Concept-based Learning: A Whole-

School Approach
Concept-based Learning: A Whole-School
Approach

Brought to you by Faria Education Group and MiniPD

Meet the Author: Sarah Plews

Guide Objectives and Outline

Part 1: Getting Started with a Bit of Theory

Part 2: Connecting Concept-based Theory with Practice

Part 3: Practice - Planning for Conceptual Understandings

Part 4: Practice - Strategies and Tools for your Concept-based Classroom

Author Reflection

Further Reading
Faria Education Group

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Meet the Author: Sarah Plews

Greetings!

For over two decades, I’ve been committed to driving cultures of coaching and collaborative
professionalism. My experience lies at the nexus of teaching and learning, leadership and professional
learning. I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of leading strategic school improvement initiatives, inclusive of
staff onboarding, appraisal and professional growth pathways, leadership development and curriculum
development. I am passionate about building capacity at the individual, team and organizational level.

Professional Roles: Int. Ed Professional Learning Consultant; MiniPD Content & Events Lead; K-12 Senior
Leader for Professional Development & Learning; Curriculum Director; K-12 Senior Lead Team Member;
Primary Lead Team Member; President Elect of the European League for Middle Level Education (ELMLE);
Council of International Schools (CIS) Accreditation Evaluator; Concept-based Learning Facilitator; Middle
School Art teacher; Primary Teacher.

I hope you enjoy this short guide. If you would like to connect, I’d love to hear from you to have a coffee and
a conversation.

Twitter @SarahPlews3 or LinkedIn

Connect with me for a conversation via my MiniPD.com landing page

Sarah Plews. Location: International School of Luxembourg

Guide Objectives and Outline

Guide Objectives
In this guide you will:

Build understanding of concept-based teaching and learning - the why, how and what?

Consider teaching approaches that can support conceptual thinking

Acquire strategies and tools for planning and instruction to support conceptual thinking

Expand your tool kit for designing meaningful learning experiences and assessments
Leave this guide with practical take-aways to try out in your own classroom

Guide Outline
This guide largely consists of four modules which can take up to six hours in total to follow, depending on
your current understanding of concept-based teaching and learning, the depth of your reflections and the
extent to which you try out the suggestions in practice.

Guiding questions are used to frame the learning. These are used to intentionally model inquiry and
promote engagement by inviting you as the learner to be active participants in the learning process.

Part 1: Getting Started with a bit of Concept-based Theory

Guiding Questions

1. To what extent is your current practice concept-based?

2. What is a concept?
3. What is concept-based learning?

Part 2: Connecting Concept-based Theory with Practice

Guiding Questions

1. Why concept-based learning?

2. How can teacher beliefs impact student learning experiences?
3. Which teaching approaches can support concept-based learning?
 Part 3: Planning for your Concept-based Classroom

Guiding Questions

1. How can you choose what concepts are right for your teaching?

2. How can you plan to support students to build conceptual understandings?

3. How can you support students to create strong understandings?

Part 4: Practice - Strategies and tools for your Concept-based Classroom

Guiding Questions

1. What strategies can you use in practice to support concept-based learning?

2. How can technology add value to your concept-based classroom?

3. How can you design meaningful assessments?

Final Note

1. Author Reflection
2. Congratulations
3. What’s Next?

4. Further reading
Part 1: Getting Started with a Bit of
Theory
Overview

Part 1: Getting Started with a bit of Concept-based Theory

By the end of the first part of this guide you will be able to answer the following questions:

1. To what extent is my current practice concept-based?

2. What is a concept?

3. What is concept-based learning?

To what extent is my current practice concept-
based?

Misunderstandings and Struggles

So let’s start with a common misunderstanding and struggle which may resonate, and according to Lynn
Erickson, is shared by many teachers around the world.

A common misunderstanding is the belief that concepts are more important than facts. This, however, is a
myth. What is needed to support students is to offer a content rich curriculum so that students can access
examples and use them in order to build conceptual and transferrable understandings.

A common struggle, also shared by many teachers, is that they find it difficult to go beyond teaching content
and skills. Concept-based learning aims for students to use core content and skills as tools - as opposed to
content and skills being the final destination of learning - to reach higher levels of thinking and deeper
understanding. One common reason is that teachers feel they need to ‘cover’ the curriculum. Another
common reason is that teachers can feel unsure of the steps they can take to scaffold learning so that
students build their own conceptual understandings.

Reflect - Act

Before going any further I invite you to pause and explore the concept-based pedagogy
continuum below. Consider using it to make notes and adjust as you move through this guide:
1. Click here to make your own copy and use as a reflection tool to support you/your team in
your concept-based learning journey
2. Read, reflect and highlight across the continuum based on practice
3. Identify which areas you might consider to develop
What is a concept?

