Concept Formation by Walter Parker
What Is It?
Concept Formation is an inductive teaching strategy that helps students form a clear
understanding of a concept (or idea) through studying a small set of examples of the concept.
Rationale
Concepts are the “furniture” of our minds. A well-furnished mind is a source of joy, academic
success, citizenship, career satisfaction, and lifelong learning. When a student forms a concept
from its examples, he or she knows more than the definition of a term (e.g., river: he or she also
knows some vivid examples of the concept that add flesh to a bare-bones definition, such as the
Mississippi, the Amazon, the Yangtze, and the Volga). This is deep conceptual learning rather
than superficial knowledge of a vocabulary word.
Description
A concept is defined by critical characteristics shared by all examples of the concept. For
something to be an example of a concept, it must contain all these critical characteristics. To help
students form the concept, the teacher helps them first to see these critical characteristics across
different examples and, then to summarize those characteristics in a definition that students
themselves write. Here are some concepts and examples: Justice (fairness) Taking turns Writing
down the rules Applying rules equally to everyone Technology Steamboat Morse code Airplane
Computer Chip Community Mesa Verde Jamestown Washington, DC Tokyo Migration
Oregon Trail Ellis Island immigration The Great Migration Angel Island Immigration. There are
two key parts to Concept Formation. Students begin by studying multiple examples of the
concept to be learned, and then the teacher helps them see the similarities across these examples.
When these similarities are established in students’ minds, they form the concept.
Teacher Preparation
1. Select a concept. Choose one that is at the core of your curriculum. It might be one of the
five themes of geography (movement, region, human-environmental interaction, location,
or place) or a key tool of historical reasoning (thesis, evidence, sourcing, contextualizing,
corroborating). It could be a concept used to understand media (advertisement,
documentary, home page) or the economy (good, service, production, distribution,
money).
2. List the critical characteristics of the concept. Check several sources to find the clearest
set of characteristics. For example, Democracy is (1) a kind of government in which (2)
the majority rules (rules and laws are made by all citizens or their representatives), (3)
minority rights and individual liberties are protected, and (4) rules and laws are written
down. Or, modernization involves (1) the use of technology to control nature’s resources,
(2) the use of inanimate (non-animal) sources of power and energy, and (3) the use of
tools to multiply the effects of human energy. Be sure to list the critical characteristics.
This will help you and your students more easily see which characteristics are present or
missing in a particular case.
3. Assemble a good set of examples. A good set of examples is small in number (3–4),
varied (shows the array of differences allowable within the concept), and
developmentally and culturally appropriate (know your students). Be sure that each
example has all the critical characteristics required for the concept. Furthermore, select
examples for which plenty of up-to-date information is available.
4. Make a data-organization chart. Down the left side, present the 3–4 examples. Across
the top, ask 3–5 focus questions. These questions help focus your students' datagathering on the critical information in each example. Each student will need a copy of
the chart; also, post a chart on the wall or project it onto a screen.
5. Assemble a good set of non-examples. Identify 2–3 non-examples that can be used to
help students classify after they have formed the concept. A non-example has some, but
not all, of the critical characteristics that define the concept. Non-examples make great
practice items.
In the Classroom
For the concept democracy:
1. Interest building. Remind students of a recent classroom meeting in which a vote was
taken to resolve a classroom or playground issue. Lead a discussion on the question, “Is
majority rule always fair?”
2. Assess your students’ pre-instructional understanding of the concept.
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3.
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6.
What is democracy?
Is the United States a democracy? Why or why not?
Are our weekly classroom meetings democratic? Why?
Studying multiple examples. Create a data-organization chart that contains four examples
down the left column and focus questions across the top. These questions focus students’
attention on the critical attributes. Direct students to use this chart to record information
about each example. Provide students with time in class to find the information in their
textbooks and complete the chart. Direct them to finish the chart as homework. Suggest
that they look for regular elections in response to the first question and push them to find
out who can and cannot vote.
Noting differences. The next day, verify that students have completed the chart. Then ask
students, “In what ways do these four governments differ?”
