Concept Development

1. INSTRUCTION: A MODELS APPROACH
CHAPTER 6 PRESENTATION
The Concept Development
Model
FEB. 13, 2008

2. “Understandings are
built, not acquired.”

3. Definition
Concept Development:
A general idea or understanding that
is derived from specific instances or
occurences
A thought or notion

4. In Other Words …
Individuals acquire vocabulary in relationship to
concepts
If you understand a concept, any unknown words will be given
meaning through what is already understood
If the concept is not understood, a word’s meaning will be
forgotten within a few days

5. The Mind is Like a Room of Filing Cabinets
There are thousands of files
Each file represents a concept
Each file (concept) needs a label (word)
Concept Development
Extends & Refines the information in our files

6. “To awaken, to encourage,
and to stretch
children’s abilities
to think for
themselves is
the highest goal of
education.”

7. Utilizing Concept Development
Students:
Practice categorization
Listing, grouping, labeling, synthesizing
Articulate thoughts
Compare ideas with other students

Concrete Objects    Complex Ideas
• Teachers:
Guide and facilitate learning
Provide opportunity for students to link main
concepts

8. Building a Concept
Figure 6.1 (p.109)
HOT!
Night
Red
StoveMatch
Fire
Day
Sun
Puppy
Green
Ice
Blue
Car
Kitten

9. Steps in Concept Development
1.List as many items as possible that are associated with
the subject
2.Group the items because they are alike in some way
3.Label the groups by defining the reasons for grouping
4.Regroup or subsume individual items or whole groups
under other groups
5.Synthesize the information by summarizing the data
and forming generalizations
6.Evaluate students’ progress by assessing their ability to
generate a wide variety of items and to group those
items flexibly

10. Differentiating Instruction
Structure & Implementation can be varied:
Student groups
Directions
Pace of lesson
•
roup students according to:
Learning Abilities
Learning Interests
Learning Speeds

11. Assessment
Quality
Number of items
generated
Self-Assessment
Students explain
decisions
Short essays

12. Benefits of Concept Development
1.Extending & refining knowledge
Gaining additional points of view
2.Generating original ideas
4-5 times in a group, student can perform on own
3.Reading & extracting meaning
Understanding a concept increases overall uderstanding
4.Problem solving
Learning about others’ experiences can help solve your own
problems
5.Writing unified paragraphs and papers
A paragraph is a series of sentences developing 1 topic
Understanding a concept helps build proper paragraphs

13. Web Resources
Biology Concept Development
http://www.csus.edu/indiv/m/mcvicerb/marinebioproject.htm
Concept Development:
http://fac-staff.seattleu.edu/kschlnoe/web/TLU/process.html
Concept Mapping
http://classes.aces.uiuc.edu/ACES100/Mind/CMap.html
English Language Development
http://coe.sdsu.edu/people/jmora/MoraModules/EDUInstruction.h
tm
The Three Thinking Strategies – Hilda Taba
http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/departments/oipd/mspap/reading/Lo
okingAtConRCL.pdf