Commonly referenced in curriculum of all grades, concept learning is valuable and necessary in a student’s education and growth. However, no matter how often the teaching of concepts may be emphasized by the educator, concept-centered curriculum is often a challenge for students to learn. A common challenge for teachers is that while students may retain principles and facts, understanding of concepts and how to apply that knowledge often goes overlooked.
According to Sydelle Seiger-Ehrenberg in “Developing Minds: A Research Book for Teaching Thinking”, a prevalent misconception is that concepts can be taught and learned the same way as facts. But in reality, concepts and facts require different approaches and different learning strategies. The problem is that facts and concepts often get lumped into the same category, making students unable to distinguish the differences between them. This results in students’ incomplete understanding of subjects and lessons.
To begin to understand how to better help students with concept learning, let’s begin with the definition of a concept. Then we will move to the discussion of ways you can ensure your students achieve their full potential and understand this important form of learning.
What is a Concept?
A concept is a mental image, generalization, of certain characteristics and aspects that make up an item. This list of characteristics is not a label, but can be used to describe all examples of items under that category and separate them from non-examples.
Example of a Concept:
Concept: Any warm-blooded, vertebrate animal that has hair on its body
Concept Label: Mammal
Examples: Bears, dogs, humans
Children as young as three years old begin to take notice of the patterns and characteristics of objects and people around them. Even at this young age, they begin to conceptualize and establish connections. After the age of three, concept development begins to include language–questions are asked, new relationships are discovered between old and new concepts and deeper comprehension develops.
Unlike facts, concepts cannot be tested for wrong or right answers. Concepts are abstract and can be presented in various ways; there is no correct answer because the concept characteristics vary from person to person. Concepts are also hierarchical and include other concept categories, making concept understanding more complex but beneficial in expanding knowledge.
Learning Concepts by Concept Mapping
Concept mapping is a valuable visual learning and thinking technique that helps students understand and communicate a concept and its connections between examples and ideas.
Concept mapping serves several purposes, helping students:
-Brainstorm and generate new ideas
-Discover new concepts and label propositions that connect them
-More clearly communicate ideas, thoughts and information
-Integrate new concepts with older concepts
-Enhance knowledge on any topic and evaluate the information
Concept mapping is a valuable theory of learning that teachers can use to evaluate a student’s level of understanding. A concept map is meant to be constantly changed, added to and reconstructed as new information and knowledge is learned (which is why it’s usually easier to concept map using a computer); the goal is to have the student be able to explain each part of the concept map and their reasoning behind the concepts and connections they made.
Concept Map Example from Inspiration® 9
A concept map revolves around a main idea, a main concept. Often times, it’s helpful for a student to choose a topic that either needs to be solved or has a conclusion that needs to be determined. From that main idea, related key concepts are brainstormed and added to the map. This is done in hierarchical order; those key concepts then expand to other sub-concepts and ideas. Linking phrases and words help connect all of the ideas and thoughts on the concept map and bring some organization and context to the order of the concepts. Concept maps can be read as sentences starting from the main idea and working out along the sub-paths.
Tools like Inspiration® , Kidspiration® and Webspiration Classroom ™ allow students to easily create, expand and develop concept maps as their knowledge of a concept expands. They are able to easily move sub-concepts and examples around, add new ones, create links with propositions and linking phrases and even incorporate images. The process of creating a concept map helps students understand, apply, analyze and synthesize the concept. The completed concept map can be used to assess a student’s knowledge and understanding.
Concepts are one of the hardest things for an educator to teach and for students to learn. Using techniques like concept mapping can help students build a skill they can use throughout their academic career to help them understand concepts. How are you teaching concepts in your classroom? If you have suggestions for teaching concept learning in the classroom, leave them in the comments section to add to the discussion.