Definition
Concepts are mental constructs which help us make sense of the world. If you are a teacher who wants to
deepen conceptual learning in your classroom, the first step we need to take is to define exactly what a
concept is...and is not. Many curricula teach themes, however, these are different to concepts.

(Nicholas Austin, 2018)

A concept is a ‘mental construct drawn from a topic or a process that transfers to new situations or contexts’
(Erickson, Lanning and French, 2017). Carla Marschall, co-author of Concept-based Inquiry (Marschall and
French, 2018), articulates what is a concept in this short video:
 What are concepts?

Concept-based learning is based on the following characteristics:

Timeless

Concepts remain constant through time. Even though factual examples of a concept can be found, the
concept transcends individual situations. An example from the age 5-7 level is the example of change.
When students understand that change is inevitable, they can take that understanding and apply it across
different stages in their learning. For example, a six year old may understand that people and animals grow
and change over time, while a ten year old may begin to recognize that relationships change over time.

Abstract

Abstract concepts stimulate higher level thinking. They rise above the fact base to foster a deeper
understanding. Many curricula for younger grades will use ‘apples’ as a concept. As a concept, this falls
short of providing children with a big idea that will help them process their world. This is due to its specificity
as concepts are not locked to specific things. ‘Moving beyond the page’, on the other hand, uses concepts
such as interdependence, cycles or relationships to help students organize and categorize information so
they can make sense of the world and transfer it to new contexts.

Universal

Universal truths are those that can be applied across many different fields of knowledge. This is crucial in
order for students to draw connections among different areas of their life. With these big ideas, students are
able to view the world through different lenses and are able to learn how ideas and situations are related.

Topics Vs Concepts
An important distinction to note is the difference between the topics that our curriculum mandates we include
in our instruction, and the concepts that help connect the set of knowledge and skills to students’ lives.
According to Lynn Erickson, concepts are universal, timeless, abstract and move us towards higher levels of
thinking. In this table extract below, you can see the topic as the unit title on the left and the concepts on the
right.

(Marschall & French, 2018)

Macroconcepts Vs Microconcepts
Another note of importance is that concepts are different in their complexity levels and in the extent to which
they enable transfer of understanding. Erickson, Lanning, Marschall and French talk about concepts like
nesting russian dolls. Micro concepts nest within macroconcepts. The higher you go in the hierarchy the
more transferable the concept. Macro-concepts aim to provide breadth, whereas, microconcepts provide
disciplinary depth.

If you look at the table above once again, in bold italics you see the macro concept which provides a
conceptual lens bringing curriculum breadth, and the other driving nesting concepts provide curriculum
depth. See further examples of nesting concepts below.
(Marschall & French, 2018)
What is Concept-based Learning?

A Model for Concept-based Learning

In this guide, as mentioned, you will be digging into the work of H. Lynn Erickson and L. Lanning around
Concept-based Curriculum and Instruction. Their work discusses concept-based learning from the
perspective of Understanding by Design (UbD) and we will largely focus on concept-based learning from
that lens.

Synergistic Thinking
Erickson and Lanning’s approach to curriculum design is all about developing the students ability to think
well. Erickson affirms that the ‘key to intellectual development is synergistic interplay between factual and
conceptual level of thinking’ (2012). So if synergy refers to an interaction where the sum effect is greater
than the acting agent alone, in a concept-based curriculum students acquire and process facts and skills
through the conceptual level of thinking. Synergistic thinking is the key to concept-based learning.

The Three-Dimensions
Erickson’s concept-based teaching and learning model contrasts to more traditional models, which can be
more surface level, with stronger emphasis on rote memorization of facts and concepts rather than their
application.

In a more traditional classroom, a teacher may teach a specific war by focusing on key facts and individuals,
and require students to write a paper and take a test to demonstrate understanding.

Conversely, a concept-based approach is three-dimensional that melds what students will know, do and
understand demonstrated in their ability to transfer to new contexts and situations. For example, in a Social
Studies unit concept-based learning extends the content and skills so that:

Students will identify the axis allied power in order to understand how 20th century conflict continues to
politically and economically impact us today.

Students will compare and contrast the environmental characteristics of the United States in order to
understand the environmental impact human can reap.
 (Erickson 2012)

The diagram (above left) illustrates how traditional teaching focuses primarily on content and skills,
whereas, with a concept-based model (above right) we teach in light of an overarching concept -
understandings are generated by the process of deconstruction, reorganisation and reconstruction of
content.

The Structure of Knowledge and The Structure of Process

The illustration below highlights the key components of Erickson’s concept-based model which can support
transfer to occur at the conceptual level of understanding in both the Structure of Knowledge and the
Structure of Process.

The structure of knowledge more naturally depicts elements of subject areas, such as Science or History,
that are heavy in content knowledge (topics and facts). Whereas, the structure of process more naturally
depicts the elements of subject areas, such as Languages or Arts, that are organized by processes,
strategies, and skills.

