Building Vocabulary and Terminology

throughConcept Development

A key finding in the learning and transfer literature is that organizing information into a conceptual framework allows for greater “transfer”; that is, it allows the student to apply what was learned in new situations and to learn related information more quickly”(Bransford).

Overarching Goal In This Reading Course:

Learn reading strategies and habits of mind that encourage the development of competence in an area of inquiry.

The research is clear – to develop competence in the subject matter you will be learning, you need to be able to

• develop a deep foundation of factual knowledge• understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework• organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval• organize knowledge in ways that facilitate application

Most knowledge in content courses is conceptually organized and require the learning of lots of new interrelated terminology - the vocabulary of technical terms used in a particular field, subject, science, or art.

The Bottom Line is - develop a deep foundation of ideas in a conceptual framework that is well organized.

Vocabulary and Terminology

Vocabulary: The sum of words used by, understood by, or at the command of a particular person or group

For example, I may say, “I made a profit when I sold my painting.”, meaning to most people that that I made more money than it cost me to make the painting.

Terminology: The vocabulary of technical terms used in a particular field, subject, science, or art

For example, I may say in a business meeting, “We need to make a profit.”, meaning to the business people around me that the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses).

What do we mean by building vocabulary and terminology through conceptual development?

A conceptual framework is a group of concepts that are broadly defined and systematically organized to provide a focus, a rationale, and a tool for integrating and interpretation of information.

Conceptual Development is systematically organizing a group of concepts that are broadly defined.

Conceptual Development is an attempt to give words and concepts meaning and to interconnect related meanings.

Hint: “meaningfulness” is the result of interconnecting new information with what the learner already knows (prior knowledge). That interconnection is a synthesis between new information and prior knowledge, which results in concept development.

For example, if you read about a Birmin cat, you immediately take the new information and synthesize it with what you already know about cats. You can reasonably predict that a Birmin cat has all the basic characteristics of most cats. That is an example of conceptual development in which you have added Birmin cats to your prior knowledge of cats.

Cats Types of cats

Persian

Siamese

Tabby

Birmin

Cats Types of cats

Persian

Siamese

Tabby

Birmin

Because you already have a conceptual framework of prior knowledge about cats, you also know that a Birmin will have most of the characteristics of a cat. Without ever having seen a Birmin cat; you would know it was a cat if you saw one because it has the characteristics of a cat. This is an example of using a prior knowledge conceptual framework to create meaning for a new concept; in this instance a Birmin cat is a type of cat and has the characteristics of a cat.

Characteristics of cats

Retractable claws

Meow

Fur

Meat eater

THE STAGE

Actor: a new kind of cat - Birmin

cat

Stage: Prefrontal Cortex – where

decisions are made

Audience:Conceptual Framework:

Prior Knowledge -

dendrites

The Stage: metaphor for the prefrontal cortex

Persian SiameseTabby

AxonEnd Buds

Cell Body

Dendrites

Neurons

a new kind of cat -

Birmin cat

Axon

Cell Body

Dendrites

Tabby

Manx

Siamese

Calico

Persian

AxonEnd Buds

Cell Body

Dendrites

Neurons

New Information

Prior KnowledgeLearning

Example of Building Terminology Using a

Business Textbook(p. 293)

As a reader in a content textbook (ex. sociology, psychology, history, etc.), you want to understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework. Ideas have labels we call vocabulary or terminology.

For example in business, there is the idea that there is a dollar amount of money that is the difference between what it costs to manufacture a product and what the customer pays for that product. Someone decided to call that dollar amount “profit”.

The business textbook author also decide to provide an example ($2.75 - $2.00 = .75)

Primary Goal of Business

ProfitCost to make and sell a product minus what the

customer pays for it

Customer pays $2.75 minus $2.00

to manufacture

terminology

definition

example

Business Textbook Definition of Profit

profitConceptual Development of profit in a Business Textbook: “A business tries to earn a profit by providing products that satisfy people’s needs.”

The Goal of Business (p.293)“The primary goal of business is to earn a profit, the difference between what it costs to make and sell a product and what the customer pays for it. If a company spends $2.00 to manufacture, finance, promote and distribute a product that it sells for $2.75, the business earns a profit of 75 cents on each product sold.”

Business Textbook Definition of Profit

profitConceptual Development of profit in a Business Textbook: “A business tries to earn a profit by providing products that satisfy people’s needs.”

The Goal of Business“The primary goal of business is to earn a profit, the difference between what it costs to make and sell a product and what the customer pays for it. If a company spends $2.00 to manufacture, finance, promote and distribute a product that it sells for $2.75, the business earns a profit of 75 cents on each product sold.”

Strategy: In textbooks look for definitions, examples explanations, Illustrations, and charts.

Once again, as a reader in a content textbook (ex. sociology, psychology, history, etc.), you want to understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework. Ideas have labels we call vocabulary or terminology.

