Tacit knowledge

This paper, which QMUL staff and students can access with their college logon details raises the problem of communicating tacit - or unspoken - knowledge in clinical teaching. What it suggests is that learners learn much more from their own experience and their clinical tutor's demonstration than they do from 'codified' knowledge (i.e. written stuff).

It also suggests that there is room for confusion in relation to the use of evidence if tutors are not explicit about whether they are teaching something from their own tacit knowledge ("it's always worked for me") or from evidential knowledge ("the research suggests this approach").

My reading of this is that as tutors we should work hard to be clearer about what type of knowledge we are communicating and that learners themselves ask their tutors to be explicit so they can make sense of the knowledge for themselves.

Tacit knowledge in dental clinical teaching