In both the structure of knowledge and structure of process, curriculum and instruction moves from the lower
cognitive levels (facts, skills) to the higher cognitive level of transferable understanding (generalizations).
Synergy will be at work and integrated thinking will be alive.
 The Structure of Knowledge and Process

A Note on Concept-based Learning and Other Pedagogies

Erickson’s and Lanning’s model of concept-based learning provides a model for unit design and
development as we will see later, but it is important to note that concept-based curriculum also melds well
with other pedagogies.

Concept-based learning can be reflected across different approaches to curriculum so long as the
curriculum aims to drive students to higher order thinking that grows year to year and is transferable across
subject areas. For example, Montessori is student driven where conceptual classrooms or unit themes
encourage students to relate their work back to it. In systems such as IGCSE and AS/A levels, concept
based learning can improve student cognition of aims and assessment objectives by giving students real-life
application and higher level understanding. In an IB context, students connect statements of inquiry to key
concepts and overarching themes.
Find out more about:

Listen to Dr. Lynn Erickson talk about why concept-based learning matters

Read the text and listen to Dr. Liz Taylor from Cambridge Assessment International
Education talk about concepts
Part 2: Connecting Concept-based
Theory with Practice
Overview

Part 2: Connecting Concept-based Theory with Practice

In the previous section, you will have:

1. Reflected on the extent to which your current practice is concept-based

2. Explored the notion of ‘concept’
3. Focused on a concept-based model by Erickson and Lanning

By the end of the second part of this section you will be able to answer the following guiding
questions:

1. Why concept-based learning?

2. How can teacher beliefs impact student learning experiences?

3. Which teaching approaches can support concept-based learning?

Why concept-based learning?

Global Citizenship
There are four major ways to develop global citizenship within international schools. Through:

1. curriculum design which embraces themes of awareness, empathy and a more holistic educational
approach;

2. the use of technology that fosters connections between classrooms and destinations around the world;

3. social action projects that use service-based learning to create a deeper understanding of global
issues;
4. extra-curricular projects that offer a variety of tools to promote global citizenship. (Carter, 2015)

Concept-based learning is a powerful vehicle for all four routes as we develop young people to be global
citizens. After all, what is the purpose of education if it is not for the greater good where we can nurture the
development of evidence-minded and open-minded young people who act with social responsibility,
celebrate diversity and promote inclusivity?

There are many reasons why a concept-based model can be beneficial to young people.

Carla Marschall, once again summarizes in brief the advantages of concept-based learning in this short
video:
 Advantages of a concept-based curriculum

Conceptual Understanding and Transfer

Learning needs to be meaningful and concept-based learning provides opportunities for personal meaning-
making. A concept-based model supports young people to own their learning, to be able to inquire, look for
patterns, make connections, use deep transferable understandings to solve problems and create new ideas,
processes or products.

Thinking Cultures - Creative, Critical and Reflective Thinking

Learning is a consequence of thinking, therefore, it is essential that we focus on thinking skills as much as
content, as advocated by Ron Ritchart, Senior Research Associate at Harvard University. Concept-based
learning helps students to develop the ability to think creatively, critically and reflectively - to think beyond
the facts and think conceptually.

Developing Intellect and Dispositions

Ron Ritchhart stresses the need for schools to focus on intellectual dispositions. He frames these under
three main areas of thinking:

Creative thinking (open minded, curious) – construction of meaning, solutions of problems, cultural
expressions

Critical thinking (seeking truth, understanding, strategic, skeptical) – asking questions, making
connections, evolving explanations, different perspectives, looking closely
Reflective thinking (metacognition) – ongoing reflections for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance,
depth, breadth, logic, significance, fairness

Ritchhart states these are essential for students to reach conceptual levels of thinking.

Student Achievement and Learning Outcomes

Concept-based learning develops conceptual structures in the brain to relate new knowledge to prior
knowledge, and to enable connections in knowledge. Concept-based learning can improve student
cognition of aims and assessment objectives in application and higher level understanding to support
mastery, performance and achievement.

Future Society and the Global Good

Conceptual Understanding and Learning Transfer

Consider which of the benefits above resonate with you and why nudging forward your concept-
based practice could add value to the learning experiences in your classroom.
How can teacher beliefs impact student learning
experiences?

Teacher Beliefs and Expectations

Let’s consider the work of Ron Ritchhart a little further, and take a moment to pause on our beliefs about
teaching and learning. Ritchhart’s work highlights that our beliefs are embedded in our classroom practice
with internal and external factors at play to impact classroom practice and student learning outcomes

Internal factors can include research-based principles, our own past experiences, experience of what works
best, established practice and personality factors. Ritchhart states that if we are to make any shifts in our
pedagogy there needs to be alignment in the desired shift in pedagogy and a teacher’s underlying beliefs
and attitudes.

