Utilizing Concept Formation

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Utilizing Concept Formation Concept Mapping
withInspiration

• Investigated by
• Joe Herz, Kim Harrison,
• Chris Clark, Kevin Baker

2
Background

• Students in a freshmen high school computer class
  have varying degrees of prior knowledge relating
  to computers and their components

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Problem Statement

• Traditional delivery system was determined to be
  ineffective in students being able to organize,
  interpret, and connect new information.

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Goal

• Our group wanted to find an alternative and
  effective instructional strategy to help our
  students understand the components of a computer
  and how they work together.

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A Possible Solution

• The teacher will utilize concept formation and
  concept mapping in the program Inspiration to
  create an effective lesson in which students are
  actively involved in their learning.

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The Presenters

• Kevin
• Introduction
• Joe
• The Research
• Kim
• Tool
• Strategy
• Chris
• The survey
• Our questionnaire
• Closing statements
• Group
• Defending our project

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Concept Formation Research

1. Concept Formation as a Teaching Strategy

1. Concept Mapping as a Learning Strategy

1. Visual Literacy in Teaching and Learning

1. Inspiration as a Visual Concept Formation and
   Mapping Tool

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Thinking

1. Thinking is an inductive process that can be
   taught.

1. Thinking is an active transaction between the
   person and the data.

1. Processes of thought evolve by a sequential
   learning of thinking skills.

(Taba, 1966)
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Inductive Thinking

• Inductive Thinking requires a logical, sequential
  mental process of creating categories and using
  the categories. Using Concept Formation . . .

• Data is collected (listed)

• Data is organized (categorized)

• Data is manipulated (labeled in categories)

• Data is utilized

(Taba, 1967)
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Concept Formation as a Strategy of Inductive
Thinking
Concept formation

• involves the recognition that some objects or
  events belong together while others do not.

• requires learners to decide the basis
  (similarities) on which they group objects or
  events.

• requires learners to build categories based on
  the groupings.

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Learning

• The act of learning is the act of receiving,
  categorizing, and remembering new information.
• (Park, 1995)

• The learner needs a variety of strategies to
  store and retrieve knowledge.
• (Weinstein McDonald, 1986)

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Engaging

• How information is presented has an effect on
  what is learned.
• (Weinstein McDonald, 1986)

• The learner must find themselves engaged in
  activities that help them handle the new
  knowledge in an efficient manner.

• Once engaged, knowledge is no longer passively
  received, but is built by the learner.
• (Wheatley, 1991)

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Strategy

• Understanding occurs when prior knowledge is
  related to what is being presented.
• (Wheatley, 1991)

• A strategy that supports connecting prior
  knowledge to new concepts is concept mapping.
• (Novak Gowin, 1984 White Gunstone, 1992)

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Relationships

• The linear nature of text can inhibit the process
  of expressing concepts, ideas, and relationships.
• (Thornburg, 1998)

• When students construct concept maps, they
  identify and define important concepts or ideas
  and graphically represent interrelationships
  among concepts.
• (White Gunstone, 1992)

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As a Result . . .
A concept map becomes . . .
an engaging tool to link concepts
a spatial organization of new knowledge.
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Making the Connection
Concept Formation
Concept Mapping
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The Sequence of Concept Formation is
Students identify and list data from their
experience, which relate to the concept under
investigation
Data is grouped according to common
characteristics or relationships determined by
the students, and reasons for their groupings
are given
Students explore alternative ways of grouping and
labeling based on different characteristics and
relationships
Students are asked to subsume items under other
labels or combine groupings under more inclusive
categories
Students label their groupings with a word or a
phrase
(Taba, 1971)
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The Sequence of Concept Mapping is
Students label groupings with a word or a phrase
Selecting key concepts
Writing concepts
Rearranging these spatial relationships until
they form a meaningful structure
Making a list of the characteristics of the key
concepts
Relating key concepts in spatial a relationship
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The Synthesis
Concept Formation
Concept Mapping
Identify concept characteristics
Select key concepts
List and group the data
Write the key concepts
Label their groupings
Organize by characteristics
Combine groupings under more inclusive categories
Relate key concepts in a spatial
relationship
Explore alternative ways of grouping and labeling
based on different characteristics and
relationships
Rearranging these spatial
relationships until they form a meaningful
structure
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Making the Connection
Concept Formation
Concept Mapping
Visual Learning
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Visual Literacy

• Surrounding our need to process an ever
  increasing amount of visual information, there is
  an emerging movement for development of visual
  literacy skills. The case by Seels (1994, p. 99)
  as follows
• With visual literacy-the ability to both
  understand and make visual statements-we become
  sensitized to the world around us, the
  relationships and systems of which we are a
  part. Visual literacy integrates personal
  experience with imagination with social
  experience, technology and aesthetics.

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Applying Visual Literacy

• There is an extensive literature on the
  application of visual literacy skills . . .
  successfully used in the teaching of organizing
  data.
• Some examples are the use of . . .
• concept mapping as a learning strategy
• (Buzan, T.,1995)

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Making the Connection
Concept Formation
Concept Mapping
Visual Learning
Inspiration
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Goal and Objective

• Goal-
• Students will understand the components and the
  relationship of the components of a computer
  system.
• Objective-
• Students will recognize that some objects or
  events belong together while others do not.

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Presentation

• As a class, students list information about
  computers.

• Students are divided into small groups with the
  task of listing more information about computers.

• Students will be given time to research the
  Internet to add to their knowledge.

• As a class, students will add additional
  information about computers.

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Teacher Focus Areas

• Naming the groups input, output, network,
  storage, processing, structural, hardware,
  electrical, and circuit.

• The independent and interdependent function of
  the components within the groups.

• The dependency and sequencing of component
  functions to complete a job and that removing
  them from the sequence will stop the job.

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Research Design

• Qualitative Research
• Survey using a questionnaire
• Lickert scale-forced choice questions

• Hypothesis
• Using Inspiration to teach a concept formation
  lesson will result in students having a more
  complete understanding of the interrelatedness of
  computer components and will positively effect
  their sense of involvement in the lesson.

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Questionnaire

• The following questionnaire will be presented to
  the students to determine the effectiveness of
  the strategy, Concept Formation, and the tool,
  Inspiration.

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Bibliography
For Inspiration http//www.inspiration.com/th
eory.html http//www.inspiration.com/theory/mappi
ng.html For Concept Mapping
http//cedir.uow.edu.au/CEDIR/overview/overvie
wv4n2/ferry.html http//www.coe.missouri.edu/vlib
/matthew.htm http//bioactivesite.com/elemsci/lect
urehall/sci_ed_practices/sld016.htm http//ksi.cps
c.ucalgary.ca/articles/ConceptMaps/CM.html -
Abstract  
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• For Concept Formation
• http//www.ilt.columbia.edu/k12/livetext/docs/sem
  antic.html
• http//www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/policy/incel/sec
  tion_3.html
• http//www.mastnet.net/kbertsch/inductive.htmls
  yntax
• http//www.dushkin.com/connectext/psy/ch08/confor
  m.mhtml
• For Visual Leaning http//www.curtin.edu.
  au/conference/ASCILITE97/papers/Mcloughlin/Mclough
  lin.html