Concept attainment model

Concept learning, also known as category learning, concept attainment, and concept formation, is defined by Bruner, Goodnow, & Austin (1967) as "the search for and listing of attributes that can be used to distinguish exemplars from non exemplars of various categories". More simply put, concepts are the mental categories that help us classify objects, events, or ideas, building on the understanding that each object, event, or idea has a set of common relevant features. Thus, concept learning is a strategy which requires a learner to compare and contrast groups or categories that contain concept-relevant features with groups or categories that do not contain concept-relevant features.

Concept learning also refers to a learning task in which a human or machine learner is trained to classify objects by being shown a set of example objects along with their class labels. The learner simplifies what has been observed by condensing it in the form of an example. This simplified version of what has been learned is then applied to future examples. Concept learning may be simple or complex because learning takes place over many areas. When a concept is difficult, it is less likely that the learner will be able to simplify, and therefore will be less likely to learn. Colloquially, the task is known as learning from examples. Most theories of concept learning are based on the storage of exemplars and avoid summarization or overt abstraction of any kind.

Concept Learning: Inferring a Boolean-valued function from training examples of its input and output.
A concept is an idea of something formed by combining all its features or attributes which construct the given concept. Every concept has two components:
Attributes: features that one must look for to decide whether a data instance is a positive one of the concept.
A rule: denotes what conjunction of constraints on the attributes will qualify as a positive instance of the concept.

Deductive method

Deductive reasoning, also deductive logic, logical deduction is the process of reasoning  from one or more statements (premises) to reach a logically certain conclusion.

Deductive reasoning goes in the same direction as that of the conditionals, and links premises with conclusions. If all premises are true, the terms are clear, and the rules of deductive logic are followed, then the conclusion reached is necessarily true.

Deductive reasoning (top-down logic) contrasts with inductive reasoning (bottom-up logic) in the following way: In deductive reasoning, a conclusion is reached reductively  by applying general rules that hold over the entirety of a closed domain of discourse, narrowing the range under consideration until only the conclusion(s) is left. In inductive reasoning, the conclusion is reached by generalizing or extrapolating from specific cases to general rules, i.e., there is epistemic uncertainty. However, the inductive reasoning mentioned here is not the same as induction  used in mathematical proofs – mathematical induction is actually a form of deductive reasoning.

Deductive reasoning differs from abductive reasoning by the direction of the reasoning relative to the conditionals. Deductive reasoning goes in the same direction as that of the conditionals, whereas abductive reasoning goes in the opposite direction to that of the conditionals.

Technology integrated taxonomy

Creating authentic learning experiences for students is an essential element in online course delivery.  Through recent discussion instructors have inquired “How do we provide meaningful learning experiences for students using tools that are intrinsically motivating?” Questions as such imply the need to provide instructors with “. . . innovative ways of integrating technology that encourage higher-order thinking skills.” Research indicates that “Today’s students, regardless of demographics, have shown an interest in digital opportunities to learn, and the range of Web 2.0 tools that make collaboration, innovation, and individual exploration possible is incredible.”

Practitioners within the field of education have thought of unique ways to connect digital tools with the framework of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, which has led to the emergence of a Digital Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy

The purpose of Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy is to inform instructors of how to use technology and digital tools to facilitate student learning experiences and outcomes.  It aims, “To expand upon the skills associated with each level as technology becomes a more ingrained essential part of learning.” 1  The use of this adapted version and the examples of tools it provides focus “should not be on the tools themselves, but rather on how the tools can act as vehicles for transforming student thinking at different levels.” 1  Outlined below are the levels featured within Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy.  Each level is accompanied by a description of its relevance and examples of digital tools that connect with this taxonomy framework.


Infographic Credit: Ron Carranza

Creating –To produce new or original work.  Tools – Animating, blogging, filming, podcasting, publishing, simulating, wiki building, video blogging, programming, directing

Evaluating – To justify a stand or decision; to make judgements based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing.  Tools – Grading, networking, rating, testing, reflecting, reviewing, blog commenting, posting, moderating

Analyzing – To draw connections among ideas, concepts, or determining how each part interrelate to an overall structure or purpose.  Tools – Mashing, mind mapping, surveying, linking, validating

Applying – To use information in new situations such as models, diagrams, or presentations.  Tools – Calculating, Charting, editing, hacking, presenting, uploading, operating, sharing with a group