Five Key Beliefs

The illustration below from Project Zero identifies five key beliefs that can shape our practice and
expectations around student learning.
Ritchhart (2015) asks us to consider the questions below to help us to consider our own beliefs in relation to
establishing a culture of thinking which is at the heart of concept-based learning.

Reflect - Act

Before going any further pause to consider the extent to which you currently:

communicate to students that your classroom is a place which thinking is valued?

establish a set of expectations for learning and thinking with your students in a similar way
that you establish behavioral expectations?

stress that thinking and learning are the outcomes of a class activity as opposed to
'completion of work'?
develop understanding as the goal of classroom activity and lessons versus knowledge
acquisition?
actively cultivate student independence so that students are not dependent on the teacher to
answer all questions and direct all activity?
Which teaching approaches can support
concept-based learning?

An Inductive Teaching Approach

In your classroom everyday, your expertise as a teacher will determine which teaching approach you
choose to use, when you use it and what strategies you use to scaffold learning to support students to make
connections.You will be making intentional choices to curate and choreograph learning to meet your student
needs.

Different teaching approaches can support the development of a concept-based learning experience.
However, it is an inductive approach that lends itself to students actively constructing meaning for
themselves. In this approach, students first look at examples, then search for patterns through active inquiry,
and then search for connections and relationships to build understandings. This is opposite to a deductive
approach where students are told what to understand and then find examples to support the understanding,
followed by the opportunity to validate.

The Role of Inquiry

An inquiry-based approach supports inductive teaching practice, and can be structured, guided or open, and
is advocated by French and Marschall as ‘it enables students to take an active role in posing and answering
questions in order to construct meaning’ (2018).

Teachers can develop whole units of inquiry or use strategies that can support moments for inquiry where
students think and pose questions. Teachers can embed mini-lessons of direct instruction to support
learning outcomes as needed.
Consider the diagram below. You can see different inquiry approaches on a continuum with teacher
direction, student choice and student agency varying along the continuum.

You will notice how the role of the teacher flexibly adjusts depending on the teaching approach.

In a direct instruction approach, the teacher takes the more traditional role, perhaps telling information,
lecturing or giving demonstrations.
In a structured inquiry and guided inquiry approach learning is through a process of co-construction of
content and structure for inquiry is provided by the teacher as a conductor or facilitator of learning.
In an open inquiry, students create their own questions, with scaffolds for thinking and learning provided
by the teacher as an essential part of learning. In this approach the teacher acts as more of a mentor.
It is important to note as research informed practitioners, that we are advised to leave aside discovery as
this approach has been widely criticized as leading to errors and misconceptions.
Using the image above, consider how you might organize access to case studies to support student learning
through an inductive approach. You will notice how the different inquiry approaches, structured, guided and
open, sit below and correspond to how you can organize the case studies to support student learning.

Find out more about:

Concept-based inquiry model by Carla Marschall and Rachel French

Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elda and their work on critical thinking
Part 3: Practice - Planning for
Conceptual Understandings
Overview

Part 3: Planning for your Concept-based Classroom

In the previous section, you will have:

1. Reflected on why concept-based learning matters

2. Explored teacher beliefs and their impact on student learning experiences

3. Considered which teaching approaches can support concept-based learning

By the end of the third part of this guide you will be able to answer the following guiding questions:

1. How can you choose what concepts are right for your teaching?
2. How can you plan to support conceptual understanding?

3. How can you support your students to create strong understandings?

How can you choose what concepts are right for
your teaching?

Honour the Curriculum

The concepts a teacher needs to use in order to honour the curriculum, can largely be found in the academic
standards at each grade level subject. The concepts you choose to utilize will heavily depend on your
professional choices, and be influenced by content, the age, experiences, and diversity among the students,
and your personal goals and values for teaching. What is most important is that you, the teacher, are
invested in helping your students explore the concepts that you choose.

Curate through Concept Choice

You have options in the kinds of concepts you choose to use with your students. For example, you can
choose broad, universal concepts (macro-concepts) that transcend subject areas. These universal concepts
often have complex social implications that can lead to critical and reflective thinking among your students.
You might also choose content-specific concepts that honour the curriculum and provide depth to the
learning (micro-concepts). These can be a great place to start, especially if you feel this approach to
instruction might take some getting used to.

You might also consider choosing a set of learning or thinking skills that you want your students to master by
the time they leave your class, like ‘persistence’ or ‘intercultural awareness.’

Whatever types of concepts you choose to integrate into instruction, consider ways that you can make them
visible in your class’s physical space as well as in the learning activities you plan.
How can you plan to support conceptual
understanding?

Tailor your Planning Approach

Planning helps us as teachers to make sense of our curriculum, and make deliberate choices to prioritize
what we want our students to learn. While you will have your own approach to planning, you can consider
how you might incorporate elements of Erickson and Lanning’s concept-based approach into your current
planning.

