This document outlines Tabba's Concept Development Model, which is a 6-step process for students to develop an understanding of macro-concepts. The document provides an example of applying the model to develop understandings of the macro-concepts of "CHANGE" and "PERSPECTIVE". For each concept, students are guided to list examples, group examples, label groups, identify non-examples, develop generalizations, and apply the generalizations to specific contexts while testing them. The goal is for students to flexibly organize information around a concept and derive universal statements about the concept from their own analysis and experiences.

1. Macro-Concept Development
Lisa M. Gault
EPPL 612
October 29, 2016
Concept Development Model​ (Tabba, 1966)
PRACTICE MACRO-CONCEPT: CHANGE
List of examples
● attitude
● seasons / weather
● time
● body
● emotions
● relationships
● school / grade
● locations
● traffic lights
● laws
● social norms
● leaders
● priorities
1. Once an adequate number of examples has been elicited, students then group items together. Focusing
questions include “Do any of these examples have anything in common? Could you put any of these
things together somehow? Such a process allows students to search for interelatedness and to organize
a mass of material. Students create relationships in flexible manners and perceive the world, using their
personal schema. The teacher acts as a facilitator and asks the students focusing questions such as
“Why do you think that these belong together?” Students are required to explain their reasoning and to
seek clarification from each other.
Abstract examples such as “attitude” and “emotions” could be grouped. Concrete examples such as
“traffic lights” and “seasons / weather” could be grouped.
2. With focusing questions such as “What could you name this group? What title would you give this
collection?” students are asked to label their groups. Labeling also forces students to establish flexible,
hierarchical concepts of relatedness: the idea that one thing or a concept could name a variety of other
things. What the students mean affects the placement of particular items. The labeling process allows
them to communicate the intent of their thinking. The labels should be fairly universal in nature. If
labels appear to be too specific, further subsuming should occur, using the focusing questions of “Do

2. any of these groups have anything in common? What could we call this new group?” Steps two and
three should be repeated. New groups should then be given new labels.
3. Students are then asked to think of non-examples of the broad concept. With focusing questions such as
“What does not fit this concept? Can you name things that are not examples of the concept?” students
are required to differentiate and distinguish between examples and non-examples. In this way an
understanding of what is contained and what is not contained within the definitional outlines of the
concept is developed.
List of non-examples
● inanimate objects
● certain physiological traits/inherited traits
● physical vs. chemical changes
● history / past
4. The students then determine a statement of generalization, using the concepts elicited from the labeling
process. Examples for change could include “Change may be positive or negative” and “Change is
linked to time.” Generalizations should be derived from student input and may not precisely reflect the
teacher’s established concepts. However, they should be fairly global in nature.
Change is linked to time.
Change may be positive or negative.
Change is inevitable.
Change may be permanent or temporary.
Humankind craves / seeks out change.
5. Although the generalizations were derived from students’ own experiences, they are then applied to
readings and tested in specific contexts. Focusing questions such as “How well does the generalization

3. hold up in this piece?” allow students to take the generalizations that they derived and evaluate how
well events in stories uphold those generalizations. If any changes are needed in the language of the
generalizations, students may go back and make changes. The teacher can use a focusing question such
as “Are changes in the generalization necessary?”
Sample context: The American Civil War (1861 - 1865)
Generalization: “Humankind craves / seeks out change.”
This generalization applies to abolitionists, anti-slavery activists and their sympathizers. However, large
groups of Americans demonstrated no desire to abolish slavery, to reform the Southern economy, or to concede
to any humanitarian efforts regarding ethnic equality. Furthermore, there were individuals seeking change, but
the change they sought was negative rather than positive. Maybe we can revise this generalization to read,
“Humans either seek out change or adopt complacency.”
6. Students are then asked to identify specific examples of the generalizations from their own readings.
“Can you name any examples of this generalization from this piece?” Critical reading skills are
reinforced as students begin to apply the generalization to books and stories. Students are asked to
apply the generalization that they have created to other situations, including those found in readings,
their own writings, history, and their own lives.
Sample text: ​The Gettysburg Address (Lincoln, 1863)
Generalization: “Change is linked to time.”
Examples of Generalizations:
● “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation…”
(para. 1)
● “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived
and so dedicated, can long endure.” (para. 2)
● “...this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom...” (para. 3)
Concept Development Model (Tabba, 1966)
UNIT MACRO-CONCEPT: PERSPECTIVE
List of examples
● religious
● political
● social
● subjective
● objective

