Complex Cognitive Processes

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Complex Cognitive Processes

• Module 21 Learning and Teaching about Concepts

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Views of Concept Learning

• What is a concept?
• A concept is a general category of ideas,
  objects, people, or experiences whose members
  share certain properties
• The category is used to group similar events,
  ideas, objects, or people
• In early ways of thinking about concept learning,
  researchers focused on defining attributes. A
  defining attribute is a distinctive features
  shared by members of a category (e.g., a party or
  a bird).
• One problem with the idea of defining attributes
  is that there are many kinds of parties and many
  different types of birds thus, some defining
  attributes that might be discussed do not define
  ALL members of these categories (e.g., if one of
  the defining attributes of birds is that they
  fly, some birds are eliminated from the
  category).

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Other views of concept learning

• Current conceptions of concept learning suggest
  that we have prototypes images that capture the
  essence of concepts in our minds. Thus, with
  respect to the bird, we have a prototype. A
  prototype, then, is the best representative of
  the category. So, for those who live in the
  northeast, the prototype of a bird might be a
  robin. This may be different for people who live
  in other parts of the country or in other parts
  of the world.
• Whether something fits into a category (e.g., the
  category of bird or furniture) is a matter of
  degree.
• Another view of concept learning is that of
  exemplars. An exemplar is more of a specific
  example of a category. For example, we use
  things from our memory or from our personal
  experience as examplars. When we encounter
  something new, we refer back to that exemplar
  to determine if the new thing fits into the
  category. So, for example, if we encounter a
  shelving unit that is carved from wood and is
  shaped like an animal, we look at it and decide
  if it fits with our exemplar of a bookcase.
  Perhaps it does, or perhaps it does not. Or,
  perhaps it fits with our exemplar of a sculpture.
  Perhaps both.
• Prototypes are built from many exemplars.
• See Woolfolk, 2005.

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Strategies of teaching concepts

• Both prototypes and defining attributes are
  important in concept learning.
• More examples are needed in teaching complicated
  concepts and in working with younger or less
  knowledgeable students than when teaching less
  complicated concepts or when working with less
  knowledgeable students.
• Examples and nonexamples are necessary in order
  to make the boundaries clear

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Strategies for teaching concepts

• Whatever strategy you use for teaching concepts,
  you need
• Examples - the number depends, likely, on the
  concept, or on how students seem to be
  understanding the concept, etc.
• Nonexamples
• Relevant attributes
• Irrelevant attributes
• The name of the concept
• A definition - A good definition has two
  elements a reference to any more general
  category for the new concept
• Also, use visual aids
• Diagrams, animations, manipulates, images,
  pictures, vitally important

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More about concept learning

• Undergeneralization happens when learners exclude
  some true members from a category, which limits
  their understanding a concept.
• For teachers, including exemplars that are
  slightly different from the prototype, when
  necessary, will help avoid students
  undergeneralization.
• Overgeneralization is when learners include
  nonmembers in a category, which overextends their
  understanding of a concept.
• Tor teachers, including non-examples when
  teaching about the concept can prevent
  overgeneralization.

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Strategies for teaching concepts

• Extending and connecting concepts
• Once students understand the concept, they should
  use it by doing exercises, solving problems,
  writing, reading, explaining, etc.
• One idea is to have students develop concept maps
  (this will show both reasonable understandings
  and misconceptions).

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Teaching concepts through discovery

• Based on the work of Jerome Bruner
• Bruner believed that students must learn the
  structure of a subject, must be active in their
  learning, must use inductive reasoning (Woolfolk,
  2005)
• Subject Structure
• Subject structure is the fundamental ideas,
  relationships, or patterns of the field (that is,
  the essential information)
• Subject structure doesnt include the facts or
  details about a subject, so it can be represented
  in diagrams, with a set of principles, or with
  formulas
• For Brunder, learning is more meaningful when
  students understand the structure of the subject
  being learned
• Discovery Learning
• In a discovery learning environment, students
  must be active
• In a discovery learning environment, students
  must identify the key principles
• In a discovery learning environment, students
  must work on their own to discover the basic
  principles
• In a discovery learning environment, teachers
  present examples
• In a discover learning environment, students work
  on the examples presented to them until they
  discover the interrelationships (or the subjects
  structure)
• In other words, a discovery learning environment
  involves inductive reasoning, where learners
  formulate general principles based on knowledge
  of examples
• Discovery learning environments can be time
  consuming, but are very effective

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Teaching concepts through discovery

• Inductive approaches to learning require
  intuitive thinking.
• An intuitive thinking approach allows for
  students to make informed guesses about topics
  under study based on incomplete evidence.
• Often, students will develop incorrect guesses
  and will be required, then, to test their guesses
  and to verify whether or not the guesses will
  work.
• Consider the following questions
• Educational practices often discourage intuitive
  thinking. How?
• It what types of learning environments would it
  be beneficial to use intuitive thinking in
  schools?
• In what types of learning environments would it
  not be beneficial to sue intuitive thinking in
  schools?

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Teaching concepts through discovery

• Again, as with all links on these PowerPoints,
  please right click on the link and open the link
  in a new window it will make it easier for you
  to get back to the original PowerPoint

• Link here to learn what, specifically, is Guided
  Discovery?
• Unguided discovery is good for very young
  children, but for school age students totally
  unguided activities are usually not productive
• In guided discovery, students are presented with
  questions, situations, or problems. Based on
  observations, they form various hypotheses, they
  test these hypotheses, and sometimes form
  additional hypotheses (very like inquiry
  learning)
• Consider what you think would be the strengths of
  truly guided discovery lessons
• Consider what you think would be the weaknesses
  of these same lessons

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Teaching Concepts through Exposition

• On the other hand, Ausubel had a totally
  different view of concept learning.
• In Ausubels expository teaching teachers
  present the concepts, principles, and ideas in
  complete, organized form. They move from broad
  concepts to more specific concepts.
• For Ausubel, concepts, principles, and ideas must
  be presented and understood, NOT discovered.
• For Ausubel, meaningful learning focuses on
  creating organized relationships between among
  ideas (and making connections to prior
  knowledge).
• For Ausubel, rote memorization is not meaningful
  learning because the material being learned is
  not being connected with the learners existing
  knowledge base.
• For Ausubel, deductive reasoning, not inductive
  reasoning, is important.
• To reason deductively, learners apply the rules
  or principles they are learning to solve a
  problem they use a general rule or principle to
  develop a specific solution
• Ausubels strategy always begins with an advanced
  organizer. An advanced organizer is an
  introductory statement about all the information
  that will follow.
• Advanced organizers can be text based, or
  diagrams, or etc.

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Teaching Concepts through Exposition

• The advanced organizer is meant to
• Direct attention to what is important.
• Highlight relationships among ideas that will be
  presented.
• Remind learners of relevant information they
  already have.
• There are two categories of AOs
• Comparative organizers activate the information
  that the learners already know that is they
  encourage students to activate what they know but
  perhaps dont know is relevant to the learning
  environment.
• Expository organizers provide new knowledge that
  learners will need to know in order to understand
  the information in the lesson.
• Research generally indicates that AOs do help
  learners learn, especially when the information
  to be studied or learned is unfamiliar or
  difficult, especially if
• The organizer is understood by students.
• They organize information by indicating relations
  among the basic concepts and terms that will be
  used.

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Teaching concepts through Exposition

• Again, as with all links on these PowerPoints,
  please right click on the link and open the link
  in a new window it will make it easier for you
  to get back to the original PowerPoint

• Meaningful Learning Model (how to incorporate).