A 10 Step Approach
A thinking classroom requires a thinking teacher, and a typical 10-step unit design process (Erickson,
Lanning & French, 2017), can help you bring concept-based learning into your practice. Take a look at the
steps below for an overview.
1. Create your Title: Make the unit title a question. As opposed to traditional unit titles, questions help to
ignite curiosity.

2. Select your Conceptual Lens: Define the key concept which guides you in the direction you want to
take the unit. Contextualized competencies for learning and relevant real word issues focus relevance.

3. Identify Driving Concepts using a Unit Web: Use a web planner to make sense of a unit, to help you
identify the main lines of inquiry and driving concepts. Erickson’s Web Planner is one of many planning
tools your team can choose to use.

4. Standards and Content: Honour the curriculum by cross-checking standards and critical content.
Check the learning is age-appropriate and ensures sufficient relevance and challenge.
5. Create Generalizations (Sometimes referred to as Essential, Conceptual or Universal
Understandings): Connect two or more of the identified concepts together to make understandings.
Erickson and Lanning suggest avoiding the use of weak verbs (influence, impacts, affects, can, is, are,
have), while French and Marschall suggest writing five to nine statements in total for a unit.
6. Guiding or Essential Questions: Plan a mix of factual and conceptual essential questions to guide
students in unpacking the essential understandings. French and Marschall advise three to five of each
question type, with a couple more questions for a unit which provoke debate.
 7. Double Check Content and Skills: Ensure you identify what you want students to know and be able to
do. Plan to use strategies and resources which support development of transferable skills for future
contexts.This could be done in step 4.
8. Assessment: Use rubrics to support student assessment. Performance, product creation and student-
initiated action are all strategies that enable students to demonstrate how they apply understanding,
knowledge and skills to new situations. In this transfer students stress-test understandings, reflect and
deepen understanding.
9. Design Learning Experiences Embedded with Reflection: Design scaffolded experiences through a
meaningful and authentic inquiry process. Reflection journals scaffold and frame student thinking.
10. Write a Unit Overview for Students: Write a brief unit overview that you will share with your students
prior to the start of the unit. This ignites student curiosity.

Reflect - Act

Set aside an hour.

Select one of your current units that you might want to develop - perhaps one that is just in
need of an update or refresh.

Work through the slides below that take you from Step 1 - 6. Brainstorm using the webbing
tool that is introduced with example and template.

Planning Template

As you move on from the webbing tool, consider incorporating any adjustment in your planning into your
current planning template. Or you might find it helpful to consider using the planning template provided to
support your planning approach.

Our journey as curriculum writers will all be different, and we will approach curriculum unit design and
development from different perspectives. It is a journey that we continue to be on as teachers. That is what
makes us artists, designers, curators and choreographers of learning. We need to acknowledge it takes time
and thinking. It is helpful to consider where you are in your beliefs, understandings and perspectives.
You can start small, incorporate into your planning or practice any elements of this concept-based course
that make sense to you where your professional expertise identifies it fits best. With active practice, peer
collaboration, coaching and feedback, supportive materials, and reference to key reads, you can continue to
travel on our journey adjusting your practice to suit the needs of your students.
How can you support your students to build
strong conceptual understandings?

Learning how to create strong understandings and good questions to provoke thinking are essential
components to achieving a concept-based classroom.

Strong Conceptual Understandings

Teachers construct understandings in planning, but in an inductive approach we do not share or unpack
them with students. We allow them to construct and articulate them on their own. By looking at content
through case study examples, connecting two or more concepts in a relationship, students can construct
their own conceptual understandings. Watch this video below as Dr. Conrad Hughes, author of
Understanding Prejudice and Education (2017) explains how to create a strong understandings:

UNIVERSAL UNDERSTANDINGS for teachers

Consider this example below from Marschall and French. The concepts of waste and pollution are weakly
connected using the verb impacts:

Waste impacts pollution levels.

If we consider asking the question ‘why?’ or ‘how?’’ we can turn this weaker statement of understanding into
a stronger statement where the relationships between the concepts are more meaningfully connected:
 Reducing waste lowers pollution levels.

Building responsibility cultivates us to produce less waste.

Crafting strong understandings is helped if you follow some of the recommended tips in the diagram below.
These can support you and your students to construct strong transferable understandings.

Tips to support writing strong transferable understandings

As students build stronger and deeper conceptual understandings, you might also consider recording and
celebrating the development of their thinking.
Guiding Questions

A Culture of Questioning

Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana, authors of Make Just One Change (2011), argue that formulating one’s
own question is the single most essential skill for learning and one that should be taught to all students.