For example in business, there is the idea that there is a dollar amount of money that is the difference between what it costs to manufacture a product and what the customer pays for that product. Someone decided to call that dollar amount “profit”.

The business textbook author also decide to provide an example ($2.75 - $2.00 = .75)

Primary Goal of Business

ProfitCost to make and sell a product minus what the

customer pays for it

Customer pays $2.75 minus $2.00

to manufacture

terminology

definition

example

Strategy: Interconnecting with Prior Knowledge

1. What do I already know about “profit?”2. Does the textbook provide examples that tap my knowledge?

Primary Goal of Business

ProfitCost to make and sell a product minus what the

customer pays for it

Customer pays $2.75 minus $2.00

to manufacture

terminology

definition

example

As a child I bought lemons and sugar for

$4.00 and sold lemonade. At the end of the day, I had $6.25.

Remember: learning only occurs if I interconnect new

information with what I already know, and that is

how words become “meaningful”

Strategies for Building Vocabulary and Terminology

though Conceptual Development

Concept Development of profit in a Business Textbook: “A business tries to earn a profit by providing products that satisfy people’s needs.”

The Goal of Business“The primary goal of business is to earn a profit, the difference between what it costs to make and sell a product and what the customer pays for it. If a company spends $2.00 to manufacture, finance, promote and distribute a product that it sells for $2.75, the business earns a profit of 75 cents on each product sold.”

Powerful Concept Development Strategy: Internal Dialogue

Strategy: Ask the following internal dialogue questions about the headings, 1st sentence of each paragraph, and new words in bold print.

1. What do I already know about the goals of business?2. Are there examples in the book and do I know any examples of the concept being considered?3. How is what I am reading like or different than what I already know?4. Can I predict where this is going?5. How has the author organized the information in this reading selection and how does it relate to prior readings?

Concept Development of profit in a Business Textbook: “A business tries to earn a profit by providing products that satisfy people’s needs.”

The Goal of Business“The primary goal of business is to earn a profit, the difference between what it costs to make and sell a product and what the customer pays for it. If a company spends $2.00 to manufacture, finance, promote and distribute a product that it sells for $2.75, the business earns a profit of 75 cents on each product sold.”

An Extremely Powerful Concept Development Strategy is Mind Mapping:

Strategy: Graphically organize related concepts.

Primary Goal of Business

ProfitCost to make and sell a product minus what the

customer pays for it

Customer pays $2.75 minus $2.00

to manufacture

terminology

definition

example

Remember: Concept Development of profit in a Business Textbook: “A business tries to earn a profit by providing products that satisfy people’s needs.”

Primary Goal of Business

ProfitCost to make and sell a product minus what the

customer pays for it

Customer pays $2.75 minus $2.00

to manufacture

terminology

definition

example

Concept Development of profit in a Business Textbook: “A business tries to earn a profit by providing products that satisfy people’s needs.”

The Goal of Business“The primary goal of business is to earn a profit, the difference between what it costs to make and sell a product and what the customer pays for it. If a company spends $2.00 to manufacture, finance, promote and distribute a product that it sells for $2.75, the business earns a profit of 75 cents on each product sold.”

Another concept development strategy is to use THE STAGE metaphor.

Strategy: Bring to the Stage new information and prior knowledge and select a learning strategy to move the new information from working memory to long-term memory

Actor: New information

- Profit

Audience: Prior KnowledgeGeneral motors made a profit

in the last quarter

THE STAGE

THE STAGE

Actor: New information

- PROFIT

Stage: Prefrontal Cortex – where

decisions are made

Audience:Prior

Knowledge - dendrites

The Stage: metaphor for the prefrontal cortex

THE STAGE

Actor: Newinformation Profit

Stage: Prefrontal Cortex – where

decisions are made

Audience: Prior Knowledge

General motors made a profit

in the last quarter

The Stage: metaphor for prefrontal cortex

THE STAGE

Actor: New information

Profit Audience: Prior KnowledgeGeneral motors made a profit

in the last quarter

The Stage: metaphor for prefrontal cortex

THE STAGE

Actor: New information

- -Profit

Audience: Prior KnowledgeGeneral motors made a profit

in the last quarter

The Stage: metaphor for prefrontal cortex

Business Textbook Definition of Profit

profitConcept Development of profit in a Business Textbook: “A business tries to earn a profit by providing products that satisfy people’s needs.”

The Goal of Business“The primary goal of business is to earn a profit, the difference between what it costs to make and sell a product and what the customer pays for it. If a company spends $2.00 to manufacture, finance, promote and distribute a product that it sells for $2.75, the business earns a profit of 75 cents on each product sold.”

NOTE: for the learner, depending on prior knowledge, the word “product” may be vocabulary (everyday usage), or terminology. The business textbook will spend a lot of time explaining “product” as terminology as used in business. For example, tangible and intangible “products”.

