How to Teach Sensory Concepts

Teaching Sensory Concepts
Martin Kozloff
2012

A sensory or basic concept (Kame’enui and Simmons, 1990) is a concept whose examples have features that can be seen, smelled, touched, tasted, or heard all at once and in one place—right before your eyes and ears. That is, ANY example shows all the defining features. For instance, any example of on shows everything there IS to the concept of on, or onness. Likewise, any example of blue (a blue ball, a blue cube, a blue line on the floor) shows everything there IS to the concept of blue, or blueness. YES, there are different SHADES of things that have blue, but any ONE example shows blue, right in front of your eyes.

Therefore, sensory concepts can beshown by one example.
”This is red.”

However, kids can’t LEARN andyou can’t TEACH a sensory concept with ONE example. Why not? Because any example of a concept has features that (1) define the concept AND (2) many irrelevant features. So, if you show an example of red, the red object has other features, too. It may be a ball, three inches in diameter, held in your hand. So, if you hold up the ball and say “This is red.”, the learner can’t tell WHAT feature of the object the word “red” points to? It’s perfectly logical for the learner to “get” (think, figure) that “red” means color, or shape, or size, or things held in the hand?

Consider these two things:

1. Any one example of a sensory concept shows all of the features of the concept. But

2. Any example also shows irrelevant features (e.g., size, shape) BESIDES the feature
that defines the concept (e.g., color).

These two points tell you how to teach sensory concepts.

A concept is NOT the same as a word, or vocabulary word. A word is just sounds that SIGNIFY (point to) the set of things that ARE (that define) the concept. When someone says, “How do you like this table,” a person who knows what “table” means (what FEATURES the word points to), and so the person looks at a table, and not at a chunk of cheese. So, if you just point to a table and say “That’s a table,” you are not teaching the concept, table. Why not? Because you have to teach the FEATURES that make something (define) a table. If you point to a table and say, “Table,” the other person may INFER that “table” is the NAME of the object, not the KIND of object that it is.

What the learning mechanism does to “get” a sensory concept. To get a concept--to get the definition (“The word ‘table’ means---points to  has legs, flat top, and you put stuff on it.”)---the learning mechanism performs the routine called “inductive reasoning” or induction. The learning mechanism:
1. Examines individual things and identifies their features. Teacher points to an
object and says, “This is a table.” Students look at it and identify the features it has.
Note: To identify features of something, a person has to notice (discriminate, see, hear, feel, smell) the features a part from the background. For instance, to identify the melody in a tune, you have to distinguish certain notes from the rest of the notes. To identify the sunset in a painting, you have to distinguish certain parts of the painting from the rest of the painting. To discriminate the legs of a table (to see those parts), you have to see that the legs part is different from the top part. This sounds like a simple matter, but that is only because you learned how to do it long ago. Persons with certain disabilities have a hard time making discriminations (seeing certain particular stuff) from a background. With shapes, a person has to distinguish the features that make up the shape from other features, such as color and size.

2. Compares individual things and identifies features that are the same and features
that are different.

For instance, the student notes how (1) each time the teacher says, “This is a table,” the object has legs, a flat top, and has stuff sitting on it; and also (2) each thing that she calls something a table, it has a different number of legs, different color, different shape, different size, and different thing on top. So, logically, can the word “table” mean (point to) color, shape, size, or kind of stuff on top? No. Because all these features are different, but the teacher calls the OBJECT by the same name. Or, logically, must “table” mean legs, flat top, and put stuff on it? Yes. Because these are always the same, at the same time that the teacher calls the object by the same name.

3. Makes a generalization (inductive inference) based on a and b (please read 1 and 2
again).
Basically, the student’s learning mechanism says, “I get it. ‘Table’(means, is) anything with legs, a flat top, and you put stuff on it.”

What the learning mechanism does to get a sensory concept tells us how we should teach a sensory concept. Here’s why. The learning mechanism “gets” a concept by using the above steps----a, b, c---in inductive reasoning. So, it makes sense to make it easy for the learning mechanism to do the steps. How? Easy peasy! Here’s an examples of teaching a sensory concept.

1.Show an example and label it. “This is blue.” Color is the relevant feature. Shape and size are irrelevant features. How can the learner tell which is the relevant (defining) feature? See #2.

2.Show another example that has different IRRELEVANT features, and label it. “This is blue.”

[Logic used by the learner. Compare example 1 and 2 to find sameness. The shapes are different. The only thing that’s the same is color. But the teacher said “blue” for both. Therefore, “blue” CAN’T MEAN shape---because the shapes are different. So, “blue” must mean the ONE way the examples are the same---color.

