Concept Attainment In Primary Matemathics

Concept attainment •Search for and listing of attributes that can be used to distinguish exemplars from non exemplars of various categories. •Requires a pupil to figure out the attributes of a category by comparing and contrasting examples with the concept that do not contain those attributes.

Examplars • A subset of a collection of a data set. • Collection of samples that share one or more characteristics that are missing in the others. • 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. • To teach a concept, we have to be very clear about its defining attributes • We must also select our negative exemplars so that items with some but not all the attributes can be ruled out.

• After a concept has been attained, we can ask them to recount their thinking as the exercise proceeded- by describing the ideas they came up with at each step, what attributes they were concentrating on, and what modifications they had to make. • “Tell us what you thought at the beginning, why you thought so, and what changes you had to make.” • This can lead to a discussion in which the pupils can discover one another’s strategies.

• For example, if we select numbers that are odd numbers (these become the positive exemplars) and some that are not (these become negative exemplars- the ones that do not have the attributes of the category odd numbers). • We present the numbers to the pupils in pairs.

Example 1 Positive Exemplars • 121 • 81 • 11 • 5

Negative Exemplars 187.1 26.2 1/2 8

Example 3 Present the following list of numbers labeled yes or no • • • • • • •

21 yes 22 no 42 yes 32 no 27 yes 17 no 33 yes

Example 4 • • • • • • •

20, 15, 4 (No) 35, 12, 6 (No) 46, 40, 6 (Yes) 55, 36, 19 (Yes) 12, 7, 6 (No) 8, 6, 2 (Yes) 10, 8, 2 (Yes)

Activity 3 In a group of 3-4 persons, plan an activity using concept attainment model to teach: • multiplication. • place value. • decimals. • fractions. • time. • percents. • measurement: length. • measurement: weight.