In fact, the ability to produce questions, improve questions and prioritize questions may be one of the most
important - yet too often overlooked - skills that a student can acquire in their formal education. Strong critical
thinking is often grounded in the questions we ask. By deliberately teaching questioning skills, we will be
facilitating a process that will help students develop a mental muscle necessary for deeper learning,
creativity and innovation, analysis, and problem solving.

Concept-based learning is about getting your students to reach a higher level of thinking and creating a
culture of questioning is one of the keys. What you would want to see in a concept-based classroom, is a
teacher who has a tool kit of potential questions which are of different types (factual, conceptual and
debatable) used to intentionally bridge the factual to conceptual levels of thinking.
As students move through different levels of learning, they are also achieving higher levels of knowledge. It
is in your level of questioning that embodies the journey of students as you help them move their thinking
forward from factual knowledge to conceptual understanding.

The integration of factual and conceptual should be a design goal for instruction, reflected in the guiding
questions that you create and use in practice.

Connecting Questions with Understandings

Take a look at the concept-based planning slides. You will see through the examples on slide 9 how you as
a teacher can strategically plan factual, conceptual and guiding questions to correspond to the conceptual
understandings that you want your students to reach.
Find out more about:

Concept-based teaching and learning in connection to the seminal work of Barak

Rosenshine summarized in American Educator and reordered by Oliver Caviglioli and
Tom Sherrington
How to create questions related to thinking levels
Part 4: Practice - Strategies and
Tools for your Concept-based
Classroom
Overview

Part 4: Practice - Strategies and tools for your Concept-based Classroom

In the previous section, you will have:

1. Reflected on how you might select concepts in your teaching

2. Explored how to begin to strategically plan for concept-based teaching and learning

3. Considered how you can support your students to create strong understandings

By the end of this fourth section you will be able to answer the following guiding questions:

1. What strategies can you use in practice to support concept-based learning?

2. How can technology add value to your concept-based classroom?

3. How can you design meaningful experiences and assessments?

What strategies can you use in practice to
support concept-based learning?

A Concept-based Learning Sequence

A typical concept-based curriculum unit journey can have a predictable pattern, within a lesson or in a unit,
and can include some of the following stages: engaging, focusing, investigating, organizing, generalizing,
transferring and reflecting (Marschall and French, 2018).

Take a look at the fourteen strategies below, and choose one that you might want to try to incorporate into
your current practice to scaffold student learning. In this section, you can focus on the sequential use of
these strategies to support your students build conceptual understanding to increasingly complex levels.

Use strategies to support students move from initial levels of conceptual thinking, to more complex thinking
levels where they can discover patterns and make connections between concepts in order to build strong
conceptual understandings.

Concept Formation

This is a great place to start to support initial levels of conceptual thinking - they are the precursor for more
complex conceptual thinking. They can bring clarity and focus to the driving concepts and frame the
learning.

#1 Use the Frayer Model, a four part sectioned graphic organizer, as a scaffold to support students
unpack driving concepts

Ask students to complete each section, outlining the concept definition and concept attributes
Invite students to sort examples and non-examples of a concept, providing less sophisticated examples
to sort first
Students add their own examples and non-examples to connect to their prior knowledge
You can use this organizer in individual workbooks, tape it out on the floor for a kinesthetic group
approach, or create a wall display version of the model
 Concept Organisation

Organization strategies build on formation strategies, useful to support students to organize their
thinking, find patterns and make connections between concepts.

#2 Try Visual Note-Taking where students connect key words along with images, colours and icons
to support students explaining their thinking

Select keywords

Visual cues can replace longer text

Integrate other graphic organizers such as graphs and charts - simple grids can also provide a
supportive organising framework to provide further scaffolding structure on which students can make
their virtual notes
Use font size and colour to enhance importance or significance

Use arrows to link ideas and make connections

Encourage the use of English alongside mother tongue language to support translanguaging

Conceptual Understandings
As you move your students towards higher thinking levels, you can use strategies to support
students articulate their understandings and connect concepts in strong relationships.

#3 Build a Concept Bank

Co-construct a list of concepts with students throughout the unit, which includes the conceptual lens,
driving concept and other concepts drawn through case studies​

Review concepts to ensure students know the meaning of all the concepts, by giving appropriate
examples and non-examples
Ask students to make statements of understanding using the concept bank by choosing two or more
concepts and state a relationship between them​

#4 Use Sentence Frames for one of the simplest and quickest ways to scaffold student thinking​

Pair this strategy with concept banks above to support students who are new to making conceptual
understandings

Provide any part of the generalizing statement which draws on part of an idea
Students need to draw on their prior learning and are still required to investigate facts to complete the
generalization​
 Try Flipgrid for students to order, articulate and share ideas

Conceptual Transfer

Transfer is the purpose of the concept-based classroom. These strategies can support students to
apply their learning and deepen understanding as they validate and justify, and consider the
extent of transfer.

