Concept Attainment Model Concept Attainment Model of teaching or CAM as it is fondly called in the education fraternity is a teaching technique that uses the inductive approach to enable learners to identify the essential attributes in data sets and arrive at their own conclusions. Jerome Bruner, the proponent of this discovery method of learning believed that learners understand a concept better when they evaluate the data sets and apply their logic and reasoning to discover the information in them. CAM is effectively used to enhance students’ inductive strategy in learning or interpreting new concepts. The Concept Attainment Model of teaching involves a four-step process for students to arrive at a conclusion. 1. Presentation of the attributes 2. Evaluation of the attributes 3. Identifying essential and non-essential attributes 4. State the definition of the concept The teacher presents two sets of data or information - one with essential attributes and the other with non-essential attributes. The data could be a list of words, phrases and sentences or even pictures. This model requires a student to compare and contrast the examples (exemplars) in each category - one that contains the attributes/characteristics of the concept with the other in which the attributes are missing. Let’s take an example: Essential/Positive 1. The book is placed on the table. Non-essential/Negative The book is placed there. 2. Neeraj came back to his home. Neeraj is back home. 3. Call me after 5 pm. Call me later. 4. The children are playing under the tree. The children are playing 5. I want pizza topped with mushrooms. I want mushroom topped pizza. Teacher : What essential attributes could you find? Student/s : The sentences describe the connection between two things. They talk about the place, time and direction of an action. on the table to his home after 5 pm under the tree with mushrooms. Teacher : What are the non-essential or negative attributes? What do they describe? Student/s : They describe an action. They don’t talk about the place, time and direction of an action. Teacher then asks the students to generate their own examples. CAM is effective in language learning, Math and Sciences and even social and emotional learning. The teacher, as a facilitator, provides relevant prompts and just enough information for students to learn autonomously. References: https://www.davuniversity.org/images/files/study-material/CONCEPT%20ATTAINMENT%20MOD EL,EDU202.pdf https://harappa.education/harappa-diaries/concept-attainment-model/#:~:text=7%20mins%20rea d-,The%20concept%20attainment%20model%20of%20teaching%20is%20a%20strategy%20de veloped,belong%20to%20and%20its%20characteristics.
