Promoting Access to Knowledge, Strategy, and Disposition in Students: A Research Synthesis

The emphasis in this paper is on access, defined as the ability to draw on or utilize one’s intellectual resources in situations where those resources are relevant. A number of factors influence access. They have been identified in various strands of research representing different construct and curriculum perspectives. To date, few attempts have been made to synthesize this research. This is the purpose of the present paper, which utilizes a framework thought to have relevance across research domains. According to this framework, two factors influence students’ ability to access knowledge, strategy, and disposition. The first is organizational in nature, the second relates to the amount of reflective awareness possessed by the individual. This paper discusses how organization and awareness factors influence access in each of the informational categories and how teachers can better attend to these factors and thus promote access or transfer in students.