Strengthening Dendrites and Neural Networks for New Learning

Every Strategy for Conceptual Development should be accompanied by the most powerful strategies for strengthening the dendrites and neural networks grown when learning.

It is not enough to understand the meaning of new vocabulary and terminology. The new dendrites and neural networks have to be strengthened or they can be lost.

The most powerful strategy is ELABORATIVE REHERSAL

And the powerful rules for consolidating new information into long-term memory are the Rules for Consolidation are:

1. RE-expose yourself to the new vocabulary and terminology and their meanings.

2. Re-expose yourself to the new vocabulary and terminology and their meanings elaboratively.

3. Re-expose yourself to the new vocabulary and terminology and their meanings in time intervals.

Elaboration and Time Intervals

Elaboration:Elaboration means to interconnect new vocabulary and terminology and their meanings to prior knowledge (what the reader already knows.

Examples are reciting (going over new terminology in your own words), writing about the new vocabulary or terminology and their meanings, using mental action imagery strategies, using the new terminology or vocabulary, etc.

Re-Exposing Elaboratively in Time Intervals: Re-exposing elaboratively in Time Intervals means to re-expose suing elaboration (1) immediately after understanding the meanings, (2) after completing a reading selection, (3) within 90 minutes of learning new information and (4)again within 24 hours.

Dictionary: net income: the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses.

profit

Net Income

Synonym

OutlayNon-cash Expenses

Revenue

Depreciation

the entire amount of income before any deductions

are made

income

For individuals, money earned

through employment

and investment.

For corporations.

Revenues minus cost of

sales, operating

expenses and taxes.

deductions

An amount that is or may be

deducted

Dictionary Definition of Profit

Dictionary: net income: the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses.

profit

Net Income

Synonym

OutlayNon-cash Expenses

Revenue

Depreciation

the entire amount of income before any deductions

are made

income

For individuals, money earned

through employment

and investment.

For corporations.

Revenues minus cost of

sales, operating

expenses and taxes.

deductions

An amount that is or may be

deducted

Dictionary Definition of Profit

Strategy: follow the vocabulary and terminology trail in a dictionary definition to build a conceptual framework.

Conceptual Framework: a group of concepts that are broadly defined and systematically organized to provide a focus, a rationale, and a tool for the integration and interpretationof information.

Anatomy and Physiology

A Group of Concepts Broadly Defined - structure and function: Anatomy – the body has structure, shape and parts that are related to one another.Physiology – how the body and its parts work or function.

Systematically Organized – tool for integration and interpretationLevels of Structural Organization:

Chemical LevelCellular LevelTissue LevelOrgan LevelOrgan System Level- ex. skeletal, muscular, nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory, etc. Organismal Level

Understand facts & ideas in context of conceptual framework

Anatomy and Physiology

Chapter 9

Reading Business Textbooks

O B J E C T I V E S1. What are the cognitive strategies for reading a business textbook?2. How to make business text relevant?

Imagery and Visualization

Reading an Anatomy and Physiology or other Textbooks

{Text/Illustration}What is the Strategy? When reading, the reader should always look for illustrations and charts that help the reader create a mental image of the concepts being learned.

{Drawing/Labeling} and {Redrawing/Labeling}What is the strategy? Understanding the content of many textbooks, especially the sciences, is heavily dependent on having a mental image of the concept being learned. For example, anatomy and physiology, or the major area of psychology - biological psychology are always heavily illustrated. In these kinds of textbooks, the reader needs to make a connection between the information being read and illustration(s) with its labels that visually show what is being learned.

Chapter10

READING AN ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY TEXTBOOK

10.1 Objective1. What is the role of illustrations in anatomy and physiology textbooks?

Text and IllustrationsTo get a quick overview of how the anatomy and physiology textbook is organized, look at Chapter 1, pages 326–349. One of the first things the reader notices is that there are lots of illustrations of body parts. Everything you read about will have an illustration. That is the key to learning anatomy and physiology. The reader who ignores the illustrations will quickly find themselves being overwhelmed by the volume of information in an anatomy and physiology textbook. The organization of information and the illustrations are the keys to learning that match the way the brain learns naturally.

Potentate

What is this?A Powerful

Ruler

ExampleSovereign King

Emperor

What is it Like?Has great power. Is not elected by the

people Stays in office for life.

Non-examplePresident

Prime Minister

Precipitationrain SnowSleethail fog

Frontshigh pressurelow pressure

Globalworld-wide

Stormsthunderstorm

tornado hurricane

Meteorology

Instrumentsthermometer

barometerrain gauge

ProtestsRespects authority

Letters to the editorMarches

RebellionChallenges authoritySouth leaving Union

Organized

Citizen action

Photo-Light

Photocopy

Photography

?

Photosynthesis

Photogenic

Photocopy