How to do concept teaching

The following information is from Unit 20 of the book Teaching: A Course in Psychology by Wesley C. Becker, Siegfried Engelmann, and Don R. Thomas. 

Note: Science Research Associates published the book in 1971. I am unsure if the publishers reprinted the book or if it is available to buy. I found it through a university inter-library loan program. I suspect that Becker or Engelmann use the book or some form of it in their special education teaching classes at the University of Oregon.

• Review: concept learning discriminates S+ from S- and both of these from Si

• Every concept characteristic has a value or range of values
• Fixed if only one value
• Example: 4 angles is a fixed characteristic of a square
• Range of value if more than one value
• Example: Many angles are a range of value for many figures
• The range needs to be defined
• S+ and S- are a set of values that are instances of some high-order concept
• Si characteristics are another set by themselves or are independent of what is being taught
• Example: any instance of shapes can be shown to present instances of color
• The teacher shows what characteristics are irrelevant and what are the range of relevant characteristics

• Ways to structure teaching sequences
• Teach the characteristic that leads to less possibilities available
• Switch from an instance to a non-example so that only one characteristics changes a a time
• You can do this repetitively by using different sets of irrelevant characteristics one at a time
• Good for teaching physical concepts
• Example: “the ball is ON the char. The ball is now NOT ON the chair.”
• Present a series of instances or non-examples where nothing changes but the range of characteristics to teach a range of S+ or S-
• Present of series of instances where the Si change and S+ stay the same to teach the range of Si

• Misrule: teaching something inessential to a concept
• Example: only showing brown dogs when teaching the concept “dog”
• The student may think that dogs are only brown
• Misrules happen when:
• There is no range of S+
• If an irrelevant characteristic in Si is not varied

• Avoiding memory load problems
• Do not present too much information at once
• Use pairs of instances you can compare directly
• Change one thing when going from instance to non-example
• Change one thing when going from instance to instance
• Change one thing when going from non-example to non-example
• Quickly present a sequence of instances

• Language to teach concepts through prior knowledge
• Use verbal rules
• A rule has no irrelevant characteristics
• Concepts that are more complex
• Use a verbal rule to describe how people use them
• Example: “a VEHICLE takes you places”
• Example: “FOOD is something you eat”
• Teach two levels of living things or objects with language
• Example: “Here is a horse” (show a picture)
• “The horse is brown”
• Vs. showing the picture and saying “brown”
• Example: “Here is a cup” (show the cup)
• “A cup has a handle” (point to it)
• Vs. “This is a handle” (point to it)
• To say “A cup has a” eliminates confusion on what handle might be
• “A cup has a bowl” (point to it)