ABSTRACT
In this chapter we will attempt to sketch the possible elements of an inventory of the tacit components of all use of skills and practical knowledge. We will draw on the results of the previous chapter but rearrange the material in a pattern amenable to being used as a template for the practical analysis of the skills used in different everyday activities. We will continue to draw a distinction between use and learning for each kind of skill, in so far as conscious attention plays a different role in the acquisition and the application of skills. An equivalent distinction between implicit and explicit learning of knowledge will be sketched, although it should be remembered, first, that the content of explicit and implicit learning may not match exactly, so there is a possibility of divergence; second, that in different circumstances there may or may not be a pathway by which explicit learning subsequently becomes implicit, so in some cases explicit learning must always be supplemented by a separate phase of implicit learning even if the content does match; and, third, that all actual conditions of the use of skills and knowledge may be sub-optimal, so that circumstances discovered must not be taken as unchangeable.
