Welcome to Concepts

The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate how to teach a concept.A concept is a way of grouping several

abstract orconcrete objects, based on shared

characteristics.A concept might be a commonly found

object such asforks or silverware, or something less

tangible like facts.Once a concept is defined use examples to

help demonstrate the concept, and teach your

audiencehow to recognize what is applicable to

the concept.

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Generalization and

DiscriminationTwo skills that are essential to this process are

Generalization and Discrimination. Generalization is the process of removing irrelevant

details. Different forks may be made from different materialsbut the definition of a fork does not take note of material.

Discrimination is recognizing the essential details, ifthe utensil does not have multiple “teeth”, it is not a fork.

Students may over-generalize and not be “picky” enoughor under-generalize, and focus on irrelevant details.

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Strategies

The two main strategies for teaching a concept are Inquiry and Expository.Inquiry presents the audience with multiple examples,

asking them to sort and theorize what the essential characteristics are.Expository presents the concept early on, clearly defining the definingcharacteristics, and then uses examples to reinforce those details.

In the following slides you will see an example using the Expository Method.

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How to Introduce

Begin with a strong image to catch the interest.In this example we have an image containingmany vivid colors, both warm and cool.

Introduce the audience to the subject at hand,Color. “Some colors are described as warm,

others cool. Today we will discuss what that means.”

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Ease in-Past Knowledge

Remind the audience of past knowledge they havealready learned that is relevant to this concept.“Everyone has studied colors. Everyone knows thebasic 6; Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple.And we have all seen how these 6 colors can manifest

in a variety of combinations and shades.”

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Define the ConceptDefine the concept clearly. Establish what attributes

make something an example of this concept, or not.

Warm colors are dominated by Red and/or

Yellow. These include Orange, Red, Yellow, and shades of Green.

Some colors are primary, the most basic, while others are a combination of two colors, or secondary and

tertiary.Different shades or pigments are created depending

on the ratios of those two colors. Cool colors are dominated

by Blue. These include Blue, Purple,

and some shades of Green.

An image is warm or cool when most colors in it is either warm or cool.

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Help Them Remember

Try to offer any trick or method you know of to help remember the relevant attributes that

distinguishan applicable example from a “non-example”.

In this instance, you might suggest “warm fire” and “cool water”.

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The First ExamplesPresent two examples that are undeniable examples of

the concept, and in most cases, not the concept.In this case, two images that are definitely warm and cool.

Explain why these two examples fit the concept.

Warm Cool

The image on the right is a warm image because every color, other than black, is a warm color,

reds, yellows, and oranges, and these colors represent the color

majority.

In Contrast, this image is

dominated by blues and greens.

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Additional Examples

Next you provide the audience with multipleexamples, some of which do and some of whichdo not fit the concept, or in this case,

examples of warm and cool images.Ask the student to decide for themselves which

are warm and which are cool.

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Feedback

If possible try to provide feedback for your audience.In the case of a presentation, pose questions which are

designed so that in the process of answering themstudents evaluate their own methods of

determining what the concept is applicable to.

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ReviewReview the concept and the key attributes which

identity something as applicable. In this case, remindyour audience that warm colors are associatedwith the Yellow sun and the Red fire, because

warm colors have more Reds and/or Yellows, whilecool colors are associated with Blue water andthe shade of Green leaves because cool colors

have more Blues.

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Discussion/Utilization

Discuss how this new knowledge could be useful.In this instance, when creating an image or layout

the audience can consider what their goal is,and whether that goal is best served by a warm

or cool image.

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