Exploring Concept Attainment: a strategy to enable student critical thinking and learning

1. Exploring Concept Attainment:a strategy to enable student critical thinking and learning A presentation to the staff of Coláiste Treasa, Kanturk Gerard O’Sullivan Curriculum Development Co-ordinator, County Cork VEC 4-5.30pm Thursday 24th November 2011

2. How many of you have experienced Concept Attainment or applied it in the classroom? … and the answer is?

3. All of us have experienced it, the process is what our parents used when we were young … to ‘teach’ us all those ‘concepts’ like dog and truck etc.

4. Aims for today: • To develop understanding of what is meant by Concept Attainment • To explore Concept Attainment in practice • To consider how Concept Attainment might be integrated in our classroom practice

5. Instructional Intelligence • Involves awareness of how to respond pedagogically to research into how students learn • Relates to how teachers can extend their instructional repertoire (skills, tactics, strategies) • Knowing what interventions to adopt and when: art and science of teaching

6. Skills are the instructional actions of teachers that enhance learning Increase chances that more complex instructional processes (tactics and strategies) are implemented Most teachers are tacitly or unconsciously skilled Framing questions Applying wait time Suspending judgment Discussing the purpose of the lesson Linking with students’ past experience Responding to a ‘no’ response Checking for understanding Instructional Skills

7. A tactic fits between a skill and a strategy It is an action used to enrich or strengthen the application of a strategy Can be linked to other tactics or skills Tactics make strategies less complex and more workable Tactics Think Pair Share Brainstorming Venn Diagram Flow Chart Round Robin 3 Step Interview Instructional Tactics

8. Strategies are usually grounded in theory May involve a sequence of steps, or number of related elements Have intended effect on student learning Skills drive tactics, tactics and skills drive strategies Strategies Co-operative learning Mind Mapping Concept Mapping Team teaching Lesson Design CONCEPT ATTAINMENT Instructional Strategies

9. Some research conclusions Characteristics of expert teachers: • Use knowledge about students and how they learn to fashion lessons • Connect ideas to students’ experiences • Create variety of learning opportunities to make subject come alive for students who learn in different ways • Create steps to help students progress towards more complicated ideas and performances • (Darling-Hammond 1998)

10. What is Concept Attainment? • What is a concept? • Jerome Bruner: research into how people construct meaning (1980s) • Inductive Thinking: seeking patterns or classifying data according to common characteristics • Brain research: • Brain is a pattern seeker • Talk is critical in process of intellectual growth

11. An example of a concept • ‘Framing questions effectively’ is a concept • Research tells us that it is a skill that leads to more effective learning • But what is meant by the concept of ‘framing questions effectively’?

12. Teaching a concept • How can this concept be learned effectively? • Straightforward input/ lecture? • Or another way, based on research into how students learn and involving: • students thinking critically for themselves • students working collaboratively • Students forming their own hypotheses

13. Think-Pair-Share Consider your response as a teacher to these three scenarios: • Some students just call out answers after you have asked a question • Some students just sit back and do not respond after you have asked a question • A group of students is discussing a response to a question but only one or two are doing all the work Discuss in pairs how you can respond

14. Feedback • What is the problem in these scenarios? • What can the teacher do to tackle this problem?

15. Using Concept Attainment Let’s move on: Consider this statement: Look at the data set on the handout. Do not try to answer the questions. Do not focus on the subject matter or the level of thinking involved in the wording. Instead, focus on how the odd-numbered questions are framed in relation to student participation.

16. Think to yourself

17. Checking for Understanding • If you have an idea about what the odd numbered examples have in common, share now with the person next to you. • Now, together, read the testers on the back of your sheet and check which ones support your thinking or hypothesis.

18. Pair activity: Sharing your thinking

19. Sharing your thinking • What is your shared hypothesis? • Can you track the journey your mind went on from when you first read the questions to where you are now? • Let’s share

20. Odd-numbered questions Framed in such a way that: • each student is held accountable to think • Opportunity is provided for rehearsal of answer within the safety of one’s own mind prior to public sharing • Covert to overt responses C, F and H fit into this group

21. Even-numbered questions Framed in such a way that: • Only one student is held accountable • Increased level of concern caused by abruptness/ suddenness of question • Low level of concern and accountability among others in the classroom A, B, D and E fit into this group G fits into both categories

22. Applying our thinking Factors related to framing questions effectively: • Wait Time • Accountability and level of Concern • Responding to different types of student response • Brain research

