I think we all have experienced attending a lecture, taking word for word notes, and thinking you have a common understanding of what is being discussed; only to have all that information go in one ear and out the other. In those last few minutes before the lecture ends you might have a solid understanding of the information discussed due to staying engaged with the professor’s lecture. Although you understand and retain the information while the lecture is actively happening, as soon as your professor ends the lecture it becomes extremely difficult to utilize the material that was taught. This tends to happen after a lecture because your brain is trying to retain mass quantities of information that is often lectured with abstract examples.
Have you ever wondered why some teachers or professors will use real-world situations or concepts to explain certain topics? You could say that it’s because they aren’t great at explaining concepts in class, and had no better way to drive home a point. But in reality, they are using concrete examples to amplify your learning experience, make the lesson memorable, and fill in the gap between hard-to-grasp concepts and reality. So, what are concrete examples, really? Concrete examples are specific, real-life examples (or tasks) that help to illustrate an idea or concept (2). Concrete examples are an extremely powerful tool that will help turn abstract ideas into tangible concepts that are easier for students (or anyone) to grasp. There are multiple advantages to using concrete examples to supplement your studying and aid the learning process (5).
Did you know concrete examples and concrete thinking are used throughout everyday life? Concrete examples are defined as real-world, or illustrative, examples of an abstract or declarative concept (Rawson et al. 2015) (1). Concrete thinking is a very specific way of thinking. People from all ages use concrete thinking. From early childhood, concrete thinking is developed from when you are a baby until you are about the age of 7 (2). During the early years of school, specifically the ages from 7 to 12, concrete thinking is a major part of the way kids think when it comes to school at these ages (2). From age 12 until adolescence, kids begin to analyze, generalize, extrapolate, and empathize more (2). Lastly, from adolescence until adulthood, people are experienced when it comes to concrete thinking. People begin to use concrete thinking in their personal experiences and observations that will eventually lead to a solution about things that go on in their life and pertaining to school and work (2). When applying concrete examples and concrete thinking to studying, this makes people study more specific and to the point and apply examples to the concept that happens when studying for a class. Let’s use a concrete example in mathematics. For example, if you have six bananas and take two, you have taken one-third or 33.33% of the bananas. This takes a generalized problem and by someone using a concrete example, in this example it being bananas, and this helps them with remembering a simple math problem. Concrete examples and thinking are a good way for young incoming students in college to take an abstract concept that they may or may not know and apply it to a real-world, illustrative example that helps them better understand the course material.
