What In The World Is A Concept?

Ladies and gentlemen,

I don't know if anyone else struggles with this, but something that has recently been on my mind has been distinguishing between concepts and topics. Going through school, that is something that teachers never really clarified. They were one and the same. So I want to take the opportunity to reflect on what I have been learning this week through several learning experiences.

Initially, I thought that anything could be a concept. I thought that the French and Indian War and Culture could both be topics. Oh, was I misinformed! I was proven very wrong this semester when research and discussion brought me to the conclusion that there are certain requirements that must be met to be considered a concept. After spending time researching this concept versus topic debate, I have seen that utilizing the concept based lesson helps students to make generalizations and connections between topics, utilize higher thinking, and process more material. How cool is that?

I came up with this little visual to help me remember that a concept must be abstract, timeless, transferable, and universal.

It makes sense that we (North Carolina, specifically) are transitioning into this concept-based instructional method. If we want our students to be able to look at the big picture and utilize higher level thinking, shouldn't we provide them with this conceptual lens through which to look? I am so excited to begin the process of looking at the big picture of concepts. Recently, I have begun a concept-based unit plan, and looking at the possibilities that are present when you don't constrain yourself to one specific topic. I am glad that many teachers, especially in North Carolina, are headed in that direction! As NCTCS implies, "4a. Teachers know the ways in which learning takes place, and they know the appropriate levels of intellectual, physical, social, and emotional development of their students."

All of these changes to the instruction process make good practice for myself (and others) as we prepare for a classroom full of students of our own. If you take anything from this blog, I would hope that would be that conceptual learning has so much to offer students. I know it is soooo cheesy (no pun intended), but this visual is a reminder to me that, in the midst of writing a lesson unit, or plan, or whatever it is that you are writing, a concept must me timeless, abstract, universal, and transferable.