Kevin Baker, Yvonne Bowman, Andrew Goff, Jack Stanfield, and Christie Wheeler

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Concept Attainment

• Kevin Baker, Yvonne Bowman, Andrew Goff, Jack
  Stanfield, and Christie Wheeler

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Concept Attainment

• The search for and listing of attributes that
  can be used to distinguish exemplars from non
  exemplars of various categories
• Bruner, Goodnow, and Austin, 1967, p. 233

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Attributes

• The features of a particular set of data, for
  example 14, 4, 22, and 302 all have the
  attribute of being divisible by 2.

14, 4, 22, -302
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Exemplars

• The subset of a collection of data or a data
  set.
• Positive negative.

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Attribute Value

• The degree to which a feature is evident in a
  particular example.
• Some features are on a sliding scale.
• The object could have a relatively high value
  such as my good looks or a relatively low value
  such as my ego.

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Partistic Strategy

• The analytical approach where the student
  focuses on particular aspects of the information

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Holistic Strategy

• The analytical approach where the student
  focuses on all or most of the information.

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Process

• The process of defining concepts by determining
  positive characteristics and disregarding other
  characteristics.
• Concerned with learning what is and what is not
  an example of the concept.

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Three Stages to PLANNING an Attainment Lesson

• Select a concept that can be developed with the
  use of positive and negative examples
• Select the characteristics, or examples, that
  define the concept
• Develop positive and negative examples of the
  concept and arrange them in a sequence to be used
  in the presentation

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Presenting the Concept Attainment Lesson

• Teacher explains the goal of the activity and the
  methods to be used to determine the concept
• Positive and negative examples are then
  presented, always beginning with a positive

• Students give other examples of the concept
• Trying to develop the rule/definition of the
  concept
• Upon successful completion the name of the
  concept is revealed
• Students analyze the thinking process used to
  determine the concept

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Evaluation Is the Final Phase of the Presentation

• The lesson is shown to be successful when
  students can
• Offer additional examples of the concept
• Identify essential attributes of the concept
• Determine a concept rule

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Concept Formation vs.. Concept Attainment
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Concept FormationThree Stages According to Taba

• Identifying and enumerating the data relevant to
  a topic or problem
• Grouping these items into categories whose
  members have common attributes
• Developing labels for the categories

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Concept Attainment

• Concept Attainment is a graphic organizer that
  helps students learn precise meanings of key
  concepts. This model helps students select and
  organize information related to a key concept by
  focusing their attention on relevant details. .
  The students learn to differentiate between
  essential and non-essential characteristics as
  well as identify examples and non-examples of the
  concept.

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Advantages

• helps make connections between what students know
  and what they will be learning
• learn how to examine a concept from a number of
  perspectives
• learn how to sort out relevant information
• extends their knowledge of a concept by
  classifying more than one example of that concept
  
• students go beyond merely associating a key term
  with a definition
• concept is learned more thoroughly and retention
  is improved

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Concept Formation Vs Concept Attainment...

• Concept formation asks a student to develop the
  basis on which categories will be built
• Concept attainment ask a student to guess a
  predetermined category by examining data sets
  that show both positive and negative examples of
  the category

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Distinction

• So what, you may ask, is the difference between
  concept attainment and concept formation?

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Good Question!
Its Taba this and Taba that! Taba induces the
formation cat!
Attain this! Guess what Im thinking.
What it is? What it isnt? What it could be?
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By the Way . . .
Taba incorporated the concept attainment model
within her concept formation strategy of grouping
items into categories.
Check it OUT . . . .
Handbook to Elementary Social Studies, Chapter 5
Taba http//www.csus.edu/indiv/m/mcvickerb/sj_t
abastrategies.htm