that same child a passage about football, dinosaurs or their favourite video game and they start expounding in detail, making predictions and spotting things the author hasn’t stated outright. Their reading ability might not have changed at all, but what they already know about the subject has.
As a personal tutor, I’ve learnt to pay close attention to this distinction. We often assume that the learning of a new subject starts only when the lesson begins. Not true: our students bring with them their own experiences, facts, vocabulary and assumptions. Some of that knowledge makes learning easier, and some of it harder. Keeping this fact in mind can change the way we teach, especially when working with children who seem capable in one context but struggle in another.
New knowledge is easier to assimilate and understand when learners have something meaningful to connect it to.
Background knowledge: the secret ingredient in reading comprehension
Try reading this passage:
The batsman glanced towards the boundary, adjusted his gloves and waited for the bowler to begin his run-up. As the ball approached, he shifted his weight and drove it through the covers.
If you’re familiar with cricket, you can probably picture the scene. You know where the players are, you can anticipate what might happen next and you can see why the batsman’s movements matter. If you’ve never watched cricket, the passage is much harder to visualise. You might understand each word but struggle to build a coherent picture of what’s being described.
That’s the difference between decoding individual words and understanding what they all mean when put together. Reading comprehension depends on several abilities working together: vocabulary, language comprehension, inference and the knowledge needed to interpret a text. A reader who knows little about a subject has to work harder to make sense of unfamiliar concepts and relationships, while a reader with relevant background knowledge can use it to interpret the information much more efficiently.
None of this means background knowledge replaces reading instruction, of course. Children still need to learn how written language works, build their vocabulary and practise making sense of texts. Reading also builds background knowledge, which in turn improves reading ability. The two support each other: the more a learner understands about a subject, the more connections they can make, and the more coherent their understanding of the text becomes.
The relationship works in the other direction too, because reading is one of the most powerful ways to acquire new knowledge. Knowledge helps us understand what we read, and reading helps us learn more.
For tutors, that raises a question. When a student struggles with a passage, should we always start by practising reading skills? Not necessarily. Sometimes the most effective first step is to help them understand the subject.
Find what background knowledge your student already has
I like to begin a lesson with a simple question: “What do you already know about this?”
Let’s suppose I’m about to teach a child about volcanoes. I might discover that they know lava comes out of volcanoes, that they’ve seen photographs of Mount Vesuvius and that they believe that all volcanoes are erupting all the time. That tells me what I can build on, what needs explaining and which misconceptions might need attention.
Try a three-question warm-up
Before introducing a new topic, ask:
What have you heard about this? This reveals existing knowledge and experience.
What do you think happens, and why? This shows how the student connects the different ideas.
What would you like to understand? This shows what they’re curious about, which can help make the lesson more meaningful.
In the volcano lesson, the conversation might show that the learner knows about lava but has never thought about why it erupts. That’s my cue to introduce magma, pressure and the movement of molten rock, and the new information now has somewhere to go.
One caution, though: activating prior knowledge isn’t a substitute for teaching. A child who knows very little about volcanoes won’t learn the necessary science just by discussing what they imagine happens inside one. The warm-up helps the tutor decide what to teach next.
A 2021 review by Smith and colleagues found that background knowledge is associated with children’s reading comprehension, although its effects depend on factors including the text, the learner’s reading skills and the accuracy of what they already know. What a student knows matters, and so does whether that knowledge is accurate and relevant.
Build background knowledge in layers, not isolated fragments
When teaching a subject, it’s easy to introduce a collection of interesting facts without helping the learner see how they relate to one another.
Take rivers. A child might learn that rivers flow towards the sea, that erosion wears away rock and that sediment can be deposited elsewhere. These are all useful facts, but unless the child understands how the processes relate, they may struggle to explain how a river changes the landscape. It works better to organise the learning around connected ideas:
Establish the basic picture. Show the child a river from its source to its mouth. Explain where the water comes from and how it travels downhill.
Introduce the important vocabulary. Explain erosion, transportation and deposition, using diagrams and concrete examples.
