This article was updated in August 2025 to highlight the role of oracy in developing Substantive and Disciplinary knowledge.

Learning is a change to long-term memory, and everything in long-term memory is knowledge. Knowledge, in turn, can be categorised in several ways, with one of the most common categorisations involving three key types: procedural, semantic, and episodic knowledge. Each type of knowledge serves a different purpose in education, but they often work in tandem to support the learning process. Crucially, oracy—structured talk as both exploration and presentation—helps students develop, connect, and deepen these types of knowledge . Click here for a list of blogs that explore oracy.

Procedural, Semantic, and Episodic Knowledge

Procedural Knowledge

Procedural knowledge refers to "knowing how": it is about the processes and steps required to perform tasks. In an educational context, this might include skills such as solving equations, decoding words using phonics, or performing physical tasks in PE.

The goal of procedural knowledge is to achieve procedural fluency, which enables students to carry out tasks smoothly and accurately over time. For example, decoding a word by applying phonetic rules is procedural knowledge, as is mastering a set of moves in gymnastics.

Oracy supports procedural knowledge when students articulate processes aloud, explain their steps to others, or give feedback on methods used. For instance, in lower KS2 maths, students can rehearse long division aloud, using sentence stems such as “First I divide... then I multiply...” to secure their understanding and check for accuracy.

Semantic Knowledge

Semantic knowledge is "knowing that": it involves learning facts and understanding how they relate to other facts. For example, learning that 5 plus 5 equals 10 is a fact, but it becomes semantic knowledge when a learner connects it to the concept of quantity and the meaning of addition.

The goal of semantic knowledge is to build schemas—clusters of related information that help learners make sense of the world.

Oracy supports semantic knowledge by giving students opportunities to explain, connect, and question facts aloud. For example, in KS1 art, when learning about primary colours, children might say, “I know red and blue make purple, because I have mixed them.” Verbalising knowledge strengthens memory traces and helps integrate isolated facts into larger schemas. Click here for more information on Oracy.

Episodic Knowledge

Episodic knowledge refers to learning from experience. It is the memory of the events and activities where we acquire procedural and semantic knowledge. Episodic knowledge is highly contextual and personal, such as recalling the experience of conducting a science experiment or remembering the sequence of events during a historical re-enactment.

Oracy plays a vital role in episodic knowledge by encouraging reflection and narration of experiences. For instance, upper KS2 students taking part in a historical re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings can embed the event more deeply by discussing strategies used, sharing reflections, and asking questions of one another. Talking transforms personal experiences into shared understanding.

Substantive and Disciplinary Knowledge

Two crucial subsets of procedural and semantic knowledge—particularly helpful when considering curriculum subjects—are substantive knowledge and disciplinary knowledge. These represent more academic approaches to knowledge categorisation and provide a clear framework for teaching different subjects. Oracy sits at the centre of both, since it enables pupils not only to acquire knowledge but also to practise thinking, questioning, and reasoning in subject-specific ways. Read more about the role of oracy in developing substantive and disciplinary knowledge here.

Substantive Knowledge: Established Facts

Substantive knowledge is the collection of established facts within a subject. It is the "what" of learning.

• In KS1 geography, substantive knowledge might involve learning the names of the four seasons and understanding that the Earth orbits the Sun.

• In lower KS2 science, students might learn that plants produce oxygen through photosynthesis.

• By upper KS2 history, substantive knowledge would include learning about key figures like Queen Victoria or significant periods like the Industrial Revolution.

Oracy supports substantive knowledge when pupils explain these facts aloud, connect them to prior learning, and test their understanding through talk. Structured sentence stems like “I know… because…” make this visible.

Disciplinary Knowledge: Methods and Concepts

Disciplinary knowledge is the "how" of learning within a subject. It involves learning how experts in a field think, question, and build knowledge.

• In KS1 art, students learn how to mix primary colours and describe what happens.

• In lower KS2 geography, students learn how to use maps and compasses, narrating their reasoning: “I know this is north because the compass needle points this way.”

• For upper KS2 history, disciplinary knowledge might involve discussing how historians use sources, practising questioning such as “Whose perspective is this?”

Oracy is central here: it enables students to “think like” artists, scientists, historians, or geographers by verbalising disciplinary methods. Talk provides a bridge from classroom practice to disciplinary reasoning.

Examples Across Subjects

Art

• KS1: Substantive knowledge: identifying primary colours. Disciplinary knowledge: mixing them to create new hues. Oracy: describing aloud what colours they created and why.

• Lower KS2: Substantive knowledge: recognising forms of art. Disciplinary knowledge: experimenting with shading. Oracy: critiquing one another’s techniques using subject vocabulary.

• Upper KS2: Substantive knowledge: learning about Van Gogh. Disciplinary knowledge: analysing how Impressionists changed perspective. Oracy: debating whether Starry Night shows movement or emotion.

PE

• KS1: Substantive knowledge: fundamental movements. Disciplinary knowledge: sequencing movements. Oracy: giving peer feedback such as “You bent your knees before you jumped.”

• Lower KS2: Substantive knowledge: rules of games. Disciplinary knowledge: strategies for positioning. Oracy: team talk to plan tactics.

• Upper KS2: Substantive knowledge: complex skills. Disciplinary knowledge: anticipating opponents’ moves. Oracy: calling and signalling in games to share real-time decisions.

History

• KS1: Substantive knowledge: Great Fire of London. Disciplinary knowledge: artefacts as evidence. Oracy: retelling the story and asking, “What does this object tell us?”

• Lower KS2: Substantive knowledge: Roman Empire. Disciplinary knowledge: interpreting evidence. Oracy: comparing different accounts and reasoning aloud.

• Upper KS2: Substantive knowledge: World Wars. Disciplinary knowledge: analysing sources. Oracy: debating reliability: “This diary is useful because…”

Conclusion

Understanding how knowledge is structured—procedural, semantic, and episodic—is a solid foundation for curriculum design. Yet it is substantive and disciplinary knowledge that enable students to engage deeply with subjects. Oracy is the bridge between them: it helps students articulate substantive knowledge clearly and practise disciplinary thinking explicitly.

When students are taught to speak, listen, reason, and reflect with structure, they not only know more but also think more like subject specialists. This structured approach is key to fostering independent, critical thinkers across the curriculum.

If you would like more reading on oracy and its links to substantive and disciplinary knowledge, you can see our oracy blog series.