Concrete and Abstract Thinking
When I have a classroom of 28 students in Document Processing I, my students see document processing in many different stages. I emphasize that this course is really keyboarding using the touch method and using orange skins which in the end will increase their keying speed and accuracy immensily provided they follow instructions.In this class we will also learn to format business letters, reports, memos, and ruled tables. I bring concrete concepts to abstract thinking by teaching how each documnet will be used in their choosen career field. Is this what you mean by what role concrete thinkg play in the learning process?
Sonny,
This is where instructors need to be creative in their content delivery approach. By incorporating the senses into the activities the connection is being made in the brains of the students to the point that they will be storing increasing amounts of knowledge in their long term memory banks for later use.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I believe concrete thinking is using all 5 senses. Of those 5 senses, three main ones are feeling (kino), Auditory (hear), Visual (sight). If you can include all of these, any learning is really easy. The problem lies, how to incorporating them.
Brent,
I like this multi-step process because it helps your students to interact with the content from a number of different perspectives. This increases their retention and application of the content.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
For important concepts, I typically take a three-pronged approach. After assigning reading out of class, I typically have a short video clip for them to watch. I then assign them groups and give them a set of discussion questions on the material. After the inter-group discussion, I move on to intra-group discussion with a set of quided questions that require they link what they know to the new material.
Leslie,
Thank you for sharing how these two forms of thinking can be explained and developed. This way the students can gain experience in moving from one to the other and seeing how such progress is made.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Good method to use when comparing ideas about one form of Branding to another brand construct. Both are about branding, but different tactics. Students are asked to give examples of their understanding.
Cheyney,
Like the approach you are taking to helping your students to acquire the concrete aspects (technical skills) of cooking while showing them how to develop their creative skills as abstract thinkers. These are the skills sets that will help them to move forward in their careers after graduation.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I use this often when I need to communicate the importance of being able to cook versus being able to follow a recipe. Concrete thinkers follow recipes and therefore are limited in their ability to make assessments about the quality of their food. Abstract thinkers understand the basic physics and science of cooking and can easily determine when things are going wrong. So...some days we will spend sometime recoding what a recipe says, and then will attempt to cook the food without the recipe. Asking the student to make assessments based on what is actually happening, not what the recipe says 'should' happen.
Kelvin,
The more real world you can make it the better. You are do such with your method. They have in their hands, they can examine it and then start working on how to repair it. This method greatly increase the retention of knowledge and increases their skill levels.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
When I'm in my classroom i put the actual item that they need to repair in there hands an have the use there notes and manuals to complete the prosses.
Mary Jane,
In answering your question, yes. You are moving your students from the foundational aspects (keyboarding-concrete) to application in diverse settings (abstract). This way they are learning how to move basic skills and knowledge to different settings. Once they see how this can be done they will start to project their skill sets to other settings outside of the classroom which is the goal of developing abstract thinking.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
