The aim of the paper is to show the multi-dimensional idea of conceptual thinking and to describe a method of conceptualising the idea of overlapping knowledge and to identify conceptual knowledge gaps. This approach gives opportunities to educational institutions to 1) measure the difference between the knowledge that needs to be learned in a syllabus and the knowledge that the student has – the knowledge gap; 2) to indentify methods of integrating knowledge transfer in educational programmes. The main focus of the research is to devise a method of summarising and analysing the acquired knowledge of students of secondary schools in pictorial form and to relate this information to the content of the syllabus to be taught at the university. This study relates to informatics – it can be extended in the future to cover all teaching subjects. The following quantitative research methods were used in the research process: EKD (Enterprise Knowledge Development) methodology; Expert interviews were undertaken to identify the body of knowledge in different institutions; analysis of the national education standards as set out by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Latvia. These standards represent the learning to be achieved within particular subject areas. The approach proposed in the paper supports the production of knowledge customized for different educational purposes. For instance, analysis of the overlapping knowledge can be applied to the institutions where we work. It can be used for preparing various courses as well as for e-portfolio systems designed to fill knowledge gaps.