#5 On the Line provides a safe environment for students to develop their thinking

Students consider teacher created weak and strong generalization statements on a continuum line
Students then agree or disagree and explain with evidence the reasons for their opinion

Use think time and give opportunity for students to discuss ideas before asking students to commit to a
response which can be written and added on the line
How can technology add value to your concept-
based classroom?

Technology and Student-Centered Learning

As you tailor your curriculum and instruction design to meet your student needs, technology can add value
to concept-based learning in many ways - and the good news is you don’t have to be tech-savvy to
incorporate some technology into your practice.

Not only can technology increase motivation and engagement when selected resources, platforms or tools
are used appropriately, technology can also help students to better understand a concept.

Take a look at the slide, and put aside some time to explore the links that are new to you.
Consider using one new piece of technology for engagement, to support content or just try out a
new strategy or strategy. You will find suggestions in the examples that follow.

Technology and an Inductive Approach

Technology can help you provide case study access to students to support them make contextualized
connections within their inquiries. Consider how you might integrate one of the suggested technology
resources to support content through one of the inquiry approaches below.

#6 A Concentric Case Study can be embedded in structured inquiry requiring teachers to select
factual examples or case studies for whole class exploration.
 Select a broad range of examples and investigate as a whole class to ensure maximum alignment with
concepts and understandings

Make explicit connections and scaffold conceptual understanding in class discussions

As all students inquire into the same case studies, plan shared experiences such as field trips or
experiments

Try Newsela or Gapminder to support case study exploration

#7 A Networked Case Study can be embedded in guided or open inquiry and allows students to
explore factual examples as individuals, in pairs or small groups.

Assign case studies or factual examples differentiating content by readiness or interest of students
Students explore a range of different case studies as individuals, in pairs or in small groups

Provide opportunities for students to represent and share findings, make connections and deepen
understandings

Try google expeditions or 100 Mentors to support case study exploration

How can you design meaningful experiences and
assessments?

Meaningful Experiences

Research shows that when the brain is engaged more, by making a task relevant and interesting,
people learn more when curiosity is stimulated and that there is increased activity in the
hippocampus, the region of the brain associated with memory.

Children who may be struggling to learn and become frustrated, stimulating curiosity before
learning in an educational setting can enhance incidental learning and also increase the
motivation to learn. Amy Reichelt, cited by Saville 2.10.14.

We, as teachers know, that orchestrating meaningful experiences for your students is essential to keeping
them engaged and curious. It is curiosity that puts the brain in a state that is ready to learn.

So let’s take a look at some strategies to support engagement and ignite curiosity in practice.
#8 Simulations

Age-appropriate simulations give students the chance to think beyond their own lives and connect to
content

Prepare students by discussing the possibility of strong emotional responses

Highlight the intended concepts by pausing during the simulation to record student thinking using a
planned conceptual question

Provide opportunities for reflection on current thinking using talk, writing or drawing to consider
intellectual and emotional learning experiences

Try breakyourownnews or VR Field Trips

#9 Dual language Mind Mapping

Dual language mind maps give students choice and builds confidence
Icons and non-linguistic images can support students explain their thinking

Give choice to students in what to express in English and what to represent in mother Tongue
Invite students to use images, colours and words on branches

Try Imindmap.com or lucid charts

Meaningful Assessments
Assessment sits at the heart of teaching and learning. It is what you do day by day, minute by minute to
understand if your students are learning. To assess for knowledge, skills and conceptual understanding, and
how near or far students can transfer their understanding, you will want to consider varied assessment
types, assessments of process and product and student self assessments.

The illustration and suggestions below can provide you with some assessment types to consider as you
look to vary assessments within your concept-based practice.
Justify and Validate
Students look at new case studies and justify the validity of their understandings.

#10 Stress Test

Invite students to discuss and transfer their understanding to new case studies
Promote discussion to challenge and build thinking and build
Introduce a new case study or factual example to develop or challenge thinking

Apply and Act: Based on identified needs, students take action to show understanding

#11 Student-led Action enables students to be a change agent.

Actively listen for student voice to help them find opportunities to take their learning beyond the
classroom

Ask students questions to help them clarify their thinking and select the most purposeful course of action
Take a step back and let students take the lead stepping forward only when help is needed.

Apply and Create: Students create and/or perform to show understanding.

#12 Performance Assessments enable students to show deep understanding by creating a product
or performance.

Develop evaluation rubrics or scoring guides which include criteria that assess students ability to
explain thinking and justify choices

Create an authentic performance task that supports concept-based assessment by using the language
of the generalizations in order to align to conceptual learning

Allow students to refer back to case studies and established understandings while engaging in the task

Take a look at the examples for how you might consider designing assessments to assess
for transfer of understandings, knowledge and skills supported by a scoring guide

Reflection
Reflection is important in any assessment task as it enables students to consider their own learning
progress. It provides the opportunity to slow down and think, along with building a student’s sense of agency
around their learning process.

