CONCEPTUALIZATION (c)
WHAT IS IT?
Conceptualization describes the level at which a student understands and can use concepts and ideas. Concepts
and ideas are the basis of all school learning. For every topic, students are expected to learn key concepts and main ideas. In textbooks, the chapter headings reflect the major concepts and ideas to be mastered. To understand a concept means to be able to use it to form ideas; to understand ideas means to be able to use them for thinking: for explaining phenomena and solving problems.
Related ideas in Education
*Writing objectives
*Scope and Sequence Charts
*Curriculum Guides
*Key words and main ideas
*End of chapter tasks/questions
*Big ideas; unit themes
*Vocabulary
*Standards (State, National and Professional)
WHAT STUDENTS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CONCEPTUALIZATION
A. We can express our knowledge of concepts in several ways:
*give an example
*give a definition
*give an antonym/synonym (if there is one)
*use in a sentence
*use appropriately in talking about a situation
B. We can know concepts at increasingly deeper levels. Concept knowing is not an all or none kind of knowing:
*we can know how one thing (concept) is different from another
*we can identify examples and non-examples
*we can know what features make one concept different from another
*we can know where a concept fits in a hierarchy of concepts
*we can know how to use the concept to form ideas and solve problems
C. Conceptual learning involves four kinds of changes in long term memory:
*adding knowledge, refining existing knowledge, integrating knowledge, restructuring knowledge
D. We put concepts together to form ideas (as in sentences). There are 6 basic kinds of sentences:
Identity What something is
Event What happened
Reason What caused/causes something or happened/happens
Process How something happens
Condition What could, might, will happen
Judgment The value of something
E. The level of our understanding of ideas is based on 5 things:
*the depth of our understanding
*how well we integrate ideas
*our ability to build hierarchy of more and more general ideas
*how precisely we understand how one idea relates to another idea
*how consistent our knowledge of a topic is
TYPICAL DIFFICULTIES
The kinds of difficulties students have will be related to one of the five areas above. We can ask Core and Elaborating Questions to more precisely define the nature of the difficulty.
CORE QUESTIONS
- How does the student demonstrate knowledge of particular concepts: example, definition, sentence, principle/problem?
- Does the student over or under generalize a concept?
- At what level of complexity can a student understand ideas: depth, integration, generality, precision,
consistency?
ELABORATING QUESTIONS
- Does the student know how to apply the concept in the context of a principle or a problem? (See Abstraction for more detail on concept/idea use.)
- Can the student understand and express concepts in all 6 types of concept relationships: identity, event, reason, process, condition, judgment?
- In oral or written work, do ideas show: depth, integration, generality, precision, consistency?
- Does the student understand how one kind of idea relates to another kind of idea?
INSTRUCTION/INTERVENTION PRINCIPLES
- TEACH CONCEPTS IN A DEEP WAY; MULTIPLE EXPOSURES IN MULTIPLE CONTEXTS
- TEACH CONCEPTS WITHIN A NETWORK, AND IDEALLY, A HIERARCHY OF CONCEPTS
- TEACH THE VARIETY OF WAYS TO EXPRESS CONCEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE: DEFINITION,
EXAMPLE, ANTONYM/SYNONYM, CONTEXT
4. TEACH HOW TO LEARN CONCEPTS, NOT JUST THE CONCEPTS THEMSELVES
5. BE CLEAR ABOUT THE TYPES OF IDEAS TO BE LEARNED
6. BE CLEAR ABOUT THE LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE EXPECTED
7. APPLY TO ALL AREAS OF THE CURRICULUM
TEACHING TECHNIQUES
*Use semantic feature charts
*Teach semantic mapping
*Teach classification skills
*Teach to recognize examples and non-examples
*Play word games
*Use graphic representation of ideas (Thinking Maps, Graphic Organizers)
*Teach text structure to facilitate understanding of types of ideas
*Teach outlining (with or without numbers and letters)
*Pre and post test knowledge of concepts and ideas using semantic mapping
*Teach kids to use Kidspiration
*Teach kids to use the CoBuild Dictionary, especially the disc version
*Teach kids subject relevant morphology
*Encourage and scaffold kids in becoming an expert in one domain and then in a second domain
RESOURCES
Allen, Janet. (2007). Inside Words: Tools for Teaching Academic Vocabulary Grades 4-12. Portland. Maine: Stenhouse Publishers
Beck, I. L. & McKeown, M. G.& Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing Words to Life. New York: The Guilford Press
Erickson, H. L. & Lois A. Lanning (2014). Transitioning to Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction: How to Bring Content and Process Together. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin (Sage Company)
Graves, M. F. (2006). The Vocabulary Book: Learning & Instruction. New York: Teachers College Press
Michaels, J. R. (2001). Dancing with Words: Helping Students Love Language Through Authentic Vocabulary Instruction. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English
Zwiers, J. & Crawford, M. (2011). Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk That Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers
Neuman, S. & Kaefer, T. & Pinkham, A. (date?) Building Background Knowledge. Reading Rockets.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/building-background-knowledge
Willingham, D. T. (2016). Knowledge Matters: Restoring Wonder and Excitement to the Classroom, Issue Brief #1, March 2016.
http://knowledgematterscampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Willingham-brief.pdf
CARE NOTES ABSTRACTION
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