CONCEPT

ATTAINMENT SC – Math 1
OBJECTIVES:
❖ Define concept attainment;
❖ Plan a lesson plan that applies concept
attainment strategy.
 The inductive learning in the previous lesson is
most useful in discovering rules. In mathematics,
students do not only study rules, but they also need
to remember and understand many definitions of
terms.

For better, retention it is best for students to

discover the meaning of the different mathematical
terminologies that they encounter. This instructional
strategy is useful for this purpose.
 WHAT IS THE CONCEPT ATTAINMENT
STRATEGY IN TEACHING MATH?
Concept Attainment is a teaching strategy created by Jerome Bruner
that encourages critical thinking and involves a teacher giving students
a group of pictures or words and asking them to decide what the
pictures or words have in common.
Concept attainment is another strategy anchored to the constructivist
learning theory. The concept is not directly taught to the students,
instead the students understand and learn the concepts by identifying
common attributes througth comparison and contrast of examples and
non-examples.
Concept attainment is used in understanding meanings, it is often
applied in English vocabulary lessons.
STEPS IN THE CONCEPT
ATTAINMENT STRATEGIES
Presentation of examples and non-examples
Listing of common attributes
Adding student-given examples
Defining the mathematical term
Checking of understanding
 PRESENTATION OF EXAMPLES AND
NON-EXAMPLES
Alternately give examples and non-examples.
Students should be able to guess some common attributes
based on the examples alone so non-examples are given to
confirm their guesses.
 LISTING OF COMMON ATTRIBUTES
List the common attributes given by
the students. This may be done as a
whole class or by pairs or traits first.
Some listed attributes may be later
on crossed out as the listing
examples and non-examples go on.
The term “attribute” in the context of
math means the traits or the
properties of a shape or an object.
ADDING STUDENT-GIVEN
EXAMPLES
Ask the students to provide their own
examples based on the listed attributes.
Then confirm whether their suggestion is
indeed an example based on the students
answers, some of the attributes may be
revised to makes them clear for the
students.
 DEFINING THE MATHEMATICAL TERM
Help the students come up with a word or phrase for the concept. The exact
term may not come from them, especially when it is too technical (e.g.,
polyhedron), but the etymology of the word may be derived from them
(e.g., many polygonal faces).
CHECKING OF UNDERSTANDING
To verify that the students have understood the concept, give them
a list and ask them whether each item on it is an example or a
non-example.
SUMMARY
Mathematics is considered a language with its
own set of jargons. Mathematical terms can also be
defined through discovery by applying the concept
attainment strategy. Concept attainment involves the
presentation of examples and non-examples, listing
of common attributes, adding student-given
examples, defining the mathematical term, and
checking of understanding.
MATHEMATICAL
INVESTIGATION SC – Math 1
OBJECTIVES:
❖ Define mathematical investigation;
❖ Generates investigative tasks and anticipate
possible problems that may arise from the task.
 Contemporary leaders in mathematics
education revolutionized the goal of mathematics
teaching and learning from a passive transfer of
knowledge to an active process where students
are developed to think like mathematicians.
Mathematical Investigation is a strategy that may
be implemented to achieve this.
 Mathematical investigation is an open-ended
mathematical task that involves not only problem solving,
but equally importantly, problem posing as well. In this
strategy, the word “investigation” does not refer to the
process that may occur when solving a close-ended
problem but an activity in itself that promotes
independent mathematical thinking. To illustrate, consider
the two mathematical tasks below.
Task A – Problem-solving There are 50 children at a
playground and each child high-fives with each
other of the other children. Find the total number of
high-fives.

Task B – Mathematical Investigation There are 50

children at a playground and each child high-fives
with each of the other children. Investigate.
 In Task A, there is a specific problem to solve. Some of the
students might attempt to solve it by drawing diagrams for
smaller numbers of children and then investigating the pattern
that may arise. This investigation is a process that may occur in
problem solving. On the other hand, the problem in Task B is not
specified. The students may or may not choose to find the total
number of high-fives. Some students may want to investigate a
more general case where they would want to know how many
high-fives there would be given a certain number of children.
Some want to find out how many high-fives there would be if
instead of once, the children would high-five each other twice or
thrice. Some children may even decide to work on a problem that
the teacher has not thought of. This is investigation as an activity
itself.
As illustrated, what sets mathematical investigation apart from other
strategies that have been discussed in this unit by far is that the goal
of the investigation is not specified by the teacher; the students have
the freedom to choose any goal to pursue. In problem-solving, the
students are encouraged to think outside the box; in mathematical
investigation, there is no box to start with. The students are placed in
a space where they can play around whichever way they want. This
makes mathematical investigation a divergent and learner-centered
strategy. So, like in the problem-solving strategy, it is crucial that the
teacher chooses or creates a situation that is engaging and caters
mathematical investigation. Tasks A and B show that a close-ended
word problem can easily be converted into an open-ended
investigative task by simply replacing the question with an instruction
to investigate.
 THREE MAIN PHASES OF A MATHEMATICAL
INVESTIGATION LESSON
The problem-solving
The conjecturing
phase, the students
phase involves The final phase, the
explore the given
collecting and students are to justify
situation and come up
organizing data, and explain their
with a mathematical
looking for patterns, inferences and
problem that they
inference, and generalizations.
would want to engage
generalizing.
in.
 In Always remember that although mathematical
rules or theorems may arise as results of the
mathematical investigation, they are not the objectives of
an investigative lesson- the objective is the investigation
itself; the exercise of creative thinking and problem-
solving that the students underwent as they investigated.
Mathematical investigation is not after the teaching and
learning of some competency in the curriculum; it is about
developing the mathematical habits of the mind.
SUMMARY
Mathematical investigation is an open-ended
teaching strategy that capitalizes on the student’s
ability to identify a problem. Any word problem can
be transformed into a mathematical investigation by
limiting the given information and omitting the
specific question that it is asking.