Understanding – To explain ideas, concepts, or construct meaning from written material or graphics.  Tools – Advanced searching, annotating, blog journaling, tweeting, tagging, commenting, subscribing

Remembering – To recall facts, basic concepts, or retrieval of material.  Tools – Bookmarking, copying, googling, bullet-pointing, highlighting, group networking, searching

Summary

Connecting characteristics of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy is necessary for creating online learning activities that are in accordance with our students’ needs.  “Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy helps us navigate through the myriad digital tools and make choices based on the kinds of learning experiences we want students to engage in.” Selecting the most appropriate digital activity will depend on the activity’s level of difficulty tied to the cognitive levels stated within Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy.  As K. A. Meyer writes, “Knowledge is situated, being in part a product of the activity, context, and culture in which it is developed and used.  In this way, we can begin to ascertain differences that will help instructors apply the right tool to the right learning goals.” 

Inductive method

Inductive reasoning (as opposed to deductive reasoning or abductive reasoning) is a method of reasoning in which the premises are viewed as supplying strong evidence for the truth of the conclusion. While the conclusion of a deductive argument is certain, the truth of the conclusion of an inductive argument may be probable, based upon the evidence given.
Many dictionaries define inductive reasoning as the derivation of general principles from specific observations, though some sources disagree with this usage.
The philosophical definition of inductive reasoning is more nuanceud than simple progression from particular/individual instances to broader generalizations. Rather, the premises of an inductive logical argument  indicate some degree of support (inductive probability) for the conclusion but do not entail it; that is, they suggest truth but do not ensure it. In this manner, there is the possibility of moving from general statements to individual instances

Lecture Method of Teaching

A teaching method comprises the principles and methods used by teachers to enable student learning. These strategies are determined partly on subject matter to be taught and partly by the nature of the learner. For a particular teaching method to be appropriate and efficient it has to be in relation with the characteristic of the learner and the type of learning it is supposed to bring about. Suggestions are there to design and selection of teaching methods must take into account not only the nature of the subject matter but also how students learn. In today’s school the trend is that it encourages a lot of creativity. It is a known fact that human advancement comes through reasoning. This reasoning and original thought enhances creativity.

The lecture method is just one of several teaching methods, though in schools it’s usually considered the primary one. The lecture method is convenient for the institution and cost-efficient, especially with larger classroom sizes. This is why lecturing is the standard for most college courses, when there can be several hundred students in the classroom at once; lecturing lets professors address the most people at once, in the most general manner, while still conveying the information that he or she feels is most important, according to the lesson plan. While the lecture method gives the instructor or teacher chances to expose students to unpublished or not readily available material, the students plays a passive role which may hinder learning. While this method facilitates large-class communication, the lecturer must make constant and conscious effort to become aware of student problems and engage the students to give verbal feedback. It can be used to arouse interest in a subject provided the instructor has effective writing and speaking skills

The approaches for teaching can be broadly classified into teacher centered and student centered. In Teacher-Centered Approach to Learning, Teachers are the main authority figure in this model. Students are viewed as “empty vessels” whose primary role is to passively receive information (via lectures and direct instruction) with an end goal of testing and assessment. It is the primary role of teachers to pass knowledge and information onto their students. In this model, teaching and assessment are viewed as two separate entities. Student learning is measured through objectively scored tests and assessments. In Student-Centered Approach to Learning, while teachers are the authority figure in this model, teachers and students play an equally active role in the learning process. The teacher’s primary role is to coach and facilitate student learning and overall comprehension of material. Student learning is measured through both formal and informal forms of assessment, including group projects, student portfolios, and class participation. Teaching and assessments are connected; student learning is continuously measured during teacher instruction.Commonly used teaching methods may include class participation, demonstration, recitation, memorization, or combinations of these.

Revised blooms taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy – New Version

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom headed a group of educational psychologists who developed a classification system for levels of cognitive skills and learning behavior. The classification system they created is often referred to as Bloom’s Taxonomy. The word taxonomy means classifications or structures. Bloom’s Taxonomy classifies thinking according to six cognitive levels of complexity

Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation


The categories are ordered from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract. The classification is often referenced as a progressive climb to a higher level of thinking with the highest level being “evaluation.”


The basic or lowest level in the taxonomy deals with simple knowledge acquisition. At this level, people simply memorize, recall, list, and repeat information. The cognitive complexity grows at every level. At the highest levels, people are able to build a mental structure from diverse elements and are able to put parts together to form a whole, as well as make judgments about the value of ideas

Bloom’s Taxonomy Revised

During the 1990’s, Lorin Anderson and a group of cognitive psychologists updated the taxonomy. The revisions they made appear fairly minor, however, they do have significant impact on how people use the taxonomy. The changes can be divided into three categories: terminology, structure, and emphasis.

