Concept-Attainment Model

Concept-Attainment ModelModels of Instruction (SGDC5034)

Wan Ahmad Azimi Bin Wan AzminStudent Matric Number 815726

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CONTENT

1) The Concept-Attainment Model: An Overview. 2) Goals for the Concept-Attainment Model.3) Planning lessons with Concept-Attainment Model.4) Implementing Lessons with the Concept-Attainment

Model.5) Assessing Student Outcomes of Concept-Attainment

Activities.6) Advantages & Disadvantages of Concept-Attainment

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THE CONCEPT-ATTAINMENT MODEL: AN OVERVIEW.

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An overview.• Developed by Jerome S. Bruner, Jacqueline J.

Goodnow, and George A. Austin in their book titled A Study of Thinking (1956).

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An overview.• Definition:

“Process of finding predictive defining attributes that distinguish exemplars from nonexemplars of the class one seeks to discriminate. (Bruner et al., 1956).”

• Emphasis of concept-attainment model: i) identify attributes that are exemplar of the concept, and disregard ones that do not link to the concept. ii) it is an inductive teaching strategy

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An overview.• Definition of concept:“…the network of inferences that are or may be set into play by an act of categorization (Bruner et al., 1956).”

• Three types of concepts:1) Conjunctive (common attributes)2) Disjunctive (without common attributes) 3) Relational (an instance is positive or negative, depending

upon a relationship between its attributes)

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An overview.Teacher’s Role: • Create a safe environment in welcoming all feedback.• Explain and describe the process.• Be neutral and accept or reject hypotheses from the students.

Student’s role• State the hypothesis on the connections of the examples and

non-examples. • Accept, modify or reject the hypothesis.

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An overview.Explicit features of the concept-attainment model:1) Provides students the opportunity to examine how they

attain knowledge.2) Practising critical thinking skills and among many others in

the scientific method.

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GOALS FOR THE CONCEPT-ATTAINMENT MODEL.

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Goals.Content Goals1) Concept-attainment model focus only on concepts.

Students understand multiple attributes from background knowledge to discover a new knowledge.

2) Develop critical thinking skills. This will help students to think of possible options and

analyze one that is the most rational.

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PLANNING LESSONS WITH CONCEPT-ATTAINMENT MODEL.

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Planning lessons.1) Identify the topics (led the students to figure out the topic).2) Specify the goals (teachers need to be clear what is their

expectations on the students).3) Select examples and non-examples of the concept (provide

examples and non-examples that will get students to hypothesize the concept, not confuse them).

4) Sequence the examples and non-examples (this will give more chances for the students to develop their forming-hypothesis skills).

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IMPLEMENTING LESSONS WITH THE CONCEPT-ATTAINMENT MODEL.

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Implementing lessons.

Presenting Examples

Analyzing Hypothesis

Closure

Application

Cyclical Process

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Implementing lessons.PHASE 1 – Presenting Examples

• Provide examples and non-examples after the activity has been explained to the students.

• Presenting the examples and non-examples is at the discretion of the teacher (i.e. alternate presenting examples and non-examples, present more than one examples in a row). This is associated with other versions of concept-attainment models (Edden and Kauchak, 2000).

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Implementing lessons.PHASE 2 – Analyzing Hypothesis

• Based on the examples and non-examples provided, teacher to facilitate students to hypothesize the concept.

• Cyclical Process – At this stage, the teacher and the students take one hypothesis at a time to either accept, reject or modify before providing more examples and non-examples, or proceeding to the next phase.

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Implementing lessons.

PHASE 3 – Closure

• After isolating the hypothesis that fits best, the teacher will then link it with the definition of the concept.

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Implementing lessons.PHASE 3 – Closure

• For example: hypothesis: sea turtles of Malaysiaconcept definition: The sea turtles of Malaysia are sea turtles found to be nesting in Malaysian coastline.

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Implementing lessons.PHASE 4 – Application

• Now that the students know the concept, give them the opportunity to confirm additional examples and non-examples, or encourage them to provide more of their own.

• Check for understanding.

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ASSESSING STUDENT OUTCOMES OF CONCEPT-ATTAINMENT ACTIVITIES.

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Assessing student outcomes.There are 4 ways to measure the students’ comprehension of the concept by doing the following: 1) They identify or provide additional examples and non-examples. 2) They identify the concept’s characteristics. 3) They relate the concept to other concepts. 4) They define the concept.

As for critical thinking, assess the students analyzing hypothesis with more concepts (Edden and Kauchak, 2000 :176).

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ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF CONCEPT-ATTAINMENT

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES

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• The model is easily adapted to be able to serve all age groups.

• The curiosity factor is likely to hold students’ attention and focus.

• It requires students to keep trying, even if their guesses are incorrect.

• It builds confidence.

• It is easy to make the examples either too difficult or too easy for this model. The teacher has to be able to find the right level of difficulty for the class and topic, which could be time consuming.

• The introduction itself can be very time consuming.

• Students must already have some prior knowledge for this model to be used successfully.

CAUTION!!

Concept-attainment model is different from concept-development model.

<(Zeynep Yavuz, 2012)>

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Q&A

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ReferencesBruner, J.S., Goodnow, J.J. & Austin, G.A. (1956). A Study of Thinking.

Chapman & Hall, Limited. London. <Accessed via Google Books on 24 September, 2013>

Edden, P.D. and Kauchak, D.P. (2000). Strategies for Teachers: Teaching Content and Thinking Skills (4th Edition). Allyn & Bacon.

Neff, L.S. (1999). Jerome Bruner on Concept Attainment Strategies. Learning Theories Website. <http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/lsn/educator/edtech/learningtheorieswebsite/bruner.htm> Accessed on 26 September, 2013.