Lecture 5: Teaching Concepts

It is Tuesday! Today, i learn about teaching concepts. Before that, i learn about scientific knowledge. What is CONCEPT? Law? Fact? Dont know?
Then, let me tell you. 

• Fact is foundation for concepts, principles, and theories. 
• Concept is an abstraction of events or objects that seem to have certain properties in common.
• Principles and Laws are composed of concepts and facts and related to observable phenomena
• Theories explain why phenomena occur as they do.

Now, move to TEACHING CONCEPTS.

There are 5 ways for Teaching Concepts:

1. Giving examples and non-examples
2. The use of advance organizer such as concept maps
3. The use of images and analogies
4. The use of various presentations such as models and symbols
5. The use of experiments

Examples and Non-Examples:

- Use similar concepts, eg. Evaporation & Transpiration

- Steps:

i.identify the concept

ii.List the characteristics of the example

iii.List the characteristics of the non-example

iii.Identify the characteristics that differentiate the two concepts

iv.Classify the characteristics

Concept Maps:

- Linking concepts to make it meaningful

- Use of concept maps in teaching:       

• Teaching a topic        
• Reinforce understanding
• Check learning and identify misconception
• Evaluation

- Types of concept maps:

• Hierarchical concept maps
• Cluster concept maps
• Chain concept maps

- Steps in constructing concept maps:

1. Focus on a theme and then identify related key words or phrases.
2. Rank the concepts  from the most abstract  to the most concrete and specific.
3. Cluster concepts that function at similar level of abstraction and those that interrelate closely.
4. Arrange concepts in to a diagrammatic representation.
5. Link concepts with linking lines and label each line with a proposition.

Images & Analogies:

- Introduce the target concept

- Cue the students’ memory of the analogous situation

- Identify the relevant features of the analog

- Map the similarities between the analog and the target

- Draw conclusions about the target concepts

- Identify the comparisons for which the analogy breaks down

Examples:

1. A DNA moleculeis like a ladder
2. A cellis like a factory
3. A heart is like a force pump
4. A kidney is like a waste filter
5. An eyeis like a camera

That's all. Lastly, i wanna share a quote "I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do"..=)