This piece explores how helpful it may be to have prior knowledge in academic situations. Specifically, the authors researched pre-service music teachers and their performance relative to whether they received related instruction prior to a lecture or not. The findings show that relevant instruction produced higher performance during the lecture. Having the ability to integrate prior learning and experience is deemed to be extremely beneficial in this situation. Not only is prior knowledge important, but the knowledge structures the teachers have in their brains are vital to the retrieval of information while in the classroom (p. 713).

Annotation contributed by Sophie Miller, 2021 CEL Student Scholar