MODELS OF

TEACHING
Dr Sajeena S.
 Models of Teaching
 The classic definition of teaching is the design and creation of environments.
Students learn by interacting with those environments and they study how to learn
(Dewey, 1916).

 A model of teaching is a description of a learning environment, including our

behaviour as teachers when that model is used. These models have many uses,
ranging from planning lessons and curriculums to designing instructional materials,
including multimedia programs.
 The models of teaching can be grouped into four families:

1. The information processing family

2. The social family

3. The personal family

4. The behavioural system family

 The Information-Processing Family
 Information-processing models emphasize ways of enhancing the human being's innate
drive to make sense of the world by acquiring and organizing data, sensing problems and
generating solutions to them, and developing concepts and language for conveying them.

 Some models provide the learner with information and concepts, some emphasize
concept formation and hypothesis testing, and still others generate creative thinking.

 A few are designed to enhance general intellectual ability. Many information-processing

models are useful for studying the self and society, and thus for achieving the personal
and social goals of education.
Models Developers (Redevelopers)
 
Inductive thinking (classification-oriented) Hilda Taba (Bruce Joyce)

Concept attainment Jerome Bruner

(Fred Lighthall)
(Tennyson and Cocchiarella)
(Bruce Joyce)
The picture-word inductive model Emily Calhoun
Scientific Inquiry training Joseph Schwab Richard Suchman
(Howard Jones)
  Michael Pressley
Mnemonics (memory assists) Joel Levin
  Richard Anderson
Synectics William Gordon
Advance organizers David Ausubel
  (Lawton and Wanska)
 Concept Attainment Model

 This model has been developed, based upon the studies made by
Jerome S. Bruner and his associates Jacqueline Goodnow and
George Austin, mainly about the nature of concepts and the
strategies of concept formation.
 Concept attainment is "the search for and listing of attributes that can
be used to distinguish exemplars from non-exemplars of various
categories" (Bruner, Goodnow, and Austin, 1967).
 Whereas concept formation, which is the basis of the inductive
model, requires the students to decide the basis on which they will
build categories, concept attainment requires a student to figure out
the attributes of a category that is already formed in another person's
mind by comparing and contrasting examples (called exemplars) that
contain the characteristics (called attributes) of the concept with
examples that do not contain those attributes.
 For this, certain positive and negative exemplars were given to students and ask
them to scrutinize the exemplars and to find the common characteristics.
 Then more sets of exemplars can be given until most of the students have an
idea, they think will withstand scrutiny.
 At that point, teacher can ask a student to share his/her idea and how he/she
arrived at it.
 Teacher can add more examples and ask them to identify the examples
belonging to the concept. When they can do that provide them with the name of
the concept and ask them to agree on a definition. The final activity is to ask the
students to describe their thinking as they arrived at the concepts and to share
how they used the information given.
 Rationale

 We have used terms such as exemplar and attribute to describe

categorizing activity and concept attainment. Derived from Bruner's
study of concepts and how people attain them, each term has a
special meaning and function in all forms of conceptual learning,
especially concept attainment.
 Exemplars:
 Essentially the exemplars are a subset of a collection of data or a
data set. The category is the subset or collection of samples that
share one or more characteristics that are missing in the others. It is
by comparing the positive exemplars and contrasting them with the
negative ones that the concept or category is learned.
 Attributes:
 All items of data have features, and we refer to these as
attributes.
 Essential attributes

These are attributes critical to the domain under consideration.
Exemplars of a category have many other attributes that may not be
relevant to the category itself.
 Attribute value

This refers to the degree to which an attribute is present in any
particular example.
 For instance, in any given situation, everyone has some rationality
and irrationality mixed together. The question is when is there
enough rationality that we can categorize someone as "rational" or
enough irrationality that "irrational" is an appropriate description.
For some types of concepts, attribute values are not a consideration.
 When creating a data set for instruction, it is wise to begin with
exemplars where the value of the attribute is high, dealing with the
more ambiguous ones after the concept has been well established.
 As we categorize things, we have to deal with the fact that some
attributes are present to various degrees.
 We have to decide whether any amount of presence of an attribute is
sufficient to place something in a particular category and what the
range of density is that qualifies something to belong to a category.
 Once a category is established, it is named so that we can
refer to it symbolically. As the students name the categories,
they should do so in terms of attributes. Name is merely the
term given to a category.
 Rule is the definition formed to describe a concept on the
basis of essential attributes.
 Syntax

 Phase one involves presenting data to the learner. Each unit of data is a
separate example or nonexample of the concept.

