Application Online

Concept attainment, as an instructional strategy, is directly suited to teaching concepts because both the teaching method and the content type feature groupings with common characteristics and multiple examples, allowing students to classify and discover definitions for themselves. Theoretically, concept attainment could also be appropriate for teaching principles because a principle has strict guidelines and rules, though principles can vary and change continually and distinctions may be difficult to classify and draw conclusions from.

Example

Instructor: Selects a concept and identifies positive and negative examples of the concept being presented. Creates an activity for the students based on the selected concept.

Students:  Examine the following groups of items. (See the explanation of each group at the end of the example.)

Students: Make a statement about what is common about items in each group.

Students: Examine the following new words and place them in Group A or Group B:

§         Life and physical sciences

§         Environmental engineer

§         Community and social services

§         Recreation leader

Students: Think about how they classified these new words.

Students: Check to see if they were correct. (An online link would be provided that allows students to check their work.)

Students: Explain how these placements changed their definition of each group.

Students: Explain what they think connects the items in each group.

Students: Check the link to view the answer.

Students: List two more items in each group that they are interested in researching.

(Group A items are occupational groupings that consist of jobs in similar fields and may require different levels of skill and education. Group B items are job titles that require skills and duties to perform a task, jobs that make up occupational groupings.)

 

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