Patrick Sweeney
Concept Attainment
Differentiation Action Research
What do you want to change/introduce?
Concept attainment lessons to match the new MYP Humanities Guide.
Related to the following differentiation strategies:

“Teaching to Primary Concepts” Powell P 105-108

“Differentiation Strategy 1: Classification activity” Powell P 113-116

“Differentiation Strategy 4: Entry Points” Powell P 121 -123
Instructions: Specify what new or different strategy/strategies you will
implement.
The plan is develop concept attainment lessons, including the
application of the five MYP Humanities concepts. The goal is to improve
student achievement on the MYP humanities criteria A, C, “”Knowledge of
concepts, and Application of Concepts”.
Why do you want to change it, introduce it?
“The key concepts…are used to structure the humanities course” MYP
Humanities Guide 2012
According to the new Humanities Guide, the units must be organized
around the Humanities Key Concepts. The goal is to improve student
achievement on the new MYP humanities criteria A, “”Knowledge of
concepts”, and criteria C “Analysis of Concepts”. The Students should be
able to clearly identify the parts of the concept, and analyze information
through the concept. (MYP Humanities Guide 2012) This plan will require the
use of Advance Set Organizers and of Concept Organizers to represent the
concept (Ausubel). This will help improve achievement against these criteria
by defining the concept and the characteristics of the concept in advance so
the students can use the concept to develop higher order cognitive skills
during instruction, then on assessments.
Plan the action
1. Establish concept attainment model in context of MYP (Planning
stage) Page 2
2. Define Key concept and Characteristics for certain units (Page 4)
3. Present advance set to students (page 5)
4. Introduce the subject topic with concept organizer. (Page 7)
5. Have students organize information from the subject topic around
the concept. (Page 8)
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Patrick Sweeney
Concept Attainment
1.Establish concept attainment model in context of MYP
Step 1 required research into the IB documentation, then into the supporting
theory the documentation is based on. The IB documentation includes MYP
Principals to practice, MYP Humanities Guide 2012, Perspectives on a
curious subject: What is IB theory of knowledge all about?
Supporting research includes: Making the difference, Powell and Concept
based curriculum and instruction, Erikson, cited in the MYP Humanities
Guide. Novak, A Twleve Year Longitutinal Study of Science Concept
Learning. “Use of organizer Before, During and After increases
understanding.”
Concept Curriculum Vs Traditional Curriculum
Based on Erikson P 50-51
Traditional Curriculum
Concept based Instruction
•Facts are learned to "Know" a topic
•Topics are "Covered"
•Facts are isolated to the topic
•After learning facts, it is assumed
higher level thinking and skills will
emerge
•The teacher is the expert and controls
the knowledge and makes all decisions
about knowledge
•Curriculum and instruction is
predetermined or mechanical and fixed
•Assessment is focused on knowing
facts
•Concepts give meaning
•Facts support the concept "Ideas"
•The concept is transferable to new
situations
•The Higher level thinking and skills are
used to attain facts rather than applied
after learning facts
•The teacher gives up some control of
the knowledge, students make
desicions
•Curriculum and instruction is fluid
•Assessment is focused on Constructing
Responses rather than knowing
In a “traditional” curriculum, it is assumed that concepts will emerge after
the facts are attained and concepts will support the facts. In a concept based
curriculum, the concept comes first, and facts emerge to support the concept.
The important shift is that with concept attainment, the concept comes first,
then the important facts emerge.
Why a concept attainment approach? Concept attainment promotes higher
level thinking skills.
 It provides for multiple entry points (Multiple examples)
 Allows students to establish entry points according to their zone of
proximal development (The student can select an example)
 Students select information that supports the concept. (Teacher
mediated choice)
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Patrick Sweeney
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
Concept Attainment
Students Classify information into the categories of the conceptpromoting higher level thinking. (Differentiation strategy one,
classification. P 113 Powell)
Students justify the selection of the information to support the concept,
promoting higher level thinking and content attainment (TIMMS)
The Structure of Knowledge based on (Erickson) P 52. The learner starts with
Key concept, a simple term. Then the key concept is developed into a
Statement of understanding with the significant concept. The significant
concept is then connected to the subject topic, and the characteristics of the
concept are identified. Facts are then organized according to the
characteristics of the concept to support the concept
1.
