CONCEPTUAL TEACHING is essential to CONCEPTUAL LEARNING

CTL 2019
What do you think are you focusing
on conceptual teaching learning?
WHAT IS CONCEPTUAL TEACHING LEARNING?
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably why so few
people engage in it.

Henry Ford
 Concept Map for CTL

Teaching for Importance of

Transfer Understanding

Complex Cognitive
Processes

Becoming an Learning & Teaching

Expert Student about Concepts
Problem
Solving
 CTL
Objectives – selection of suitable Action Verbs from Bloom’s & Solo
taxonomies and sentence structure
Approach – philosophy of your teaching styles Instructional
Strategies
–Methods, Techniques, Activities
–Graphic Organisers / Mind maps – appropriate use of mind maps
Assessment – pre, middle, post Evaluation – weekly and monthly
The Importance of Understanding
More than memorizing Applying what you know
Transforming and using knowledge, skills, and ideas
Higher level thinking
 Thinking and Understanding

“…being able to do a variety of thought-

demanding things with a topic - like
explaining, finding evidence and
examples, generalizing, applying,
analyzing, and representing the topic in
new ways.”
 Learning and Teaching Concepts

Concepts are categories of similar ideas, events, objects, people, etc

Concepts are abstractions

Concepts are ways to organize information

 CONCEPTS

Are mental categories for facts, objects, events, people, ideas

Are even skills and competencies

Have a common set of features across multiple situations and

contexts
Can range from simple to complex according to how easily they can
be defined
 CONCEPTS & EXAMPLARS

CONCEPTS are the broad EXEMPLARS then, are the

principles or classifications "typical examples" or "excellent
models" of that principle

For example, if you are teaching about the concept of fruit, then some
good exemplars would be apples, oranges, and bananas
 How Conceptual Teaching Fosters Learning

The world is changing Knowledge is changing

The ability to view the world with a more flexible mind is invaluable
 CONCEPT vs CONTENT BASED TEACHING

CONCEPT-BASED TEACHING CONTENT BASED TEACHING

 It is about big transferable ideas that  It may not get beyond information
transcend time, place, situation transmission/ superficial learning
 It is a framework to study everything.  Information is useless unless we can
So much information. Content can do something with it
change, concepts stay the same
 Concepts are a way to organize and  Content just focuses on facts while
make sense of learning. concept focuses on making sense of
We can’t possibly teach everything that those facts and the world around us
is important, but we can teach the big
ideas
 The Problem with Rote Memorization
When students are taught merely to memorize facts and information, they
are likely to forget the information the minute they feel it's no longer
important; i.e., after the test is over. When the entire foundation of public
and private education today relies so heavily upon testing to measure the
progress of students, teachers, and schools, it should come as no surprise
that the pressure to do well on those tests leads to an outsized emphasis
on memorizing the material needed to pass. Precious little time is left over
for putting those facts and discrete bits of information into any useful
context
 The Problem with Rote Memorization
There is a marked difference between preparing for the tests and actually
learning something in true sense. A test-taking culture often boils down to
teaching to the test, tips and “tricks” for approaching standardized test
questions, and regurgitation of momentarily memorized material. It is
‘rote memorization’. ‘Conceptual Learning’ requires students to think
logically and draw connections between what they are learning and what
they already know
 What It Means to Teach Conceptually
Teaching conceptually requires teachers to address—and students to
master—the relationships between concepts and the ways in which they
can be arranged into a functional hierarchy. Students use this framework
to logically sort information and draw crucial connections across subjects
for a cohesive understanding of the world. Quite simply, it's the system the
active human mind uses to gain understanding
 What It Means to Teach Conceptually

When a teacher designs lessons that focus on concepts instead of

individual facts, she/he is teaching conceptually. Concepts can be
understood as categories that can contain smaller facts or ideas but are
simultaneously part of larger categories
 How Conceptual Teaching Works

Teaching conceptually is best understood by considering a classic

example that all generally majority of the teachers discuss in their
professional development and training. To teach a child about an apple,
we approach the subject as a concept
 Example: What is an apple?
An apple is a fruit. Right away, this takes the concept of an apple and places it
into a hierarchy of ideas:

–Fruit is the overarching concept into which an apple can be placed. Bananas,
oranges, and grapes can also be added to the concept of fruit, and students
learn to see what characteristics these have in common that cause them to be
grouped together

–In the case of fruit, the defining concept that connects them is that they are all
plant parts that contain seeds by which the plant reproduces
 Example: What is an apple?

Just as the concept of an apple is part of a larger picture, it also

can be broken down into subordinate concepts
– In the category of apple, there are different varieties. An overarching
concept of all varieties of apples is that the fruit comes from a certain
species of tree
 Example: What is an apple?
When thinking about an apple conceptually, it's not enough just to explore
a list of facts about apples with students (for example, that they are sweet,
round, and sometimes red). To really understand what makes an apple an
apple, concepts help students tie facts together to understand which
characteristics are crucial to its identification
 Why Conceptual Teaching Works

Concepts give shape and meaning to individual facts, allowing students a

far deeper understanding of their significance. For example, teaching
conceptually allows students to move well beyond the mere
memorization of dates in history and encourages them to group events
as concepts (for example, "root causes of the War of Independence in
1957" or "results of the Khilafat Movement in the Sub-continent")
 Why Conceptual Teaching Works
Once students understand concepts, they can see relationships between
different concepts in the history of the world for a richer understanding of
the human experience; for example, they can draw connections between
seemingly disparate events like "Civil Disobedience in British India," First
World War”, and “the Disintegration of Colonial British Empire”
 Why Conceptual Teaching Works
With strong conceptual teaching skills, talented teachers create lessons in
which everything taught is meaningful. There are no useless facts; rather,
everything is connected. When students begin internalizing these
frameworks even as preschoolers, they learn to be highly logical thinkers
who break down ideas into their parts and find connections between
different parts of the curriculum. Making these connections is the highest
order of thinking. When young children are encouraged to find and create
patterns and organize concepts into a hierarchy, they are well on their way
to the independent study and thinking habits needed for success in
subsequent grades, college and university
How Teaching Conceptually Sets Challenges for Schools
The number one attribute for readiness for higher studies as "the ability to
think critically and problem solve in the context of a continuously changing
set of circumstances and realities.” With conceptual teaching-learning at the
forefront of a FFES, students should be fully prepared to rise to the
occasion and excel, demonstrating higher-order thinking skills. They should
be taught these skills right from their very first preschool lessons. Teachers
need to bring conceptual teaching to life for each student. It is not an easily
replicated process. It will be achieved through consistent efforts and
untiring commitment of every teacher in the system
How Teaching Conceptually Sets Challenges for Schools

In this era, almost all the school systems are racing to pump facts into their
students in time for the next round of standardized tests, particularly at
Board level, FF Education System (FFES) encourages its teachers to stand
firm in doing what they've always known works best for children's
intellectual development: empowering students to think for themselves by
teaching them concepts instead of curriculum bullet points. Our aim in
educating students is to develop independent young people capable of
critical thinking and problem solving