Generalizations, Concepts, and Facts

1
Generalizations, Concepts, and Facts
2
What is a Generalization?

• Generalizations are relationships between two or
  more concepts.

3
Types of Generalizations

• Descriptive generalization- A supermarket sells
  all food products needed by consumers.
• Cause-and-effect generalization- Advertising the
  price of merchandise results in more comparative
  shopping by consumers.
• Value principle- Misleading or false advertising
  takes unfair advantage of consumers and is
  illegal.
• Universal Law or Principle- The capacity of a
  nation to modernize depends on its natural
  resource base, the quantity and quality of the
  labor force, the amount and kinds of capital
  available to its industry and agriculture, and
  the institutions, attitudes, values, and habits
  that determine the effectiveness with which these
  economic resources are used.

4
Examples of Generalizations

• New inventions lead to change in ways of living.
• As human beings interact with the physical
  environment, both they and it are changed.
• Because the peoples of the world are
  interdependent, the behaviors of one group of
  people affects the lives of the other groups.
• Families are a primary means of socialization in
  all cultures.
• Written laws clarify the rules by which a society
  operates and promote fair and equal treatment of
  its members.
• The survival of a multicultural society relies
  upon most citizens agreeing to a core of commonly
  held values (e.g., justice, equality, liberty).
• Great and small historical events rarely have a
  single cause.
• Compromise is necessary in most situations
  because continuous conflict has severe
  consequences.

5
Your Task

• Think of a generalization about democracy that
  you might teach to upper elementary students.

6
Concepts and Conceptual Thought

• Concepts Ideas Abstract categories or classes
  of meaning Refined and enhanced over time.
  Deals with meaning of words. Can be concrete
  places, objects, institutions, events, ways of
  thinking, feeling, and behaving.
• Conceptual thought The ability and inclination
  to classify perceptions of reality into groups
  having common qualities. Helps to manipulate
  reality intellectually. Begin with student prior
  knowledge What is their existing understanding?

7
Examples of Concepts

• island, village, city, nation, river ,democracy,
  revolution, power, poverty, equator, holiday,
  supply, scarcity, ocean, colony ,family war map
  suburbs prejudice transportation desert community
  freedom, culture, mountain, boundary, North,
  peace, assembly line, earth, nationality, money,
  neighborhood, waste, shelter, conflict

8
Your Task

• Identify the key concepts that are implicit in
  the generalization you created on democracy.

9
Facts

• Facts are necessary for building conceptual
  knowledge and generalizations. The teacher needs
  to make judgments as to 1) whether the factual
  information is needed to elaborate on or explain
  main ideas, 2) the extent to which it is
  frequently used in ordinary living, 3) whether
  the information is likely to remain important for
  a long period of time, and 4) whether the
  information is an important part of the common
  culture and is therefore something

10
Examples

• Fact New Orleans typically is warmer in the
  winter than Milwaukee.
• Generalization Climate varies from place to
  place.

11
Your task

• How do you make sense of the relationship between
  facts, concepts, and generalizations?
• What are some underlying facts that will need to
  be taught in order to teach the generalization
  and concepts you wrote earlier?