CMR College of Education

Psychology of learning and instruction

Topic : Concept Attainment Model

Concept Attainment Model

Concept Attainment Model (CAM) was developed

from the work of Jerome Bruner, Jaqueline Goodnow and George Austin.
Their work is study of thinking, culminated many

years of research into the process by which, people acquire concepts.

Concept Attainment Model

Jerome Bruner

Jacqueline Goodnow

CONCEPT ATTAINMENT MODEL

Concept Attainment Model

Concepts are the ideas of abstractions that are

formed as a result of categorizing data from a number of observations.

In this model, the emphasis is on the learner

determining the attributes of a concept that has been preselected by the teacher.

Concept Attainment Model

Bruner sees any concept as having 5 elements. They are as follows:
Name Examples (Positive and negative) Attributes (essential and non-essential) Attribute values Rule

Concept Attainment Model

Understanding a concept means knowing all the elements of the concepts:
The name is the term given to a category or class of stimuli The second element, Examples refers to instances of the concept.

Part of knowing a concept and also distinguishing closely related but negative examples. Attributes are the common features or characteristics that cause us to place examples in the same category. Most concepts have attibutes that are often associated with the concept but not essential to it. Part of knowing a concept is distinguishing the essential attribute from the non-essential one. Attributes of the concept have acceptable range of values. There are of course concepts whose attributes does not have a range of values. Finally a rule is a definition or statement specifying the essential attributes of a concept.

Steps of Concept Attainment Model

Syntax of the CAM

PHASE 1: Presentation of data and identification of the concept.
Teacher presents labeled examples.

Students compare attributes in positive and negative

examples. Students generate and test hypothesis. Students state a definition according to the essential attributes.

Syntax of the CAM

PHASE 2: Testing attainment of the concept.
Students identify additional unlabelled examples as yes

or no. Teacher confirms hypothesis, names the concept, and restates definition according to essential attributes Students generate examples.

Syntax of the CAM

PHASE 3 : Analysis of thinking strategy
Students describe thoughts.

Students discuss the role of hypothesis and attributes.

Students discuss the type and number of hypothesis.

Advantages of CAM
Helps to make connections between what students know

and what they will be learning To learn how to examine a concept from a number of perspectives. To learn how to sort out relevant information To extend their knowledge of a concept by classifying more than one example of a concept Students go beyond merely associating a key term with a definition, concept is learned more thoroughly and retention is improved.

Key points to remember about CAM

It is an inductive strategy rather than telling students it

encourages students to find out what things have in common for themselves; the pay off is that students remember. Start with a few fun/easy data sets first that the students get the idea of the process. It involves presenting examples and non examples of a concept and when the students appear to be getting the idea then you present with the tester to check their understanding. When showing the examples, you should be prepared to share at least ten YES and NO examples three or more testers, the more complex the concept for the learner, the more examples you should be prepared to share.

Conclusion
It is at heart a game.. a detective game. The clues are presented and the observers have to hunt down the pattern. The process is enhanced when the detectives can discuss their thinking. In CAM, it is important that students discuss their hypothesis and share their thinking about how they got to where they are regarding their thinking. Thinking about thinking and sensing how we all thinking differently is not just interesting; more importantly it is part of being fair minded and reasonable critical thinker.