Connect the concepts. Discuss how moving water can wear away material, carry it downstream and deposit it where the water loses energy.
Apply the knowledge. Ask why a river might carry sediment during a flood and where that sediment might eventually settle.
By this point the learner is building more than a list of definitions. They’re developing a mental model of how a river system works, and knowledge becomes far more useful when learners understand the relationships between ideas.
The Education Endowment Foundation highlights the importance of developing background knowledge, teaching vocabulary explicitly and choosing texts that help pupils build a broad understanding of subjects. Its guidance also stresses that comprehension strategies work alongside subject knowledge rather than replacing it.
Teach the vocabulary that unlocks the topic
Some words matter because they appear across many subjects. Others belong to a particular discipline. For example:
In history: empire, invasion and revolution.
In science: variable, organism and adaptation.
In geography: erosion, migration and distribution.
In mathematics: equivalent, proportion and difference.
Once learners understand words like these, they can get at ideas that would otherwise stay out of reach. That doesn’t mean handing a child a list of definitions to memorise. Explain the words in context, give examples, contrast them with related concepts and come back to them later. If a student learns adaptation in biology, for instance, ask them to find examples in different organisms, so they link the word to the concept instead of remembering a sentence from a glossary. The aim is knowledge they can use, not just recite.
The danger of knowing something that’s wrong
So far I’ve focused on how previous knowledge helps learning. The complication is that learners don’t arrive with empty minds, and some of the ideas they bring with them are incorrect.
A common misconception in science is that we have seasons because the Earth is closer to the Sun in summer and farther away in winter. It’s an intuitive explanation: we associate warmth with being close to a heat source, so the idea seems reasonable. In fact, the seasons are mainly caused by the Earth’s axial tilt, which changes the angle at which sunlight reaches different parts of the planet and the length of daylight through the year.
Explaining axial tilt once may not be enough to replace the original belief. The student needs to recognise the problem with their existing explanation and develop a more accurate one. (We looked at how teenagers piece together explanations of the Sun’s movement in Here Comes the Sun.)
How to tackle misconceptions
I find three steps useful.
Make the existing idea visible. Ask the learner to predict what happens and explain their reasoning: “Why do you think we have summer and winter?”
Introduce evidence that tests the explanation. Use a globe and a light source to show the Earth’s tilt, and look at how the angle of sunlight and the length of daylight change as the Earth orbits the Sun.
Help the learner build a better explanation. Ask them to explain how the model accounts for the seasons, including why the Northern and Southern Hemispheres have opposite seasons. This step matters, because the student needs to put the revised understanding into their own words rather than simply hear the correct explanation.
A critical review of research on background knowledge found that children sometimes favour their existing beliefs over information presented in a text, particularly when they find it hard to recognise or resolve contradictions. So when a student gives an incorrect answer, I don’t immediately treat it as a failure to learn. I treat it as evidence about their current understanding, which may reveal a misconception that needs to be addressed directly.
There’s no need to make this embarrassing. We all carry assumptions that turn out to be wrong, and changing our minds in response to good evidence is a strength.
Curiosity opens the door, but knowledge helps you walk through it
Children are naturally curious about many things, and curiosity can be an excellent starting point for learning. A question like “Why don’t fish drown?” can lead to a discussion about gills, dissolved oxygen and the differences between life in water and on land.
The trap is assuming that if a lesson is interesting enough, the learning will take care of itself. An entertaining lesson isn’t necessarily an effective one. A child might enjoy a spectacular video of a volcanic eruption without understanding the geology behind it, or come away from a gripping history documentary remembering the dramatic events but unable to explain their causes.
Interest is valuable because it encourages engagement, but teachers still need to help learners organise information, understand the important concepts and connect new ideas to what they already know.
A 2024 study in Learning and Instruction looked at informative narratives, texts that embed factual information within a story. These narratives increased situational interest in science topics but didn’t produce better comprehension than expository texts in the conditions tested. That doesn’t make stories ineffective teaching tools. It shows that making information more interesting and improving comprehension are related but separate goals.
