Reflection #7

(1) Describe the Resource / Experience:
During my resource search this week, I discovered a website entitled “Instructional Strategies Online – Concept Attainment”. This is a website that discusses the definition, purpose, and advantages of the concept attainment instructional model. This site also provides a “how-to” guide for creating your own concept attainment activities. It also features some examples of finished, “ready-to-use” concept attainment activities. For those unfamiliar with the concept attainment instructional strategy, this is a instructional strategy/activity in which the teacher shows students a variety of examples and non-examples of an unknown concept and the students have to compare and contrast the examples and non-examples in order to guess the unknown concept.
(2) Lessons Learned / Applications for the Classroom / Recommendations for Yourself or Others:
As for applications for the classroom, I think that an element of technology could be seamlessly integrated into this concept attainment instructional strategy. For example, the teacher could present the examples and non-examples by using an interactive whiteboard or by using PowerPoint software. Moreover, in addition to teachers using this strategy to teach, I also think that the students could use the concept attainment strategy to create, construct, and demonstrate their own knowledge about a given concept.
(3) Links to Readings, Resources, or Discussions:
These ideas directly link to the following resource from my Resource Log:

Saskatoon Public Schools. (2008). Instructional strategies online. Retrieved from http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/cattain/

The ideas expressed on this website are closely aligned with the research we have been reading and studying about integrating constructivism with technology.