The humanities Key concept is
identified
Key Humanities
concept: Systems
Systems
2. The key concept is turned into a
statement of understanding: the
significant concept, and linked to AOI
Significant Concept:
Competing ideologies can lead
to conflict: Human Ingenuity
Subject Topic:
Cold War. The competing ideologies of
Capitalism and Communism led to conflicts
Capitalism
Communism
3. The significant concept is connected to
the topic
Conflicts
4 .The Characteristics of the significant
concept according to the topic are
identified
Facts
Facts
Facts
Facts
Facts
Facts
5. Supporting facts, details, knowledge
are classified into the characteristics
of the concept
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Patrick Sweeney
Concept Attainment
2 Define Key concept and Characteristics Prior to instruction
This step requires the teacher to think about what the key concept
means advance of the unit. The concept can be thought of the moral of a
story. The facts support this moral. When thinking of a unit, a teacher can ask
“What story is your unit trying to tell? What is the moral of the story?” The
moral of the story becomes a statement of understanding- the Significant
Concept. For example, in a 10th grade class studying the cold war, the moral
of the story may be that “Competing ideologies can cause conflict”. This
understanding is then connected to the topic, the cold war, and the meaning
of the Significant concept broken down to its characteristics.
Key Concept
• Single word or Simple statement
• Timeless, universal and Abstract
(Humanities Guide P 40)
Significant Concept
• A statement of UnderstandingThe "Moral of the story"
• Not based on a subject
• Can apply to many Subjects
• Characteristics can be identified
when it is connect to a subject
Planning. Identify key concept, develop into significant concept statement of
understanding. Identify the characteristics of this understanding
Example 1:
Key Concept, Systems
Significant concept: Competing ideologies can lead to conflict
History topic, Cold war
There are three main characteristics to the significant concept relating to this
unit
 Capitalism
 Communism
 Cold War Conflicts
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Patrick Sweeney
Capitalism
Concept Attainment
Communism
Cold War
Conflicts
This can take the form of a concept organizer for the students to use
throughout the unit
Capitalism and
Communism
Cold War Conflicts
3. Present advance set organizer to students( Instruction)
Key Concept, Systems
Significant concept: Commting ideologies can lead to conflict
History topic, Cold war
Presenting the Concept: Advance Set Organizer (Entry Point)
Prior to introducing the topic, introduce students to an example of the concept
not related to the topic, but the concept in general.
In this unit, the students were first introduced to the example of the Zax, a
three minute cartoon. They were then asked to create their own graphic
organizer explaining what happened and provide an explanation of it
The True Story of the Zax. The Zax consist of North Going Zax and South
Going Zax. When two meet head on, they cannot go anywhere because the
refuse to go in any other direction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZmZzGxGpSs&feature=related
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Concept Attainment
Student Generated work Sample 1
Concept, Systems
South Going
Zax
North Going
Zax
CONFLICT
North Going Zax
-
-
-
South Going Zax
I have always
went North and
I will always go
north
I will never a
step back to left
or to the right
I will not move if
we have to stand
here for 59 days
-
-
The North going
zax is in my way
I always go south
I will never
budge; that’s
what they taught
me in school
I won’t budge if
we have to stand
here for 59 years
Conflict
-
Stuck in the
Prairie of Zax
Not going
anywhere
The rest of the
world left them
behind
1/05/12
The True Story of the Sax
There was once a North going Zax making north going tracks in
the Prairie of Pax. There was also a South going Zax making
south going tracks in the Prairie of Pax. One day the two of them
collided. They stood face to face with one blocking ht others way.
The North going sax said that always went north and that the
south going sax was in his way. The south going sax said that
the north going sax was in his way and that he always went
south. The north going sax said: "I have never taken a step to
one side". The south going sax said: "Never budge - I learned in
south going school I will stand here not budging if it makes me
and you and the whole world stand still". And indeed they stood
still and never budged but the world did not stand still. This is an
example of how competing ideologies lead to conflict.
