Depth of Knowledge (DOK)

The premise of standards-based education is that setting high expectations for all students can effect positive change through systemic coherence. One of many aspects of systemic coherence is the need for sufficient consistency between the complexity of cognitive engagement specified by the standards and the extent to which that complexity plays out in all parts of the system – including curriculum, learning opportunities, and assessments. The expectations within academic standards vary in their complexity. Coherence relies on a common interpretation of the cognitive demands of the standards through careful content analyses. In this way, standards can inform instructional design and content development to elicit thinking that is as cognitively demanding as the expectations in the corresponding learning targets.

DOK is a tool that can promote coherence by facilitating interpretation, evaluation, and communication about the cognitive demands of the standards and other system components in ways that are compatible with the intent of the standards and the underlying ideas about the nature of learning. Content developers, educators, evaluators, and others use DOK to work with greater efficiency and intentionality to promote content alignment in support of a coherent system.