Concept attainment strategy

BY JEROME BRUNER

@VINCI VIVEKA AND EKTA RAI 2012-13

Jerome S. Bruner, Jacqueline J. Goodnow, and
the late George A. Austin developed the idea of
concept attainment in their book A Study of
Thinking (1956).

Dr. Bruner, a psychologist and educator at the New
York University Law School, was a pioneer in the
Cognitive Revolution in Psychology as well as a
prime mover in the educational reform movement
in the 1960s

@VINCI VIVEKA AND EKTA RAI
2012-13

He uses a multidisciplinary approach,
combining anthropology, psychology, linguistics,
and literary theory, to explore how enculturation affects
the formation of institutions – particularly education
and more recently law.

Bruner’s primary contribution to education fall within
the arena of the information processing models
– the models designed to help students acquire
and operate on data.

His primary advance in this area pertains to the
development and use of Concept Attainment in
curriculum development.

2012-13

Concept Attainment, a close relative
to inductive thinking (Joyce and Weil
1967:15), focuses on the decision-
making and categorization
processes leading up to the creation
and understanding of a concept.

A concept is “the network of
inferences that are or may be set
into play by an act of categorization”
(Bruner, Goodnow, and Austin
1956:244).
2012-13

The concept will be attained after minimum number
of encounters with relevant instances;
A concept will be attained with certainty, regardless
of the number of instances one must test en route to
attainment;
Minimize the amount of strain on guessing and
memorization while guaranteeing a concept will be
attained;
To minimize the number of wrong categorizations
prior to attaining a concept (Bruner et al 1956).

2012-13

Concept Attainment is an indirect instructional strategy
that uses a structured inquiry process

to clarify ideas and to introduce aspects of content

well suited to classroom use because all thinking abilities
can be challenged throughout the activity.

Concept attainment involves not only the decision-
making processes involved with categorization but it also
incorporates a personalized historical experience of each
student or individual.


The pattern of decisions leading to concept attainment
involve the following five general factors:

1) the definition of task;
2) the nature of the examples encountered;
3) the nature of validation procedures;
4) the consequences of specific categorizations; and
5) the nature of imposed restrictions.


Steps of Concept Attainment:

•Select and define a concept
•Select the attributes
•Develop positive and negative examples
•Introduce the process to the students
•Present the examples and list the attributes
•Develop a concept definition
•Give additional examples
•Discuss the process with the class
•Evaluate

2012-13

Advantages:
•helps makelearning between what students know and what
connections
they will be

•learn how to examine a concept from a number of perspectives
•learn how to sort out relevant information
•extends their knowledge of a concept by classifying more than
one example of that concept

•students go beyond merely associating a key term with a
definition

•concept is learned more thoroughly and retention is improved
2012-13

DISADVANTAGE:

Miscommunications in concept
attainment could be a drawback to
the educational process


1. EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY –MANGAL AND MANGAL
2. www.scrbd.com
3. Bruner, J.S., Goodnow, J.J. & Austin, G.A. (1956) A Study of
Thinking. Chapman & Hall, Limited. London.

4. lc.spsd.sk.ca/de/pd/instr/strats/cattain/index.html


Thank You


Concept attainment strategy

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