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Patrick Sweeney
Concept Attainment
4. Introduce the subject topic with concept organizer
The significant concept – “Competing ideologies can lead to conflict”-emerges
through discussion of the advance organizer. The teacher already knows what
it is, through guided discussion it is revealed to the students. (Teacher
Mediated choice. Powell P 74) Students are then introduced to the topic, in
this case the cold war, and the connection to the concept made with the
following organizer.
There are three main characteristics to the significant concept in this unit
 Capitalism
 Communism
 Cold War Conflicts
Capitalism
Communism
Cold War
Conflicts
As you progress through the unit you can organize facts you learned into the
Graphic organizer below. This will help you explain the story of how
competing systems of ideology lead to conflict.
Capitalism and
Communism
Cold War Conflicts
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Patrick Sweeney
Concept Attainment
5 .Have students organize information around the concept
As students progress through the unit, they select facts and information
that support the concept and place them in the appropriate category of
the organizer to see how they link together and support the concept.
(Strategy 1. Classification. Powell P 113)
Student Work Example 1
Capitalism
and
Democracy
Communism &
Dictatorship
Cold War
Conflicts
Elections
Maybe Elections
Yalta
Democracy
Dictatorship
Comminform
Elections
Germany: Stalin not
pleased - invasion
Berlin
Russian protection
barrier
Berlin Blockade
Marshall Plan
Food Shortage
Hungary
NATO (below)
Warsaw
Poland
Free Market
Individual
Truman Doctorine
Command Economy
Community
Berlin Blockade
Ideology
The two superpowers had conflicting systems of government and their
societies were organized around very different ideas.
Truman Doctrine: It was the American policy in 1947 of providing economic
and military aid to Greece and Turkey because they were "threatened" by
communism. It was the start of the containment policy to stop Soviet
expansion.
Marshall Plan: It was a program of aid to help war-torn Europe re-equip its
factories and offer them money for equipment and goods. In return, they
would agree to buy American goods and allow American companies to invest
capital in their industries.
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization: The organization constitutes a
system of collective defense whereby its member states agree to mutual
defense in response to an attack by any external party.
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Patrick Sweeney
Concept Attainment
Berlin Blockade;
Stalin’s motives and reasons for the blockade included forcing the Western
Allies to pull out of their sectors by starving West Berlin into surrender and
make them abandon their plans for separate development of their German
zones.
The concept organizer is a way that organizes and will help explain the
story of how competing systems of ideology lead to conflict. With the
events of the Cold War, each event fell under either the category of
Capitalism and Democracy or Communism and Dictatorship. It clearly
categorize these events in a table so that we can explain which
contributed to which ideology.
Student Work example 2
Capitalism and
Democracy
• Elections
• Democracy
• Free Market
• Individual
• Truman
Doctirine
• Marshall Plan
• NATO
Communism and
Dictatorship
• Maybe
• Dictratorship
• Command
Economy
• Community
• Berlin Blocade
• Warsaw
Cold War
Conflicts
• Yalta
• Elections
• Germany
• Berlin
• Russian
protection
Barrier
• Hungary and
Poland
The concept organizer for this unit evolves around the big idea: different
ideology about political and economic systems lead to conflict. This unit is
about the two systems, Communism, that promotes command economy
and dictatorship, whereas capitalism promotes free market and
democracy. These two ideology clash to create conflicts. At the Yalta
conference, the Allies disagreed over the German Reparations and the
capitalist, Churchill and Roosevelt wanted free elections but Stalin was
reluctant. At the Potsdam conference, the tensions between the USA and
the Soviet union became more intense as Stalin got angry that he was not
informed with the USA's intention to drop a bomb in Japan and Truman
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Patrick Sweeney
Concept Attainment
became more suspicious of Stalin for not cutting down his army. The rise
of NATO in the capitalists and the Warsaw Pact for the communists is said
to have confirmed the Cold War.
Evaluate the action and revise practice
Instructions: Answer the questions: How did it go? What went well? What
didn’t go so well? What will I do differently next time?
