The document discusses the Concept Attainment Model (CAM) instructional strategy. It was developed by Jerome Bruner and focuses on concept formation through inductive reasoning. With CAM, students are presented with examples and non-examples of a concept and must determine the underlying attributes. They form hypotheses, test them against the data, and refine their understanding until they can define the concept. CAM promotes active, inquiry-based learning and helps students examine concepts from multiple perspectives.

1. Concept Attainment model (CAM)
COURSE A4(b)
Module 3.3 (Strategies for Learning and Teaching Mathematics)
B Ed Special Education – Hearing Impairment/
B Ed Special Education-- Learning Disability
University of Mumbai
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor
CCYM’S Hashu Advani College of Special Education
https://www.hashuadvanismarak.org/hacse/introduction.html
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 1

2. More About CAM-Strategy
• Linda Neff at Northern Arizona University adds that Concept Attainment is a “close
relative to inductive thinking (Joyce and Weil 1967:15), (and) focuses on the decision-
making and categorization processes leading up to the creation and understanding of a
concept.”
• Neff also explains that there are several advantages to this approach, including learning
“how to examine a concept from a number of perspectives, learning how to sort out
relevant information”, the benefit of seeing multiple examples of ideas, and maybe most
importantly, moving beyond mere concept–definition association.
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 2

3. • In the concept attainment process, new ideas are introduced–and defined by
students–inductively through the “act(s) of categorization” (Bruner, Goodnow,
and Austin 1956:244).
• Students see attributes, examples and non-examples, form theories, and
then test those theories against the data given until they are able to able to
name the idea.
• The Concept Attainment process requires learners to focus on attributes,
categories, and relationships rather than simply mirroring an idea with a
definition.
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 3

4. Concept Attainment model (CAM)
Instructional strategy
Founded on works of Jerome Bruner.
Built on principle of concept formation
Bruner developed a new way of introducing learners to new
concepts called Concept Attainment. It can be thought of as
game of ‘find the rule.’
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 4

5. Concept Attainment -- ‘backward conceptualizing’ approach --to making sense
of new ideas.
Teaching strategy characterized (in terms of thinking patterns of the learner)
by “a pattern of decisions in the acquisition, retention, and utilization of
information that serves to meet certain objectives” (Bruner et al 1956).
• Louvet in 1988 developed three strategies using the CAM Model oncept
Attainment Model:
• Reception
• Selection and
• Organized material strategies.
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 5

6. COMPONENTS OF CAM
• 1. Syntax
• phase one –- Presenting data to learner (presented in pairs) & identification
of concept
• phase two -- Testing the attainment of concept
---correctly identifying additional unlabeled examples
---generating own examples.
• phase three, ---Analysis of thinking strategies –analyze the strategies by
which they attain concepts/ describe thoughts.
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 6

7. • 2. Social System – (Pre-Implementation)----Teacher choose concept, selects and
organizes, sequences positive and negative examples.
• 3. Principle of Reaction—(Implementation)-----Teacher needs to be supportive of
students guesses. Later , teacher shows support while taking students attention
towards analysis of their concepts and their thinking strategies.
• 4. Support System --- List of positive and negative examples --known beforehand
• 5. Instructional & Nurturant Effects –
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 7

8. • Instructional effects ----direct effect of an instruction on
students' cognitive, affective and psychomotor domain.
• Nurturant effects ----indirect effect other than the teacher
intends to achieve through the model.
• With abstract concepts, the strategies nurture an awareness
of alternative perspectives, a sensitivity to logical reasoning in
communication and a tolerance of ambiguity.
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 8

9. The instructional and nurturant effects of Concept Attainment Model
are depicted in the following figure.
Nature of
Concept Improved
Concept
Building
Strategies
Self
Concept
Inductive
Reasoning
Instructional
& Nurturant
Effects Awareness of
Alternative
perspectives
Tolerance
of
Ambiguity
Sensitivity to
logical reasoning in
communication
Instructional Effects ________
Nurturant Effects ------------
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 9

10. promotes student learning through -----a process of structured inquiry.
helps pupils understand and learn concepts -----by identifying
attributes/ key features through a process of analysis, comparison, and
contrasting of examples.
Two sets of examples are used in this strategy –
Yes/POSITIVE (examples that have attributes of the concept) and
No/NEGATIVE(examples that do not have attributes of the concept)
examples.
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 10

11. Basic Steps
• 1. Selecting , define a concept
• 2. Developing positive and negative examples
• 3. Introducing the process to the students
• 4. Presenting the examples
• 5. Listing the attributes
• 6. Developing a concept / definition
• 7. Giving additional examples
• 8. Discuss the process with the pupils
• 9. Evaluate
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 11

12. Teacher Activity / Planning -- CAM Strategy
•Choose the concept to developed. ( concept with well-defined
attributes.
•Prepare “yes/positive” and “no/negative” examples.
•Some of the yes/positive examples should have a high attribute
value (meaning it should be a clear representative of the
concept)
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 12