23. Deconstructing what we have done • Do you think that you have grasped the concept of framing questions effectively? • How did we do it? • Let us deconstruct the strategy that we have followed in trying to grasp what is meant by ‘framing questions effectively’

24. Concept Attainment • Three Phases: • Presentation of a focus statement and a data set of YES and NO examples of the concept • Sharing and testing of hypotheses in order to confirm attainment of the concept • Applying the concept and extending thinking

25. Three Phases of CA First phase • I used a hook or mental set to focus you on the main objective of my strategy, which was to help you to grasp the concept of ‘framing questions effectively’ • I invited you to think about your reaction to three scenarios relating to the issue of student participation

26. Three Phases of CA First phase (cont’d) • I then presented you with a focus statement and a data set of ten questions to guide your thinking • You then compared the attributes of the odd-numbered questions and contrasted them with the even-numbered ones • You also generated a hypothesis about the essential attributes of the odd and even-numbered questions

27. Three Phases of CA Second phase • Iinvited you to identify some unlabelled testers to see if they could be classified within your hypothesis • You worked and talked in pairs while testing your shared hypothesis

28. Three Phases of CA Third phase • As a group, we discussed the hypothesis that emerged as a shared group response across the room • We reflected on the connection between the concept and its attributes • We then applied our thinking to other related ideas and concepts

29. Some further reflections • Importance of incorporating metacognition into effective teaching, i.e. thinking about thinking; reflecting on how our thinking changed during the process • Co-operative learning: even simple, short pairwork exercises are crucial to grasping concepts • Notion of developing critical thinking and skills: is this an effective strategy?

30. More examples • Look at the data set that follows. • On the right hand side are YES examples of the concept; on the left hand side are the NO examples. • What are the essential attributes of the YES examples that do not appear in the NO ones?

31. NO YES

32. Testers: which are YES examples?

33. Group discussion • Look at the examples in handouts and discuss for a moment. • Can you identify suitable concepts in your own subject to which you could apply this strategy?

34. Let us take another example • I want to teach the concept of Apartheid (History, CSPE, Geography, English, RE, SPHE etc.) • I will use a Concept Attainment approach to assist students in grasping for themselves what the critical attributes of this concept are • Present focus statement: Compare odd-numbered and contrast with even-numbered

35. Data Set 1. In South Africa policy prohibited blacks from living in areas designated as ‘white only’ areas. 2. In Canada, the First Nation People were denied access to most ‘classy’ cafes. 3. In Germany, during WW Two, Jews were required by law to have travel passes in order to move about their community 4. In North America, it is not unusual to have all white juries hear the case of a non-white person.

36. Data Set 5. In Canada, during WW II, legislation was passed that sent Japanese Canadians to special camps. They had to leave behind virtually all their possessions. German and Italian Canadians did not have to move to those camps. 6. In some states in the United States, if a black killed a white person they were always found guilty. If a white killed a black, they were always found innocent. 7. In the United States, blacks were obliged by law to sit at the back of the bus. 8. In England, three people were killed by a bomb planted by the IRA

37. Hypothesis emerging? Phase Two: • Can you and a partner identify some critical attributes that the odd-numbered examples have but the even-numbered do not? • Discuss for a moment.

38. Hypotheses • Racial inequities mandated by law ..and or governments • Have to do with access • Visible designation of races • Punishment for nonconformity • State-legislated discrimination versus non-state discrimination

39. Testers • In North America, immigrant children were teased on the playground • In Canada, women did not have the right to vote. • In Malaysia, if your hair was longer than a certain length (as shown by pictures in the banks) you would not be served until everyone else in the bank was served. • In Canada, there are laws that support men and women being paid the same wage if they do the same job.

40. Applying concept/ Extending thinking Phase Three • Connect our thinking to the notions of apartheid and prejudice • Consider example in novel or episode for history or case study etc. • Identify issues in today’s society Are students more likely to grasp the concept more fully this way?

41. In conclusion: • Concept Attainment is classified as strategy • Has a research base with a series of steps • Can be integrated with skills and tactics to make learning more effective • Conscious interweaving of skills, tactics and strategies, and knowing when to use particular approaches, is what we mean by instructional intelligence.

42. Thank You! Gerard O’Sullivan, Curriculum Development Co-ordinator, Co Cork VEC, Yeats House, Barrack Square, Ballincollig, Co. Cork. Tel: 087-6928049 Email: gosullivan@cocorkvec.ie