What is the relationship of concepts to facts?
Concepts are large ideas. These ideas are often formed from facts, but they take on a broader scope when people also begin to add in opinions. A person who is ‘broad stroke’ often is able to take many facts and create a simple statement, that of a concept that ties all the facts together.
These people who are broad stroke often have the ability to also pick out facts from concepts, because the can see the over arching picture of what is being painted.
It is important when we explain concepts to others that we keep our opinions out of the explanation, as opinion can easily become a part of a concept without that being the intention.
In an educational setting it is important to understand the concepts that apply to what you are teaching as well as the age of the students you teach. In my discipline, ECE, playing is learning. This is a concept that many people have forgotten. I recently was speaking with a teacher from a nearby district, and she teaches kindergarten there. Kindergarten is still ECE. In her class she is not allowed to have play, there is no play and the children are denied crayons. Have we forgotten that children learn best through play? That only academia is important regardless of our children’s developmental level? In our rush to make sure 100% of all children come up to standards we are forgetting how to get them there! It is my intention to ensure that play continues on in my classroom because this concept is important to me and my philosophical beliefs about learning.
patriciastjohn 