for students with low prior learning, even in early stages of the learning process (Durkin & Rittle-Johnson, 2012). After all, it is natural for students to have misconceptions as they learn, and one powerful way to teach them is to find the errors in their thinking and apply meaningful learning strategies to address those errors (Gür & Barak, 2007).
How to Move From Research to Practice
Teachers can use concept attainment to help students inductively develop an abstract, generic idea by using pattern recognition and categorizing skills and then deductively apply the concept in new situations (Pritchard, 1994). More specifically, the strategy, as proposed by Jerome Bruner, aims to build understanding of a concept; it is not only concerned with what a concept is but also the process of how it is acquired (as cited in Boulware & Crow, 2008), and students explore examples as well as non-examples of a concept. By using inductive reasoning, teachers encourage students to apply the attributes to analyze other similar and dissimilar examples before the concept is categorized or named (Boulware & Crow, 2008). Thus, concept attainment is “the search for and testing of attributes that can be used to distinguish exemplars from nonexemplars of various categories” (Joyce, Weil, & Calhoun, 2004, p. 62). Overall, concept attainment is an excellent way to provide opportunities for students to practice inductive reasoning and improve their concept-building strategies.
Preparing to Incorporate Concept Attainment Into the Classroom
The concept attainment approach can nurture awareness of alternative perspectives, sensitivity to logical reasoning in communication, and a tolerance for ambiguity. Peter Martorella (1999) suggests a planning guide for teaching concepts.
To initiate the process of teaching a concept, you need to ask yourself several basic questions: Do educators and subject matter specialists suggest the concept be taught? Should a student receive systematic instruction in the concept, or is it more appropriately acquired through informal means? Is there a sufficient agreement on the critical attributes … to have a basis for designing instructions? Assuming answers are yes to these questions, you are ready to move on to the next phase of instructional planning using the following inventory:
1. What name is commonly applied to the concept? (Example: lake)
2. What is a statement of the concept’s rule or definition (the arrangement of its critical attributes)? (Example: body of water surrounded by land on all sides)
3. What are the essential characteristics of critical attributes of the concept based on your readings and reference sources? (Example: land, water, surroundings)
4. What are some noncritical attributes typically associated with the concept? (Example: size, location, depth)
5. What is an example that best or most clearly represents the most typical case of the concept? (Example: aerial photo clearly showing all the features of a lake)
6. What are some other interesting and learner-relevant examples of cases of the concept that you can use in its explanation? (Example: local lakes, mountain lakes, desert lakes)
7. What are some contrasting nonexamples of the concept that will help clarify and illustrate the concept? (Example: ocean, stream)
8. What are some cues, questions, or directions that you can employ to call attention to criteria attributes and noncriterial attributes in the concept examples? (Example: “Look at all the points where the water meets the land.”) (as cited in Holt & Kysilka, 2006, p. 311)
Teachers use these steps to facilitate the conceptual types of learning and to adjust how much control they delegate to the students based on what is needed in the learning. For instance, the process can be teacher directed as the teacher explicitly elaborates on the elements of a concept, or it can be student directed by giving students the control to explore and transfer the attainment activity to real-life settings.
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