Students are encouraged to draw on prior knowledge and apply it in new situations. Concept Attainment Concept attainment focuses on understanding what characteristics or attributes may be useful for distinguishing between members and nonmembers of a grouping or class. In this situation, the student does not fully understand a concept. Developing a comprehensive definition for the concept involves the following key elements. The concept name is the term given to a particular group of objects or events.
Examples are instances of the concept.
Characteristics of the object or event are referred to as attributes. Those common characteristics which are essential to place an object in a grouping are known as critical attributes. Attribute value refers to the range within which a characteristic exemplifies the concept. A rule gives a summary, generalization or definition which specifies the critical attributes of the given concept. A discussion of three processes for attaining understanding of a concept follows.