4. ● informed
● historical
1. Once an adequate number of examples has been elicited, students then group items together. Focusing
questions include “Do any of these examples have anything in common? Could you put any of these
things together somehow? Such a process allows students to search for interelatedness and to organize
a mass of material. Students create relationships in flexible manners and perceive the world, using their
personal schema. The teacher acts as a facilitator and asks the students focusing questions such as
“Why do you think that these belong together?” Students are required to explain their reasoning and to
seek clarification from each other.
Several of the examples are interconnected, and, in some cases, are interdependent. One influences the
other when we consider the relationship between religious perspectives and political perspectives. Could we
categorize the examples in a concept map in order to show such relationships? The given examples do not lend
themselves to strict categories as they overlap more often than not.
2. With ​focusing questions such as “What could you name this group? What title would you give this
collection?” students are asked to label their groups. Labeling also forces students to establish flexible,
hierarchical concepts of relatedness: the idea that one thing or a concept could name a variety of other
things. What the students mean affects the placement of particular items. The labeling process allows
them to communicate the intent of their thinking. The labels should be fairly universal in nature. If
labels appear to be too specific, further subsuming should occur, using the focusing questions of “Do
any of these groups have anything in common? What could we call this new group?” Steps two and
three should be repeated. New groups should then be given new labels.
Changeable: political, social, religious, subjective, informed
Fixed: historical, objective
3. Students ​are then asked to think of non-examples of the broad concept. With focusing questions such as
“What does not fit this concept? Can you name things that are not examples of the concept?” students
are required to differentiate and distinguish between examples and non-examples. In this way an
understanding of what is contained and what is not contained within the definitional outlines of the
concept is developed.
List of non-examples
● solitary facts
● statements or images isolated from their contexts
● indifference
4. The ​students then determine a statement of generalization, using the concepts elicited from the labeling
process. Examples for change could include “Change may be positive or negative” and “Change is
linked to time.” Generalizations should be derived from student input and may not precisely reflect the
teacher’s established concepts. However, they should be fairly global in nature.

5. Everyone has perspective(s).
All perspectives influence one another.
Perspectives may be positive or negative.
Political perspective is most informed by the other perspectives.
Political perspective is the most impactful.
5. Although ​the generalizations were derived from students’ own experiences, they are then applied to
readings and tested in specific contexts. Focusing questions such as “How well does the generalization
hold up in this piece?” allow students to take the generalizations that they derived and evaluate how
well events in stories uphold those generalizations. If any changes are needed in the language of the
generalizations, students may go back and make changes. The teacher can use a focusing question such
as “Are changes in the generalization necessary?”
Context: Reconstruction (1865 - 1877)
Generalization: “Political perspective is most informed by the other perspectives.”
This generalization summarizes the legal outcomes of the Union Army’s victory and the abolition of
slavery. President Johnson’s allowance of Black Codes juxtaposed with General Sherman’s Special Field Order
15 suggests the influence one’s religious, social, and subjective perspectives have on his political perspective.
Southern legislators’ support of Black Codes and rejection of Special Field Order 15--along with non-political
humanitarian efforts--indicate their skewed social and religious perspectives. These men held a religious
perspective in which they were God’s “chosen ones.” They lived by the idea of Manifest Destiny even after
losing the war. These men view pre-Civil War America through a pre-lapsarian (​before the fall) lens, and view
post-Civil War America through a post-lapsarian (​after the fall) lens. They are trying to regain their invented
status as the rightful masters of commerce and society. General Sherman diverged from that perspective,
advocating for humane treatment of African Americans. His political actions evidence his cognizance of the ​de
jure and ​de facto racism in action.
6. Students ​are then asked to identify specific examples of the generalizations from their own readings.
“Can you name any examples of this generalization from this piece?” Critical reading skills are
reinforced as students begin to apply the generalization to books and stories. Students are asked to
apply the generalization that they have created to other situations, including those found in readings,
their own writings, history, and their own lives.
Texts: 1) ​U.S. Constitution 2) “Black Code Examples” See link below.​.
https://sites.google.com/a/email.cpcc.edu/black-codes-and-jim-crow/black-code-and-jim-crow-law-examples
Generalizations: “Political perspective is most informed by the other perspectives.”
“Political perspective is the most impactful.”
Examples of Generalizations:

6. ● “No negro who is not in the military service shall be allowed to carry fire-arms, or any kind of
weapons, within the parish, without the special written permission of his employers, approved
and indorsed by the nearest and most convenient chief of patrol.” (Louisiana, 1865-66) “If any
white person shall sell, lend, or give to any freedman, free negro, or mulatto any fire-arms, dirk
or bowie knife, or ammunition, or any spirituous or intoxicating liquors, such person or persons
so offending, upon conviction thereof in the county court of his or her county, shall be fined not
exceeding fifty dollars, and may be imprisoned, at the discretion of the court, not exceeding
thirty days.”
○ The Second Amendment was ratified 12/15/1791. It states, “the right of the people to
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
● “No negro shall be permitted to preach, exhort, or otherwise declaim to congregations of colored
people, without a special permission in writing from the president of the police jury.” (Louisiana,
1865-66)
○ The First Amendment was ratified 12/15/1791. It states, “​Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
● “No person of color shall migrate into and reside in this state, unless, within twenty days after his
arrival within the same, he shall enter into a bond with two freeholders as sureties” (South
Carolina, 1865-66)
○ Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution states, “The Citizens of each State
shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.”