Concept-Driven learning in a nutshell
Concepts are building block of thoughts that students need to make sense of the content they learn. Concept-driven learning develops effective ways to learning; empowering our children for a lifetime long of learning and prepares them to engage with challenges through inquiry, action and reflection. It is an iterative process of pulling apart ideas, putting them back together, then using those concepts and knowledge to reapply them to different real-life situations, and help learners understand the reasoning behind why and how things work the way they do.
There is a difference between memorising facts and understanding concepts, and it is the latter that proves to be the more efficient way of learning. For example, what good is it for your child to be able recite the twenty-six alphabet but yet never learn to read or form words? Or are they truly learning mathematics if they are unable to draw conclusions for numbers in real-world situations?
By achieving conceptual understanding, we ensure that they can take the facts and skills they learn, and do something with them beyond this lesson and this classroom.
Knowledge-Driven Learning– What is less effective of this method?
Many traditional classrooms still practice knowledge-driven learning. With this approach, students memorise facts such as science theories and mathematical rules to enable them to score passing grades on exams. As long as they score well, teachers and also parents, assume that these students have mastered the concept. However, remembering a fact is very different from learning a concept. It is important that we ensure students not only memorise facts and mathematical rules, but also understand the concepts behind these rules and know how to apply them in the real world successfully.
Benefits of Concept-Driven Learning
Concept-driven learning has many benefits, but here are some to name:
Ways to drive Concept-Driven learning
Next time your child is learning a subject or preparing for their exams, help them understand the concepts behind the subjects rather than having them remember hard facts. This will definitely help them get excited over learning, score a better grade and also prepare them for the global world in the long-run.