1. EDU 330: Educational Psychology Daniel Moos, PhD
Conceptual Change
EDU 330: Educational Psychology
Daniel Moos, PhD

2. Conceptual Change What is conceptual change?
Learning that generally changes an existing conception (i.e. idea, belief, way of thinking)
What are some strategies to support conceptual change?
The Conceptual Change Model (CCM) assists students by actively identifying and challenging their existing conceptions and skills.

4. Concept Attainment (I)
What is concept attainment?
Strategy that promotes independence, analytical thinking, and making connections between what students know and what students are going to learn
Why does concept attainment work?
Involves students in their own learning (metacognition, autonomy/motivation, scaffolding)
Consistent with how humans process information: Naturally organize things into categories based on common attributes (schemas according to Piaget and others)
How does concept attainment work?

5. Concept Attainment (II)
How does concept attainment work?
Teacher Identifies concept
Teacher provides “Yes” and “No” examples
Students develop common definition for “Yes” examples
Students test and refine their list with more examples

6. Concept Attainment (III)
Teacher Identifies concept
Develop a strong conceptual understanding of what a predator is and how they are uniquely adapted to the life they lead

7. Concept Attainment (IV)
(2) Teacher provides “Yes” and “No” examples
Begins lesson by explaining to the class that some examples are yes examples and some are no examples.
Explains to the class how they are suppose to figure out what the concept is.
Shows a list of animals (note: examples should be relatively known and understandable by your students; that is, they should be able to easily identifies attributes that define the examples).
Cat (Yes)
Dog (Yes)
Rabbit (No)
Students develop hypothesis from first list

8. Concept Attainment (V)
(3) Students develop common definition for “Yes” examples
Following initial list of animals (Cat, Dog, Rabbit, etc), students develop concepts (think-pair-share)
Discuss as class
Write some of the concepts on the board

9. Concept Attainment (VI)
(4) Students test and refine their list with more examples
Provide additional examples (note: additional examples should represent more conceptually challenging examples)
Snake (Yes)
Horse (No)
Eagle (Yes)
Compare list with concepts listed on board
Refine list based on additional examples (class, think-pair-share, independent writing)
Teacher reveals concept and how concept reflects examples

10. Concept Attainment (VII)
Concepts Attainment strategy can be used for concepts that are abstract/ difficult to convey with a simple definition:
Science: Mammal
Math: Linear Equations
Social Studies: Communism
English/LA: Noun
Health: Balanced Meal
Physical Education: Mechanics of a basketball shot
Music: Characteristics of a Baroque Style