Week 7: Instructional Strategies for Fact and Concept LearningThis week, we learnt the instructional strategies for Fact and Concept learning.
Fact and Concept needs to be distinguished from each other, one rule of thumb which Mr Alfred offered was that if it includes a definition, then most likely it is a Concept.
Fact and concept learning covers the 3 facets of Instructional Design, which are Evaluation, Design and Development.
A concept is defined as a set of specific objects, symbols or events which are grouped together on basis of shared characteristics and referenced by a particular name of symbol (Merrill & Tennyson) There are different types of attrributes in concept learning:
Functional attribute: relating to how it works and what is its use
Relational attribute: the quality of a concept defined in terms of something else
Intrinsic attribute: invariant property of an observation
There needs to be a distinction between abstract and concrete concepts:
Smith and Ragan distinguishes from such by identifying concrete concepts through their physical characteristics, which may be discerned by sense of sight, smell, taste, touch or hearing.
Ideas such as profit, norm, bull market are not perceived by their appearance, thus are seen as abstract concepts.
In designing concept instruction, 2 general strategies may be followed namely, the inquiry approach and the expository approach.
The inquiry approach presents examples and non-examples of the concept and prompts the learner to "discover" the concept underlying the instances.
The expository approach presents the concept, its label and its critical attributes earlier than the inquiry approach. In this type of approach, the learner is encouraged to develop their own example, but after the attributes of the concept has been discussed.
Learning strategies to aid in concept learning include development of concept "trees" or "maps", analogies, mnemonics and the use of imagery.
In Smith and Ragan, declarative knowledge refers to "knowing what" something is the case. Words often used to describe declarative knowledge include "explain" , "describe", "summarize" and "list". There are important distinctions in this category of learning. Gagne and Briggs (1979) identified theree subtypes, which involve slightly different cognitive processes. They are:
1) Labels and names
• Involves Pairing of information (Propositional or image-based)
• Does not require understanding of the “meaning of the linked ideas but “one thing” links to “the other”.
2) Facts and list
• Fundamentally propositional in nature
• A statement that describes a relationship between or among concepts.
• May also be learnt as Individual facts
3) Organized discourse.
• Also propositional in nature
• Learning by reading through expository text
Declarative knowledge has to be arranged into meaningful ways. There are three ways to teach factual declarative knowledge and they are:
1) Organizing strategies
• When presented with a large set of elements to remember, it is often helpful to combine the elements to form smaller number of groups. Each of these groups is referred to as a chunk.
2) Linking (or association) strategies
• Mnemonics - Aids to memory such as acronyms, rhymes, linking information by creating visual images or making up a story
3) Elaboration strategies
• Useful for complex memorisations.
• Makes elaborations on the material being learned.
• Similar to Mnemonics, but employs the more complex associations.
Learning strategies to use for declarative strategies include mnemonic techniques, elaboration strategies, imagery, analogy, organization, chunking, linking, graphic organizers and rehearsal.