what is a concept?

I attended a recent course in on concept-based teaching and learning. As current educational discussion seems to orbit around skills and topics as the principle foci of teaching, it was refreshing to shift our gaze away from these and look at concepts. One of the key inquiries was what is a topic and what is a concept?

A seemingly easy task? Not exactly. So, do you know the difference? Try these: concept or topic?

Culture

Dance

Ecosystems

Ancient Rome

Conflict

Friendship

Waste

Continents

According to Merrium Webster dictionary, a concept is "an abstract or generic idea generalized from particular instances" and a topic is "the subject of a discourse or of a section of a discourse". Looking at the list, can you spot the abstract ones? If you can, you understand the difference!

So when do you teach topics and when do you teach concepts? And what about skills? All good questions that will be explored in The Imaginarium. So for now, next time you plan work for a class, think, is this a topic or a concept or a skill? 

Adieu.