This strategy was successful in helping students define and understand
the Key Humanities Concepts, and to help them develop specific facts and
details that support the concept and explain the connections. It is easy for
students to go forward talking about a concept, but with little meaning to it or
understanding of it. Advance set organizers and concept organizers help
students define their understanding at the start and develop it. This also
encourages higher level cognitive reasoning as the students are classifying
information into abstract categories. This also helps them avoid talking about
meaningless facts and information, since the information are being selected
and used for a purpose, the purpose of supporting the concept.
It is important to present the non examples to help prevent students
from falling into the trap of defining the wrong thing. For example “Time”. If a
student googles time they may come up with Einstein’s theory of relativity. If
they Google “Revolution” they may come up with a political definition, even if
the Industrial Revolution or Technology Revolution is the topic.
Things learned about concept attainment instruction:





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The meaning of the concept must be determined by teachers at the
start and the unit must be organized around it. (Humanities Guide)
Concept and knowledge attainment is most effective when a graphic
organizer is used (Asubel )
The graphic organizer is most effective when it is sequenced
throughout, start, during and at end of unit, as opposed to at the end
as review and revision. (Novak)
At a higher level, (After students are skilled at it, not necessarily at a
higher grade level) the graphic organizer is most effective when
students are presented with the concept then create their own
organizer (Marzano).
The focus is on the concept, then the facts that support it, as opposed
to the facts, then a concept
Fewer “Facts” need to be learned, as the student needs to use the
facts for a purpose as opposed to knowing a whole topic.
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Patrick Sweeney
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
Concept Attainment
Instruction and Assessment is based on students constructing a
response more, and students answering questions correctly less.
(Criteria A, saying the right answer is approximately 3 out of 8)
Key Concepts are used in PYP, and in IB TOK, but not directly
anywhere else in the IB Program.
Additional Concept Organizers and advance set organizers
Example 1. Key concept, Change
Significant concept, Change can be good and bad
Humanities topic, Revolutions
The Shape of Revolution.
Revolutions have certain Characteristics.
New, unforseen, They seem to happen suddenly, no one could see them
comming
Good, They have positive impacts on people
Bad, They have negative impacts on people
Permanent. Once they happen, there is no going back
New and unforeseen
Good
The Shape of
Revolution
Bad
Permanent- No going Back
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Patrick Sweeney
Concept Attainment
Revolutions.
Significant concept:
Change can be good or bad
New, could not be predicted
Positive impact on people
Negative impact of people
Example from our life: Social
Networking Became a Hit almost
overnight. Could not be
predicted
Example from our life.
Social Networking has helped
people connect, Even forced
governments to reform- Arab
Spring, occupy Wallstreet
Put an example from your
life here
Put an example from your life
here
Put an exmaple from your life
here
Put an example from your life
here
Examples from lessons
Examples from lessons
Examples from lessons
Examples from lessons
Example from our life: Can be
addicting and people can loose
touch with real life
Permanent , no going back
Example. It is not going away,
we even learn on moodle, a type
of social networking site
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Patrick Sweeney
Concept Attainment
Example 2 Grade 8 Unit
Unit: Active Citizen Ship
Key Concept: systems
Significant concept: Citizens have rights and responsibilities.
Rights and responsibilities of citizens
Citezens have
rights in
society
Citizens have
responsibilities
to others in
society
People are independent
members of a group
(Nation), not subjects
of rulers
The rights and responsibilities of Citizens
Citizens
Subjects
 Have certain rights in society
 Have no rights
 Have responsibilities to Society
 Have responsibilities to the
king
 Have a sense of belonging to a
group (nation)
 People serve the Government
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Patrick Sweeney
Concept Attainment
As you progress through the lessons, fill in examples in the left column, then
explain how it compares to the characteristics in the other columns.
Example
Rights granted
by society. Is
the standard
being met?
Responsibility to
society. Is this
standard being
met?
The government
issues drivers
licenses
The government
grants people the
right to drive with
license when
people show they
can pass a
driving test.
People with
licenses have to
obey driving laws
and drive safely
for others well
being or they may
lose this right.
People are
members of a
group- a nation
(Not Subjects of
a king)
License has
National or state
logo
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