Chapter 12 page 280
CHAPTER 12d
Teaching Concepts
When students lack prior knowledge of central concepts, they will have a great deal of trouble
understanding new material that requires those concepts. If key concepts in early lessons in the year are
taught in a way that many students do not understand these concepts, their understanding of later lessons
that employ these concepts will be seriously hindered. This lack of understanding will lead to a lower
expectation of success and lower motivation as well as lower achievement.
This chapter gives you ideas about how to address these problems by teaching concepts to students
in a way that makes the concepts highly understandable. This method has been developed by researchers
including Merrill and Tennyson (1977) and Tennyson and Cocchiarella (1986); the method has been tested
successfully in many studies.
A. Preliminary Ideas and Terminology
Before presenting the concept-teaching method, there are some terms that you need to know.
What kind of concept can be taught? A useful way of deciding what concepts can be taught is to think
of a teachable concept as a NOUN. You can teach concepts such as CIRCLE, DEMOCRACY,
DECLARATIVE SENTENCE, PUNISHMENT, ANXIETY, PRIME NUMBER, DECIDUOUS TREE,
and so on. You CANNOT teach procedures such as HOW TO FIND THE AREA OF A CIRCLE with a
concept lesson. You can teach the concept of CIRCLE using a concept lesson, but you cannot teach the
procedure for finding the area of a circle.
Related concepts. Related concepts are sets of two or more concepts that should be learned together.
For example, an English teacher might want to teach different meters (trochaic, iambic, dactylic, and
anapestic) together. Similarly, when teaching principles of behaviorism, it makes sense to teach positive
reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment at the same time. Related concepts occur when
there is a family of kindred concepts.
Single concepts. Single concepts are concepts that do not need to be taught together but can be taught
individually, one by one. For example, the concept of cell can be taught individually; there are not any
related concepts that need to be taught at the same time.
Constant attributes. Constant attributes are features of a concept that are common to all instances of
the concept, or at least to almost all instances. Examples: A constant attribute of the concept UNCLE is
that a person’s uncle is the brother of the person’s mother or father. A constant attribute of the concept
REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY is that citizens are free to vote for representatives who choose laws.
A constant attribute of the concept EQUILATERAL TRIANGLE is that there are three sides of equal
length.
Variable attributes. Variable attributes are features of a concept that are shared by some but not all
instances of a concept. Examples: A variable attribute of the concept UNCLE is that an uncle has a beard
(some do; some don’t). A variable attribute of the concept REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY is the
proportion of inhabitants who can vote. In some democracies, any adult can vote; in others, only property