3. Show another example that has different irrelevant features, and label it. “This (larger blue cube) is blue.”

[Logic used by the learner. Compare examples 2 and 3 to find sameness. The sizes are different—one small and one larger. The only thing that is the same is the color. But the teacher said “blue” for both. Therefore, “blue” CAN’T MEAN the size. So, “blue” must mean the ONE way the examples are the same---color.

4. Show a nonexample of blue that has the same NONdefining (irrelevant) features as the example (shape, size), but does NOT have the defining feature---blueness. Label them both.

“This is blue.” “This is NOT blue.”

[Logic used by the learner. Contrast the juxtaposed example and nonexample to find difference. The shapes and sizes are the same, but the teacher called one “blue” and the other “NOT blue.” Why? The only way the examples are different is color. Therefore, color must be the difference that MAKES the difference in why one is called “blue” and the other “not blue.”

5.Repeat with a few more examples that are JUXTAPOSED with nonexamples.

“This is blue.” [Vary the positions so students don’t wrongly infer

that “blue” means “on the left.”

“This is not blue.”

“This is blue.”

“This is not blue.”

6.TEST to make sure students GOT (induced) the concept (the defining features).]

Show all the examples and nonexamples one at a time, and ask, “Is this blue?”

Verify correct answers. “Yes, this IS blue.”

Correct any errors. “This is NOT blue. [Juxtapose blue and not blue and label each one. Then retest.]

7.Now present brand new examples---blue lines, blue sky, blue bunny, and nonexamples. Test. “Is this blue?” Verify and/or correct as needed. This is work on GENERALIZATION.

8.Later, you would present a wider range of examples, from, for example, light blue to dark blue. If YOU label each extreme as “blue,” then (logically) any example in between must also be blue.

Here are the guidelines.
1. Use examples that clearly communicate (show) the important information directly. “THIS is (a triangle).”

The defining features (three straight lines, the lines connect, there are three angles) must be OBVIOUS. This helps students to distinguish each feature from the background of other features---size, color, shape. If it is hard for some kids to see the defining features, they will make errors. Is that a good idea? We want them to learn! Later---when kids are skilled at examining things, identifying features, comparing and contrasting the features of things, and making generalizations (“I get it. All triangles…”)---THEN you can teach them the skill of “looking real close and finding what is hard to see.” But THAT skill is different from just knowing the concept, triangle.

2. You must use a whole set (acquisition set of examples), not just ONE example. Why? Because ANY one example has several features---both features that define the
concept (three angles that equal 180 degrees, three straight lines that intersect) and
irrelevant features (color, length of lines, etc.). If you show one example, and say
“This is a triangle,” students WILL make the wrong interpretation, that “triangle”
means blue, or object, any shape, etc. See for yourself.

Think of possible interpretations (inferences) of what the class of triangle is from this one example.

“This is a triangle.”

Kids say, “Triangles are…

Alfred. …blue.”

Debbie. …things with a point at the top.”

Jack. …things with black lines.”

Jose. …things on the board.”

Oscar. …things you draw.”

Melba. …things with lines the same size.”

Tequila. …shapes.”

Are these interpretations WRONG? NNNOOOOO. They are perfectly consistent with the example. The example HAD these features. The kids simply didn’t identify ALL of the DEFINING features: (1) three angles; (2) formed by intersecting straight lines; (3) with a sum of 180 degrees.

This shows that ANY ONE example is ambiguous. It communicates MANY bits of information. So, YOU have to show examples that make only ONE interpretation possible. This means that you have you show exampleS in a way that RULES OUT thinking that an irrelevant feature (color, has points) is a defining feature. How do you show exampleS in a way that RULES OUT thinking that an irrelevant feature (color, has points) is a defining feature? Simple! You juxtapose (put next to each other, or show show one after the other) examples that are DIFFERENT regarding an irrelevant feature, but you treat them (name them) the same way. Therefore, that feature CAN’T be a defining feature because the name is the same even when the feature is NOT there.

Let’s try it. Here are the misinterpretations from above. This time, we’ll put a second example could you put next to the first example to rule out the irrelevant feature as a defining feature.
Jack. …things with black lines.”

Jose. …things on the board.”

Oscar. …things you draw.”

Melba. …things with angles.”

Tequila. …shapes.”

“This is a triangle.” “And THIS is a triangle.”

So, triangles CAN’T be blue.”

