{Grad School Post} Concept Attainment Model

Here is what happened with my concept attainment lesson...

Students were first introduced to the process of the concept attainment model and told I would be using it to teach a lesson on positive presentation skills to them. I then presented examples of positive presentation skills – and listed the attributes of these skills. The students seemed a bit reluctant to participate in the beginning, but once they caught on were fine. Next, the students (with my help) developed a definition of the concept (strong presentation skills). I then presented additional examples which I seemed to clarify the earlier part of the lesson. Finally we went over a rubric that would be used as an evaluation of their understanding of the concept they were taught.

My students seemed somewhat puzzled throughout the process of the concept attainment model instruction. Once we covered the examples and attributes, they seemed to have a better understanding of what they should have learned from the instruction. I believe the model itself worked well for the instruction, but believe I will do a better job the next time I use it and with my confidence in the method the instruction should be even better for the students.

I can definitely see the value of using this model to teach students some concepts. I believe I could have been more successful had I used this format while teaching presentation skills in a unit perhaps instead of pulling students from their projects and using it to reinforce these skills “out of the blue” like I did. I’ll try it differently next time and I’m sure will have even better success.