Concrete

A concrete learning style refers to a student who tends to be very good understanding practical information that relates to things that she can see, hear, or touch. She often excels with facts and details, but she may have difficulty understanding abstract ideas. Consequently, material or assessments that involve more abstract thinking can be difficult for her. Teachers can help her by taking the time to spell out the big picture and explain how individual facts support the larger times. To help her understand more difficult abstract concepts, the use of practical analogies can be useful.

Suggested Teaching Strategies

• Encourage elaboration of facts and ideas rather than rote repetition.
• Model for the children higher-order thinking. Explicitly state the larger, more abstract themes and explain in clear, step-wise manner the ways in which specific facts relate back to a larger, more abstract idea.
• Move back and forth between the concrete and the abstract. When introducing a complex abstract idea, use practical, every day examples to illustrate the idea.
• Identify for the students the important abstract themes that are included in a unit and/or reading. Do not assume that every student has extrapolated the important concepts from the material.

Last updated 11.27.06

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