Concept Attainment

Concept attainment is great for presenting brand new

concepts to students, because the main goal of concept
attainment is to have students develop an understanding
and definition of the concept in their own words. They do
this by looking at examples and nonexamples of the content.
This model also works well with abstract or concrete
concepts. There are eight steps in this model;

1. Select and define a concept and select the attributes: As

part of your preparation for this model you need to
develop very specific definition and attributes of your
concept. If you have a vague definition then your
students understanding will be vague. You can also
have binary concepts such as Congruence vs. Similarity
to help students develop an understanding of each and
what makes each different.
2. Develop Examples and Nonexamples: This step is
another part of your preparation for this model. In this
step you should create examples and nonexamples of
the concept. The presented examples should contain all
the essential attributes of the concept. They also should
be short. The non examples could include some of the
 attributes but not all.
3. Introduce the Process to the Students: Carefully
explain the goal and the steps to the process. Tell
students how many attributes you are looking for if you
can and be specific when telling students your target.
4. Present the Examples and List the Attributes: Make
sure to list the attributes the students come up with on
the board and when they eliminate an attribute then
cross it off but don't erase it. The example and non
examples can be presented in any order. You can
alternate between examples and nonexamples or show
them all examples then all non examples.
5. Develop a Concept Definition: Let the students develop
a concept definition that includes all the attributes of
the concept.
6. Give Additional Test Examples: Show the students
more examples and nonexamples to assess the students
understanding. You can also let students provide their
own examples and have them explain why it is an
example.
7. Discuss the Process With the Class: Have the students
evaluate the process. Use the steps of self-regulation to
have the students assess if they learned anything, why
or why not.
8. Evaluate: Use a formative assessment with regard to
 the concept and the essential attributes to evaluate the
students understanding and to practice the new
concept.
Concept Attainment is great to implement with groups.
Have students talk to each other about what they think are
the attributes and what they think the concept is. That way
students still have a voice and can talk about their
understanding even if they dont want to raise their hand.
This method would work well with similar triangles,
probability, linear functions, and quadratic functions.