CONCEPT ANALYSIS

Analyzing a concept allows a teacher to clarify the concept definition and the boundaries which are formed by the discipline for that concept. Some concepts have both everyday usages and specific disciplinary uses, and they may not be the same. Everyday uses of some concepts (e.g., democracy) may be remarkably sloppy, but the student in a particular disciplines (e.g., political science) must come to a more precise understanding of the concept.

We say a learner understands a concept when he or she is able to correctly identify examples of the concept as examples, and correctly identify non-examples as non-examples. In music, students learn to identify musical passages as being either a part of or not a part of the romantic period of music. Art students must identify paintings as belonging to the class of impressionist painting or as not belonging to the class. Young learners learn to identify squares as squares, but disqualify circles as squares.

Most teachers have a pretty good idea of what constitutes the concepts they are teaching, but a thorough analysis allows them to give clearer definitions, more and better examples and non-examples, and to predict the errors students will make.

In order to analyze a concept, the teacher must first define it. A concept definition includes its superordinate class along with the critical attributes of the concept.

The superordinate class is the class of which the concept you are teaching is a member. Thus, if you want to teach about nouns (the concept), the superordinate class might be parts of speech. The superordinate is the level directly above the level of the concept you are teaching.

Critical attributes are those things that must be present in order to say that an instance is an example of the concept. Thus, the critical attributes of the concept "soliloquy" might include:

A speech delivered by a character in a poem, play, or novel.

The speech is important to the development of the story.

The speech is delivered when the character is alone.

The speech reveals essential information.

The teacher should also identify any coordinate concepts to the concept being taught. These are other concepts that derive from the same superordinate concept and that are at the same level of analysis as the target concept. For example, with the concept "noun," coordinate concepts would be other parts of speech: verb, pronoun, conjunction, etc.

Subordinate concepts are those which are subdivisions of the concept being taught. Not all concepts have subordinates, and single examples are not themselves subordinates. For the concept "rock," the subordinates might be sedimentary rock, igneous rock, and metamorphic rock. With the concept "noun," the subordinates might be proper noun and common noun.

But your dog Sparky would be an example of a cocker spaniel, not subordinate of it.

Prerequisite concepts are skills and concepts the learner must have prior to undertaking the new concept. For instance, if you are going to teach the concept of "exponent," it would be useful if the learner already knew about multiplication and squaring of numbers.

A description of irrelevant features related to a particular concept helps the learner decide what is and what is not a member of the concept class. Irrelevant features are those that can change without interrupting membership in the concept class. For example, the length of a word is irrelevant to whether or not the word is a member of the concept class, "noun." A speaker can be either a male or female, and that fact alone does not influence whether the speech will be called a soliloquy.

Teachers are encouraged to identify a large set of learner relevant examples, those which are common in the learner's environment, or with which they can be made familiar, so that their use as an example doesn't confuse the learner. Similarly, the teacher must identify learner-relevant non-examples which should have similar features.

Examples should be of two types: close-in and far-out. Close-in examples tend to be prototypic examples, ones that everyone would figure out. Far-out examples are on the periphery of the concept circle, and might cause some confusion if the learner isn't made aware of the unusual features a thing or event can have and still be a member of the concept class. Non-examples should be close-in, things or events that share a lot of features with the concept, but aren't examples of the concept.

Teachers should teach with one set of examples and non-examples, and test with another. Failure to do so may result in a learner who can get the right answer (through memorization) but doesn't get the concept.

CONCEPT ANALYSIS FORMAT

Concept name:

Concept definition:

Superordinate concept (Subsumer):

Coordinate concepts:

Subordinate concepts:

Prerequisite concepts:

Critical features (defining attributes):

Irrelevant features or attributes:

Learner relevant examples:

Learner relevant non-examples:

Sample test items:

C:\315\Concepts