Structural Knowledge
Structural knowledge is the organized accumulation of the things which you know and the connections between them. A person who can readily spit out random facts about disparate ideas would not be said to have a structural knowledge of the subject, but if you can see how a new concept you are learning about fits into the broader context of the discipline, particularly your knowledge thereof, then you would have structural knowledge in that area. I like the idea that the main difference between novices and experts is that experts can pick out what’s missing, not just evaluate what is there. I see this all the time in seminars, paper reviews, or just in talking about my work with my advisor or someone else. An expert will see not just what you’ve done, but what you haven’t done. This is because they have the knowledge to understand not only what someone is presenting, but to put it in context using their structural knowledge of the discipline.