“This is a triangle.” “And this is a triangle.”
So, triangles can be things with a point (apex) on top.

“This is a triangle.” “And this is a triangle.”

So, triangles can’t be things with black lines.

“This is a triangle.” “And this is a triangle.”
[The triangle is on the board.] [The triangle is on a card heldb y the teacher.]

So, triangle can’t be something on the board.’

“This is a triangle.” “And this is a triangle.”

[Show a triangular object in the room.]
So, triangle can’t be something you draw.]

same size (equal length)”

Jose. …things on the board.”

Oscar. …things you draw.”

Melba. …things with angles.”

3. Select a range of examples (called the acquisition set, because this is the acquisition
phase of instruction) that reveal clearly the important information (Kame’enui and
Simmons, 1990).

You can’t use triangle examples that are ONLY equilateral.

Why? Because all triangles are NOT equilateral. If you use only equilateral triangles,you will be teaching “All triangles look like this.” So, when your students see triangles that are NOT equilateral, they MAY make a deductive inference (judge) that these new ones are NOT triangles! Their (incorrect) deductive reasoning would go like this.
(1) “All triangles look like this. “

[Because that’s what you taught them with the narrow range of examples.]

(2) “This does not look like this.”

(3) “Therefore (deduction from #1), this is NOT a triangle.”

This is called stipulation error. The narrow range of examples (all equilateral) stipulated (told) that “triangle” means “only like these.”

But if you use a wide range of examples that cover most of the range of triangles, and THEN you show this one… and ask, “Is this a triangle?” your students are likely to say “Yup!” because they have seen IT in the range of examples you used.

3. Make sure that the examples are DIFFERENT in features that do NOT define the
concept (number of legs, color, size, shape of top, kinds of objects in top) but are
the SAME in the defining features (all examples have legs, a flat top, and
something on them).

This way, students will see that the word “Table” goes with certain same FEATURES. So these must be important.

4. Each time you present an example, treat it a certain way, and treat all examples
that same way.

Show triangles and say, “This is a triangle….And this is a triangle….And this is a triangle.” Why? Your students will get it that the sameness in how you treat the examples is connected to the sameness that is IN the examples. Please read that again.

5. Also use NONexamples to show contrast with the examples.

Squares, circles, rectangles, hexagons. Each time you show a NONexample, treat it UNLIKE you treat the examples. “This is NOT a triangle.”
Make sure that the NONexamples have the same NONdefining features as the examples. For instance, show a red triangle (“This is a triangle.”) and a red square (“This is NOT a triangle.”). Make sure to put the example and nonexample next to each other in time or in place. This is called “juxtaposing examples and nonexamples. “ This juxtaposition makes it easier for the learning mechanism to CONTRAST the example and nonexample.

“This is a triangle.” “This is not a triangle.”

Think of the inductive reasoning here. If you show a red triangle and say “Triangle” and then a red square and say “Not triangle,” logically, “triangle” can’t mean color, because the example and nonexample were the same color. And “triangle” can’t mean the square one, because you said “NOT triangle” when you showed the square one.
Note. We will call the NONexamples “NOT a triangle.” We will NOT call them by their names---square, circle. Why? Because we are teaching only ONE concept now. All we want NOW is for students to get the definition of triangle. Later, after we have taught triangle, square, and circle, we could have students use all the concepts at the same time: (a) draw them (“Draw one square and two circles.); (b)sort them (“Put all the circles here and all the triangles there.”); (c) find shapes in the room (“Find me triangles…. Now find circles.”).
6. Test to see if students make the correct induction (that is, “got it”).

Show all the examples and nonexamples, and ask “Is this a triangle?” This is called an acquisitiontest (Kame’enui and Simmons, 1990).
7. Correct any errors.

If you hold up a NOT triangle and say “Is this a triangle,” and a student says, “Yes, triangle,” immediately say, “This is NOT a triangle.” Juxtapose the NOT triangle with a triangle you showed before. “This IS a triangle.” Then show the NOT triangle again, and ask, “Is this a triangle?” I’ll show you how in a minute.

Letter-sound Correspondence

Teaching a basic or sensory concept---the sound that goes with letters: squiggles with the same shape. Teacher talk is “in quotation marks.” Kid talk is in italics.

Gain attention:

“Boys and girls. Eyes on me.” Or “Show me ready.”

Frame:

“New sound.” [point]

Model:

“When I touch under the sound. [point] I’ll say the sound.”

[Teacher’s finger right below the letter s on the easel.) “ssssssss.”

S
“Listen again. ssssssssss.”
Lead: