{"id":204,"date":"2007-05-09T10:19:05","date_gmt":"2007-05-09T14:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/204"},"modified":"2007-06-19T09:43:52","modified_gmt":"2007-06-19T13:43:52","slug":"teaching-concepts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/archives\/204","title":{"rendered":"Teaching concepts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Concepts are some of the most powerful components of learning. In fact, concepts attainment is necessary for deep understanding\u00e2\u20ac\u201dif you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t grasp the concept, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really understand. This is a challenge in teaching in part because most people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t recognize a concept when they see it. Further, concepts are abstract and therefore, hard to grasp. And yet, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stuff\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of faith is comprised of abstract concepts. <\/p>\n

Concepts consist of a category (a class or a set) and attributes by which to tell whether or not an object belongs in the category. Concepts, then, require the ability to build taxonomies, discern likeness and difference identify qualities, and to name or create categories. No small feat for any learner, yet even young children are doing this when they learn a new concept.<\/p>\n

The best procedure to follow when teaching a concept is:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Name the concept<\/li>\n
  2. Define the concept<\/li>\n
  3. Explicate the concept<\/li>\n
  4. Provide an example of the concept<\/li>\n
  5. Provide a non-example of the concept<\/li>\n
  6. Identify criterial attributes of the concept<\/li>\n
  7. Test for comprehension.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quite amazing, but, if we follow this procedure learners seem better able to acquire an understanding of a concept than if we try it any other way. Often it is in step three, that we fall into the trap of teaching for misunderstanding (like offering anthropomorphic, ontological, or normative explications when teaching concepts or principles (which, like concepts, most people seem not to be able to identify)). <\/p>\n

    Avoiding teaching misunderstanding requires we do the hard work of developing a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153deep understanding\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to teach. Steps 4, 5, and 6 are the ones that help facilitate the process of acquiring an accurate understanding (going from the known to the unknown, building taxonomies, sharpening identification of occurrence, etc.). Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a simple test: before trying to teach a concept (or much of anything) try \u00e2\u20ac\u0153explaining\u00e2\u20ac\u009d it to someone else (1) simply, and (2) accurately. Preferably, you should have a young child around to experiment on. <\/p>\n

    Step seven is critical. Learners are notorious for being able to explain a concept without fully understanding it. Students get adept at mimicking teacher explications or learning to give back \u00e2\u20ac\u0153what to say\u00e2\u20ac\u009d while bypassing all of the necessary processes that result in understanding. Unfortunately much of what consists of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153testing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in schooling is assessing whether or not the student can \u00e2\u20ac\u0153explain it like the teacher did,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d rather than assessing understanding. Meaning, you can get 100% \u00e2\u20ac\u0153correct\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on a test and still not have learned anything. <\/p>\n

    When you teach a concept follow the correct procedure outlined and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll help your learners acquire a deeper understanding of the concept while avoiding misunderstanding. <\/p>\n

    galindobanner3.jpg<\/p>\n

    “A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Concepts are some of the most powerful components of learning. In fact, concepts attainment is necessary for deep understanding\u00e2\u20ac\u201dif you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t grasp the concept, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really understand. This is a challenge in teaching in part because most people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,4,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","category-christian-education","category-teaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grace-ed.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}