Abstract of

Teaching Tips
Using the Concept Attainment Strategy to Enhance Reading Comprehension

Beverly J. Boulware

Mary Lynn Crow

The Concept Attainment Strategy is an instructional technique proposed by Jerome Bruner that targets the “big idea” or concept underlining concrete or abstract examples. This strategy focuses on the developing comprehension of words and ideas associated with a concept rather than on its name or what the concept is called. Specifically it develops children's thinking and reasoning as they examine concepts from narrative and expository texts. Students are given the specific steps or structure to scaffold their thinking. Viewing examples compared to nonexamples of a concept enables students to inductively increase their understanding of the many facets of the concept. This allows learners to generalize to other similar examples and to differentiate the concept from other nonsimilar examples before the concept is named. Finally, applications are made to real-life situations.

Abstract from Boulware, B.J., & Crow, M. (2008, March). Using the Concept Attainment Strategy to Enhance Reading Comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 61(6), 491–495. doi: 10.1598/RT.61.6.7