THE CONCEPTUAL APPROACH

Ø  Choosing and defining the content of a certain discipline to be taught through the use of or pervasive ideas as against the traditional practice of determining content by isolated topics.

Ø   Emphasis is not on the content perse, but in the big ideas that pervade the subject; using the content as a means of leading the students to discover the laws and principles of generalization that govern a particular subject.

Ø   not a particular teaching method with specific steps to follow; it is more of view of point of how facts and topics under a discipline should be dealt with.

Ø   stresses cognitive learning; the learning of content or the acquisition of knowledge.

Ø   involve more data collection usually through research while the discovery approach actively involves students to undertake experimental and investigative work.

Roles of teacher in conceptual approach:

ü  Never tell the students the principle or rule which the students are suppose to state at the end of the lesson.

ü  Should help students gather sufficient data to enable them to form the expected generalization.

ü  Should be able to master the cognitive hierarchy of his discipline.

ü  Should categorize all knowledge pertinent to his are:

      From facts to concept

      From concept to generalizations

      From generalizations to principles

ü  And all of this should be organize around conceptual schemes which are the pervasive ideas embodying the whole.

Useful guides to remember in concept formation:

1.       Concept should be introduced in context rather than in isolation.

2.       Pupils/students should be given opportunity to arrive at their own meanings of the concept prior to guidance of the teacher to guidance of the teacher.

3.       In concept formation, the children should engage in a lot of reading, understanding, listening, and writing so that they will be exposed to various situations, leading to the discovery of the correct meaning of the concept.