Noting similarities. Ask, “In what ways are these four governments all alike?” Record
students’ responses on the chalkboard for use in the next step. (Note: This is the phase of
the lesson when students themselves identify the critical characteristics of the concept,
which are the similarities across the examples.)
Summarizing. Direct students to “take a few minutes now to jot down a summary of
these similarities in one complete sentence. Let’s begin the summary with, ‘These are all
ways of governing that. . . .’” Students compose their own definition of the concept,
working with the list of similarities still on the chalkboard from Step 5. Allow time for
sharing and listen carefully to the concepts they have formed. Provide feedback and
correction as needed. Students then compose a second draft, taking more care to include
all the critical attributes of democracy in their summaries.
7. Labeling. Ask, “What is a word you might use to describe governments like these? Be
creative—invent a word if you like. Make sure it captures the essence of this kind of
government.” After eliciting several nicknames, tell students that the conventional label
for this kind of government is democracy. Then use a good dictionary to read aloud the
etymology of this Greek term for “rule by the people.”
8. Application. Now that students have built a rough idea of democracy, it is time to
reinforce and practice it with a classifying activity.
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Classifying type 1. Ask students to read the brief description of the
Plymouth Colony in their textbooks and then to decide whether it was a
democracy. Ask for a show of thumbs (thumbs up for “Yes, it was a
democracy”; thumbs down for “no”; thumbs sideways for “not sure”).
Then ask for reasons.
 Classifying type 2. Give students information about two or three other
governments (China’s, Denmark’s, Japan’s) and ask them to decide which
of them, if any, is a democracy. This time have them write down their
reasons. Call on several students to share their decisions and reasons.
 Classifying type 3. Form teams of three to four students and direct each
team to brainstorm a fictional example of a democracy. Have them
imagine themselves shipwrecked on an island with no chance of rescue;
hence, they must create a society from scratch. Remind them to look back
at their summaries to be sure the example they create has each of the
attributes that all examples of democracies must have. Direct the teams to
share their fictional examples and tell why they are democracies.
 Classifying type 4. Tell students that you will describe an organization that
is not an example of democracy. The students’ task is to describe the
changes that would be needed to make it into a democracy. (Describe a
modern military dictatorship or a Little League baseball club.)
9. Summary. Ask a sample of students to review the critical characteristics of democracy.
Assessment
Any of the four types of classifying in Step 8 will serve as a good assessment of the extent to
which students have formed the concept. The proof is not in the decisions they reach (thumbs up;
thumbs down), but in the reasons they give.
Common Pitfalls
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Students may have a hard time keeping all the examples in mind at once. That’s
why the data-organization chart is a helpful tool.
Distinguishing examples from non-examples is the act of classifying. If students
have in mind a list of critical characteristics, they can more easily see which ones
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are present or absent in a given item; therefore, their classifying practice will be
more successful.
Students cannot classify an item if they do not have enough information about it.
To answer the question “Is Japan a democracy?,” students will have to study
Japan to find out whether its government has the critical characteristics that
democracies have.
In The Process of Education, Jerome Bruner writes: “We begin with the hypothesis that any
subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of
development” (1). This applies to most concepts. But the teacher needs to find examples that
students of a particular age can grasp, and simplify the critical characteristics as needed. The
critical characteristics common to the governments of the United States, Mexico, Canada, and
democratic classroom meetings are these: the majority rules (rules and laws are made by all
citizens or their representatives), minority rights are protected, and rules and laws are written
down. These are the three characteristics students eventually should summarize under the name
democracy. Is the resulting concept as complex as the one formed by college political science
majors? Of course not, but it would be quite an achievement for 4th- or 5th-grade children.
Footnotes
(1) J. Bruner, The process of education (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960).
For more information
Alleman, J. and J. Brophy. Social Studies Excursions, K–3, Book One: Powerful Units on Food,
Clothing, and Shelter. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2001. Parker, W. C. "Pluto's demotion and
deep conceptual learning in social studies." Social Studies Review Spring/Summer (2008).
Parker, W. C. Social Studies in Elementary Education. 14th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2011.
Taba, H., M.C. Durkin, J.R. Fraenkel, and A.H. McNaughton. A Teacher's Handbook to
Elementary Social Studies: An Inductive Approach. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1971.