Changes to Terminology

The first thing most people recognize is the different terminology. The revised version changes the names of each of the six levels. For example, the lowest level of the original, “knowledge” was renamed and classified as “remembering.” It is also important to note the change from nouns to verbs to describe the different levels of the taxonomy. The names of the major cognitive process categories were changed to indicate action because thinking implies active engagements. Knowledge is an outcome or product of thinking, it is not a form of thinking. Consequently, since the word “knowledge” inaccurately described a category of thinking, it was replaced with the verb “remembering.”

Changes to Structure

The top two levels are essentially swapped from the old to the new version. This revised taxonomy moves the “evaluation” stage down a level and the highest element becomes “creating.” At the second to the highest level of the revised version, people defend, support, justify and evaluate their opinion on this information. And at the highest level, people generate new ideas, create a new product, or construct a new point of view. This change was made because the taxonomy is viewed as a hierarchy reflecting increasing complexity of thinking, and creative thinking (creating level) is considered a more complex form of thinking than critical thinking (evaluating level). A person can evaluate information without being creative, but creative thinking requires some level of evaluation or critical thinking (i.e. you need to evaluate the effectiveness of your new idea).

Changes in Emphasis

The revision emphasizes the use of taxonomy as a tool for alignment of curriculum planning, instructional delivery, and assessment. Additionally, the revision is aimed at a broader audience. The original taxonomy was viewed as a tool best applied in the younger grades at school. The revised version is more universal and easily applicable at elementary, secondary, as well as adult training.


The new terms are defined as:

Levels Description
Remembering Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory. This level is simply remembering or recalling previous learned information.
Understanding Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining.   This is essentially demonstrating understanding of information by explaining ideas or concepts.
Applying Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or implementing. Basically, this is using the information in another familiar situation.
Analyzing Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing, and attributing.
Evaluating Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing. This includes justifying a decision or course of action.
Creating Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing. This includes generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things.

Applying the Revised Version of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Just like the original taxonomy, the revised version provides a valuable framework for teachers, trainers, and instructional designers to use to focus on higher order thinking. By providing a hierarchy of thinking, both version can help in developing performance tasks, creating questions, or constructing problems.


Understanding

Summarize the main idea of the story.
Draw a picture showing the word’s meaning.
Classify the parts of speech in the sentence given.
Predict what will happen to the object when placed in water.




Applying

Describe how you would use this net to catch fish.
Write a sentence using three new vocabulary words.
Apply the principles of learning to the workshop.
Solve the problem using the concepts given.




Analyzing

Compare how the climate is similar between two counties.
Explain why the main character decided to make the decision she did.
Determine which parts of the bicycle is most important.
Research the best methods of removing stains from clothing.




Evaluating

Explain the best alternative among the three choices.
Determine which character in the stories was the most impacted by the events.
Decide which parts of speech are most valuable to creating a sentence.
Assess the value of the items on the table.




Creating

Invest a device that can pick up small objects.
Create a game that will help students learn vocabulary words.
Write a story that leaves the reader in suspense.
Generate three ideas on how to improve the learning process.










Bloom’s Taxonomy Revised – Action Verbs



The following chart provides action verbs for each level of the revised taxonomy. By creating learning objectives using these action verbs, you indicate explicitly what the learner must do in order to demonstrate learning.





Levels Action Verbs
Remembering arrange, define, find, identify, label, list, match, name, memorize, recall, recite, repeat, state, tell, write
Understanding classify, covert, conclude, demonstrate, describe, discuss, explain, identify, illustrate, locate, paraphrase, predict, recognize, report, select, summarize, translate
Applying apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, modify, operate, produce, select, schedule, sketch, show, solve, use
Analyzing analyze, appraise, categorize, classify, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, outline, research, separate, subdivide, test,
Evaluating appraise, argue, assess, choose, conclude, defend, estimate, evaluate, judge, select, support, value
Creating assemble, construct, create, design, develop, devise, formulate, generate, integrate, invent

Integrated education

The Integrated education movement in Northern Ireland is an attempt to bring together children, parents and teachers from both Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions: the aim being to provide a balanced education, while allowing the opportunity to understand and respect all cultural and religious backgrounds.