Texas Social Studies Framework - Department of Geography ...

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Figure 22: Teaching Students a Concept
Concept: Refugee (World Geography TEKS 6, 14, 18, 21)
1) Identify a set of examples and non-examples illustrating the concept and place them in a logical order. Include
at least one example that serves as a model.
Concept Definition: Victims of political violence who seek refuge outside their country.
_ Model: Large numbers of Vietnamese fled Vietnam following the fall of Saigon, 1975.
_ Other examples: Palestinian refugees fled Israel in 1948-1949. In 1995, Hutus and Tutsis fled Rwanda for
the Congo to escape ethnic strife after their president was thought to have been assassinated by members of
the opposing ethnic group. Guatemalans fled to Mexico and the United States to escape political oppression
in their own nation.
_ Non-examples: Criminals who escape their punishment by fleeing to another country; individuals unhappy
with their government who travel abroad; individuals seeking economic gain who move to other countries.
2) Develop materials or oral instructions with a set of cues, directions, questions, and student activities that draw
attention to the critical attributes, similarities, and differences in the examples and non-examples used to define the
concept.
3) Focus student attention on the model. What are its attributes and characteristics?
_ Critical attributes: victim, political violence, seeking refuge and safety, in another country.
_ Noncritical attributes: Country of origin, age, gender, educational level, socioeconomic status, race,
religion.
4) Ask students to compare all the examples with the model; provide feedback to students on their comparisons.
5) Ask students to develop a definition of the concept or state it for them.
6) Place the concept in relation to other student knowledge; try to attach this information to existing student
knowledge structures (schema).
7) Give students examples and non-examples to assess whether students understand the concept. Ask students to
generate additional examples or apply the concept to new situations.
The deductive approach is opposite. Students are
presented with a theory, hypothesis, or generalization and
are asked to find evidence to support or refute it. The key
concept components of the generalization are clarified
and the teacher provides materials, instructions, and
assistance for the students to verify the generalization.
Direct Instruction
Teachers today recognize the difference between telling
and teaching. We know students learn most effectively
through personal effort and engagement in activities, not
because we have told them something. While direct
instruction and lectures are not all good, they are not all
bad either. At times it is efficient and wise to provide
information directly to students, for example, to present
baseline information, to explain a new skill, to model a
thinking process, or to provide clear guidance and
Chapter 5: The Teaching-Learning System: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
information to students before they proceed to grapple
with learning on their own. The typical direct instruction
teaching strategy includes six steps: 1) daily review;
2) presentation of new material; 3) guided practice;
4) feedback; 5) independent practice; 6) periodic
reviews.
Collaborative Processes
Collaboration means working together. Research shows
that collaborative work supports greater retention of
subject matter, improves attitudes toward learning, and
teaches students how to get along with each other. Some
useful strategies include collaborative learning techniques
(see Figure 23): peer, cross-age, and cross-ability
tutoring; and reciprocal teaching involving summarizing,
generating questions, clarifying, and predicting (Morton,
1996).