The Influence of Existing Knowledge on the Student Cognitive Understanding Process in Mastering the Malaysian Economics Text Reading

Schemata are existing knowledge structures or previously acquired knowledge structures that are stored in the memory. Whereas cognitive processing is a process that involved managing the mental activities that occurred in the students’ mind to process information so that information can be stored and recalled. The objective of this study was to explore the impact of existing knowledge on cognitive processes such as attention, perception, training, coding and recalling of students in mastering the textual content of the Malaysian Economics through reading process. This study used qualitative design that combined two methods: interview and document content analysis. Purposive sampling was used in this study. The study sample consisted of four pre-university students taking Malaysian Economics papers in the Malaysian Higher School Certificate (STPM) in Johor Bahru district. The findings showed that the influence of existing knowledge on the processes of attention, perception, training, coding and recalling performed by students to master the textual reading of the Malaysian Economics. Therefore, the findings of this study could be practiced by students to master the information read from various sources.