As a tutor, I’d use curiosity to get a lesson started, then make sure the learning has substance. A useful sequence runs from an interesting question to a clear explanation, then to connected knowledge and a chance to apply it. The question gets the learner’s attention, the teaching helps them understand, and the application shows whether the knowledge is becoming useful.
Why this matters for educational fairness
Children arrive at school with different experiences. One child may have visited museums, travelled abroad, discussed current affairs at home and grown up around adults who regularly explain how things work. Another may have had fewer of those opportunities.
Neither child’s background determines how intelligent they are or what they can ultimately achieve, but their experiences can shape the knowledge and vocabulary they bring to a lesson. If a teacher assumes that every child already understands a particular historical period, geographical feature or scientific process, some learners face an extra barrier before the lesson has properly begun.
That’s why I believe building background knowledge should be a deliberate part of teaching rather than something left to chance. It also means we shouldn’t treat unfamiliarity with a subject as evidence of low ability. A child who has never come across the idea of an empire may struggle with a passage about the Roman Empire. That doesn’t mean they can’t understand it. They may simply need the relevant concepts introduced and explained.
Teachers can help with clear explanations, relevant examples, carefully chosen reading, visual resources and chances to discuss unfamiliar ideas. Parents can contribute too, through everyday conversations, visits to interesting places, shared reading and questions about the world. Nobody needs to turn every family outing into a formal lesson; a conversation about why leaves change colour or how a bridge stays standing is a perfectly good starting point.
Schools also shouldn’t assume that every child has equal access to enriching experiences outside the classroom. Building knowledge systematically helps make sure that important learning doesn’t depend on what happens to be familiar at home.
A simple routine to try this week
If you’re a parent, teacher or tutor, here’s a practical way to apply these ideas to your next lesson. Choose a subject the learner is about to study and spend about ten minutes preparing them to understand it.
The ten-minute knowledge builder
Minutes 1–2: Find the starting point. Ask what the learner already knows, and listen for both useful knowledge and possible misconceptions.
Minutes 3–4: Introduce three essential words. Choose the vocabulary they need to understand the subject, explain each word and give a simple example.
Minutes 5–6: Build a picture. Use a diagram, map, physical object or brief demonstration to make an unfamiliar idea easier to visualise.
Minutes 7–8: Connect the ideas. Explain how the key concepts relate, rather than presenting the facts as a disconnected list.
Minutes 9–10: Ask the learner to explain. Ask them to describe the idea in their own words, give an example or explain a simple cause-and-effect relationship.
This routine is a practical starting point, not a formula validated by research. Some subjects will need more time, and some learners will need more explanation. Its value lies in making sure the learner has the knowledge they need to engage properly with the main lesson.
Afterwards, come back to the same concepts in later lessons, ideally spaced out over time (more on that in Why “Try Harder” Rarely Works). New information becomes more useful when learners have chances to revisit and extend what they know.
The bigger picture: learning is cumulative
One of the most rewarding parts of tutoring is watching a learner make a connection that once seemed out of reach. A child who struggled with a geography passage starts to recognise how rivers shape landscapes. A student who found historical accounts confusing begins to see the links between political power, economics and conflict. A science learner starts using ideas from earlier lessons to explain something new.
These moments rarely come from a single fact memorised in isolation. They develop as knowledge builds up, connects and becomes more useful. That’s why I encourage tutors, teachers and parents to look beyond the immediate task, and to ask not only whether a student has learnt today’s material but what that knowledge will help them understand tomorrow.
The next time a learner struggles with a reading passage or finds a new subject confusing, consider whether they have the background knowledge they need to make sense of it. Sometimes they need more practice with the skill itself, and sometimes a clearer explanation. And sometimes the missing piece is the knowledge that makes the whole subject make sense.
Good teaching helps learners build a richer understanding of the world, one connected idea at a time, and that understanding keeps working for them long after the lesson has finished.
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