ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the types of knowledge the doctoral student used in meeting what was a novel situation. Although it would take a truly extensive educational program to impart the knowledge used in those few minutes of behavior to someone from a totally different context, very little of the student's behavior was based on school-learning. Effective utilization of very complex kinds and combinations of informal knowledge is something that those who work with formal systems must often sigh after. A greater awareness of informal systems of knowledge can have a salutary effect on how independent scholars approach the formal systems. Much of the kind of learning that Basil Bernstein studies involves the learning of informal knowledge about cultural premises in different subcultural groups, including premises that concern the nature of knowledge and the learning process. In examining any contextualization of learning, it is worth considering the way in which cultures exploit or create variable readiness to learn.