13. Implementation---- CAM Strategy
Introduce strategy- what you will be doing –what students have to do
Teacher can start by saying pupils—I have one concept in my
mind………..but I want you to identify the concept. I will throw/write/show
some examples .You have to identify the concept.
Teacher has to make two columns on the board , title them as
“Yes/Positive” and “No/Negative.”
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 13

14. •Present each example and write them in the appropriate column. One in
‘Yes/Positive’ and one in ‘No/Negative’.
In other Words ,teacher should Present the first example by saying,
“This is a YES.” Place / Write--- it under the appropriate column. i.e.
______________is a YES
•Present the example and say, “This is a NO.” Place/Write it under the
NO column. i.e._______ is a NO
•Teacher will have to repeat this process until there are three/four
examples under each column—YES & NO Columns
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 14

15. Start with three/four examples in each column. You can tell students to
observe well. Ask to look at the examples under YES column and discuss how
they are alike. (Ask “What do they have in common?”
Tell pupils to observe, analyze , compare the examples shown
Make a note -----tell them to compare within the group (find similar
attributes in the “yes” group) and between the groups (find how “yes” and “no”
examples differ from each other).
Write the attributes listed by the students on the other side of the board.
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 15

16. Next step Add more two/three/four more examples to each column----Yes/No Column.
Instruct students to further more minutely look at the the attribute list, polish/
modify attribute list by further---analyzing the additional examples shown/written(
unlabeled examples )
Teacher should ask pupils whether they are able to identify the concept. Teacher
should keep saying “not to say aloud ,just let me know if you have identified concept”
Those pupils who have identified the concept can be encouraged to add /generate --
more “yes” examples to the yes column. At the same time ,teacher should encourage
other students to examine the examples given by their peers-------to identify the
concept.
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 16

17. Teachers can motivate, probe ----to help other students identify the concept.
Once identified, help students define it using the list of identified attributes.
Additional – Teacher can place/write in bold the HEADING of CONCEPT at the
top of the YES column (_____________),similarly for the NO column (Not
_________).
Last step teacher can either present pupils with examples tell them to classify as
yes and no or else teacher could tell pupils to suggest more Yes and No examples
of the concept along with explanation to it. This will help to further better fixing
up the concept in pupils mind and at the same time to test the pupils
understanding
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 17

18. YES /POSITVE (+) EXAMPLES NO /NEGATIVE (-) EXAMPLES ATTRIBUTES
Eg.1 Eg.1
Eg.2 Eg.2
Eg.3. Eg.3.
“ “ “ “
“ “ “ “
“ “ “ “
“ “ “ “
IDENTIFY THE CONCEPT USING THE ATTRIBUTES
DEFINE THE CONCEPT(CRUDE DEFINITION WITH HELP OF ATTRIBUTES- FAIR
DEFINITION- WRITE/STICK/SHOW)
YES /POSITIVE (+) EXAMPLES NO /NEGATIVE(-) EXAMPLES ATTRIBUTES
Eg.1 Eg.1
Eg.2 Eg.2
Eg.3. Eg.3.
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 18

19. Merits/Advantages
Learner Centered Strategy
Very powerful teaching-learning strategy.
Inquiry Based Approach
Suitable for all type of learners- Only careful instructions/
grouping/individual level ----accordingly care to be taken.
To introduce new concepts more useful
Comparatively More useful to teach grammar, science ,math concepts more
useful . Even social studies it will be useful depending on the concepts.
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 19

20. Learners are active participants ; it engages in formulating a
concept
More Attention , retention
Learning concepts using Maxim known to unknown
Learners get opportunity to observe, think , critically analyze ,
reason out, compare, classify and categorize information
It is a strategy which helps learners to examine and
understand a concept from multiple perspectives thus even
strengthening understanding and retrieval of the concept.
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 20

21. All THINKING ABILITIES OF LEARNERS-CHALLENGED –IN CAM
• Students catch onto the idea before others are able to resolve the
concept and then are invited to suggest their own examples, while other
students are still trying to form the concept.
• For this reason, concept attainment is well suited to classroom use
because all thinking abilities can be challenged.
• With experience, children become skilled at identifying relationships in
word cards or specimens. With carefully chosen examples, it is possible
to use concept attainment about how to teach almost any concept in all
subjects.” Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 21

22. Demerits
• 1. Time Consuming
• 2. All concepts, all subjects not applicable
• 3. More load on teachers
• 4. Examples – limitations may arise either at starting stage/later
stage.
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 22

23. Role of Teacher/Educational Implications
• 1. Teachers need to plan out which examples will be given first, which later.
• 2.Teacher need to have list of those examples ready so that accordingly order of
examples can be decided /Shared with students.
• 3.Teacher need to think, plan whether to display examples or write them on
board/Sheets of paper/flash cards share ready made worksheet with spaces /give
task in groups depends.
• 4. Teachers can use illustrations, word cards or specimens for -- examples.
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 23

24. References:
• Joyce B. R . , Calhoun. E. , Hopkins. D. (2010). Models of Learning,
Tools for Teaching( 3rd Edition) . McGraw-Hill Open University
Press; 3rd edition
Dr.Amit Hemant Mishal,Associate Professor 24