Use strategies to optimize reflection and metacognitive thinking skill development through a unit.

#13 Learning blogs support collective student thinking

Invite students to explain their thinking in mother tongue for deeper reflections
Use blogs, or screencast apps, where students can speak to images, or their own diagrams or drawings,
or write main points in their mother tongue
Purposefully create regular time for peer discussion to promote reflective thinking

Try explaineverything

#14 Learning Journals can support individual metacognitive thinking

 Ensure regular use of learning journals or learning journal platforms, and embed within routines

Embed the use of journals during direct instruction mini-lessons to deepen the learning process

Invite mother tongue language reflections when using journals

Students use reflective drawing, writing or screen casting to evaluate their learning

Try seesaw

So whenever it’s possible, consider using an inductive approach in your teaching to avoid that you do the
thinking for your students - strategically select strategies to scaffold and personalize learning. Step by step
you can provide opportunities for your students’ thinking to be challenged, perspectives to be broadened
and understandings to be deepened.

Reflect - Act
As you come to the end of this guide, let’s think back to the main objectives. We aimed to enable you
to:

Build understanding of concept-based teaching and learning - the why, how and what?
Consider teaching approaches that can support conceptual thinking
Acquire strategies and tools for planning and instruction to support conceptual thinking

Expand your tool kit for designing meaningful learning experiences and assessments
Leave this course with practical take-aways to try out in your own classroom

I hope this guide has provided you with an alternative perspective, a new strategy or tool that you can add to
your teacher tool kit, or maybe it has raised some questions in your mind that you want to explore further.

Once again, take a look at your reflection rubric:

1. Read, reflect and adjust highlights across the continuum
2. Celebrate the areas you have strengthened
3. Identify which areas you might consider to develop further
Find out more about:
Graphic Organizers

Dr. Ron Ritchart and some of the thinking strategies from Harvard Project Zero
Final Note
Author Reflection

Author Reflection
Quality concept-based learning results from collaborative professionals learning together and thoughtfully
curating meaningful experiences to meet the needs of their students. Designing and developing lessons and
units for conceptual learning is a journey - as reflective educators we are always nudging our practice
forward, making shifts and adapting our practice.

As you consider making adaptations to your practice for a more concept-based approach, remember
synergy and higher level thinking: synergy between different aspects of curriculum and a constant drive to
help students see the bigger picture, make connections and inferences, problem solve, and self-reflect in
order to think conceptually and apply their learning at a high level.

I am honoured to be part of your journey. Thank you and keep believing that you can make a difference!

I leave you with a quote from Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind Why Right-Brainers will Rule the Future (2006):

The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind – creators
and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people – artists, inventors,
designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers – will now reap society’s richest
rewards and share its greatest joy.

Congratulations!
Congratulations - You have completed this concept-based learning experience.

What’s Next?
As you go forward you can:

Continue to have access to these resources to support the development of your concept-based practice
Dip into some of the recommended quick reads or dig deeper with some bigger reads referenced below
Create a school based professional learning community and do a concept-based book study

Build your professional learning network via your favourite social media platform and share your
practice

Reach out to me via our MiniPD coaching platform where you can find my availability and connect for a 1-1
conversation. You can also contact me via Twitter @SarahPlews3 or LinkedIn.
Further Reading

It is the work of H. Lynn Erickson and L. Lanning on Concept-based Curriculum and Instruction, and more
recently, the work of R. French and C. Marschall on Concept-based Inquiry that has largely informed this
guide.

Recommended Read
French, R., and Marschall, C., (2018) Concept-Based Inquiry in Action: Strategies to Promote
Transferable Understanding. Corwin Press

Other Favourite Reads

Erikson, L. (2002). Concept-based Curriculum and Instruction: Teaching Beyond the Facts. Corwin Press.

Erikson, L. (2008). Stirring the head, Heart and soul. Redefining Curriculum and instruction. Corwin Press.

Erickson, L., Lanning, L., & French., (2017) Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking
Classroom, Corwin Press, London.

Hughes, C., (2017) Understanding Prejudice and Education, The Challenge for Future Generations

Kagan, 6., (1994) Cooperative Learning. Resources for Teachers, Inc.

Good Quick Reads

Carter (2015) http://globaleducationmagazine.com/instilling-global-citizenship-international-school-network
20175-4698 www.mdpi.com/journal/studies

Lanning., L., What you need to know about the structure of process, accessed 3.12.2021
Saville, E., Curiosity changes the brain to boost memory and learning, The Conversation, 2.10.2014
http://theconversation.com/curiosity-changes-the-brain-to-boost-memory-and-learning-32296 accessed
3.13.2021

Fell, A., Davis, U. C., (2014) Curiosity Helps Learning and Memory, 2.10.104
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/curiosity-helps-learning-and-memory accessed 3.13.2021
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