Using Concept-Attainment to teach Higher-Order Thinking Skills
Assessment and Evaluation Plan for ENG4C
Concept Attainment
The following lesson is one I developed for the CAMH Centre for Prevention Sciences’ project “The 4th R” as part of a literature circle unit. I used concept attainment, which is an instructional strategy based on the work of Bruner (2009). In this strategy, students compare and contrast the attributes provided in the data set. They are told which examples are “yes” examples and which are “no” examples, but they are not told what the concept is. Through discussion and inductive logic, they come to an understanding of the concept--in this case, effective discussion questions.
Rather than giving the students discussion questions to answer for their books, I felt that they would take more ownership over the discussion if they created the questions themselves. This also brought students into the assessment process since they were participants in the development of the assessment criteria.
click the above image to see the artifact
Concept Attainment Lesson