 The units are presented in pairs. The data may be events, people, objects,
stories, pictures, or any other discriminable units. The learners are
informed that all the positive examples have one common; their task is to
develop a hypothesis about the nature of the concept.
 The instances are presented in a prearranged order and are
labelled ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Learners are asked to compare and justify
the attributes of the different examples.
 Finally, learners are asked to name their concepts and state the
rules or definitions of the concepts according to their essential
attributes. (Their hypotheses are confirmed until the next phase;
students may not know the names of some concepts, but the
names can be provided when the concepts are confirmed.)
Phase One: Phase Two:
Presentation of Data and identification Testing Attainment of the Concept
of Concept
Teacher presents labelled Examples. Students identify additional unlabelled examples as
yes or no.
Students compare attributes in positive Teacher confirms hypotheses, names concept, and
and negative examples. restates definitions according to essential attributes.
Students generate and test hypotheses  
Students state a definition according to Students generate examples
the essential attributes
Phase Three:
Analysis of Thinking Strategies
Students describe thoughts.
Students discuss role of hypotheses and attributes.
Students discuss type and number of hypothese
 In phase two, the students test their attainment of the concept, first
by correctly identifying additional unlabelled examples of the
concept and then by generating their own examples. After this, the
teacher (and students) confirm or disconfirm their original
hypotheses, revising their choice of concepts or at tributes as
necessary.
 In phase three, students begin to analyze the strategies by which they
attain concepts. Some learners initially try broad constructs and
gradually narrow the field; others begin with more discrete
constructs.
 The learners can describe their patterns-whether they focused on
attributes or concepts, whether they did so one at a time or several at
once, and what happened when their hypotheses were not confirmed.
 Social System
 Prior to teaching with the concept attainment model, the teacher chooses the concept,
selects and organizes the material into positive and negative examples, and sequences the
examples.

 Most instructional materials, especially text books, are not designed in a way that
corresponds to the nature of concept learning as described by educational psychologists.

 In most cases, teachers will have to prepare examples, extract ideas and materials from
texts and other sources, and design them in such a way that the attributes are clear and that
there are, indeed, both positive and negative examples of the concept.
 When using the concept attainment model, the teacher acts as a recorder,
keeping track of the hypotheses (concepts) as they are mentioned and of
the attributes. The teacher also supplies additional examples as needed.
 The three major functions of the teacher during concept attainment
activity are to record, prompt (cue), and present additional data.
 In the initial stages of concept attainment, it is helpful for the examples
to be very structured. However, cooperative learning procedures can
also be used successfully.
 Principles of Reaction
 During the flow of the lesson, the teacher needs to be supportive of the students'
hypotheses-emphasizing, however, that they are hypothetical in nature and to create
a dialogue in which students test their hypotheses against each other’s.

 In the later phases of the model, the teacher must turn the students' attention toward
analysis of their concepts and their thinking strategies, again being very supportive.

 The teacher should encourage analysis of the merits of various strategies rather than
attempting to seek the one best strategy for all people in all situations.
 Support System

 Concept attainment lessons require that positive and negative exemplars be

presented to the students. It should be stressed that the students' job in concept
attainment is not to invent new concepts, but to attain the ones that have
previously been selected by the teacher. Hence, the data sources need to be known
beforehand and the attributes visible. When students are presented with an
example, they describe its characteristics (attributes), which can then be recorded.
 Application

 The use of the concept attainment model determines the shape of particular learning
activities.

 The concept attainment model may be used with children of all ages and different levels.

 When the model is used in early childhood education, the materials for examples are often
available and require little transformation for their use as examples.

 In the case of this model, it is relatively easy (and intellectually powerful) to incorporate
Bruner’s ideas about the nature of concepts into instructional presentations and assessment
activities.
 The concept attainment model is an excellent evaluation tool when teachers want to determine
whether important ideas introduced earlier have been mastered. It quickly reveals the depth of
students' understanding and reinforces their previous knowledge.

 The model can also be useful in opening up a new conceptual area by initiating a sequence of
individual or group inquiries.

 Thus, the concept attainment model can not only introduce extended series of inquiries into
important areas, but it can also augment ongoing inductive study.
 Instructional and Nurturant Effects
 The concept attainment strategies can accomplish several instructional goals
depending on the emphasis of the particular lesson.

 They are designed for instruction on specific concepts and on the nature of concepts.
They also provide practice in inductive reasoning and opportunities for altering and
improving students' concept-building strategies.

 Finally, especially with abstract concepts, the strategies nurture an awareness of

alternative perspectives, a sensitivity to logical reasoning in communication, and a
tolerance of ambiguity.
 Instructional Effects

 Nature of concepts

 Concepts, conceptual systems and their application

 Concept learning strategies

 Nurturant Effects

 Conceptual flexibility

 Inductive reasoning

 Tolerance of ambiguity
 Title Lorem Ipsum

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LOREM IPSUM NUNC VIVERRA PELLENTESQUE
DOLOR SIT AMET, IMPERDIET ENIM. HABITANT MORBI
CONSECTETUER FUSCE EST. TRISTIQUE
ADIPISCING ELIT. VIVAMUS A TELLUS. SENECTUS ET
MAECENAS NETUS ET
MALESUADA
FAMES.