Categorizing for Review
At a Glance
Discipline
- Humanities
Instructional Level
- College & CEGEP
Course
- 345-101-MQ Knowledge
Tasks in Workflow
Social Plane(s)
- Group
Type of Tasks
- Discussing
- Solving problems
Technical Details
Useful Technologies
- High tech version: Smart boards
- Low tech version: Paper, scissors, adhesive
Class size
- Small (20-49)
Time
- Single class period (< 90 mins)
Instructional Purpose
- Application & knowledge building
Overview
The aim of this single-class activity is to help students consolidate their knowledge and review concepts seen in class. Students have the opportunity to apply the concepts learned in the course and relate the specific examples and material to larger concepts. This activity, which employs the Active learning strategies of Concept Mapping and Toolkit, helps them organize their understanding of the topics in preparation for the exam.
This is done as a review activity after the students have covered the related topics. They learn about the ideas of rationalism and empiricism, and then some specific terms and philosophers related to each of these approaches. Then students review and consolidate their knowledge on these topics by doing this review activity. Finally, this leads into another activity where students work on an outline for their exam response on this topic.
Working in groups, students have to categorize statements/names/terms under the heading of empiricist or rationalist. They can compare their responses with that of other groups. The teacher will check on their work and they will need to make adjustments as needed. At the end, students should take a photo of their completed work for their notes.
Instructional Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Identify differences and links between categories (rationalism and empiricism)
- Identify key aspects of the topic and how they relate to each other
Workflow & Materials
Activity Workflow
Contributor's Notes
- Helps students understand the different topics we’ve looked at and how they fit together with the larger concepts
- Helps clarify misconceptions about any of the terms or concepts
Some groups are less inclined to figure it out themselves and wait to copy other groups. However, checking in with them often helps to resolve this problem since they can’t depend on just copying the other groups. This allows me to address them more directly
- Don’t intercede until the groups feel they have finished. Then do not tell them what is wrong, if any. Just tell them how many they have wrong in each category and have them continue to work on figuring it out
- At the end, review the responses with the class and focus on the terms or concepts that are most difficult
- It is good to follow up this activity with a worksheet and workshop activity to help students prepare for the exam
Applied Strategies
Published: 25/09/2021
Copyright: © 2025 Mitchell. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication on this website is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.