The first rule of pedagogy is that to teach someone a topic or skill; you first need to know what they already comphrehend and understand about the topic or skill. This is what we call prior knowledge. Prior knowledge can be made up of a person’s prior experiences or things that they were taught by someone else. If they have some idea of what you are talking about, then teaching them the topic or skill may be easier. However, if they have no prior knowledge or their prior knowledge is filled with inaccuracies,  you may have a harder time, as you have to teach them the background knowledge about the topic or skill from the top. So how can you assess your student’s prior knowledge? As always, we have you covered. Below you will find an amazing graphic to lists 27 ways to assess your student’s prior knowledge.