Example First
Show an example before the definition, so the new idea has something to stick to
What is it?
Example First means opening a new concept with a concrete example and supplying the definition afterwards. The class compares two fractions before anyone says "common denominator", or reads a strong opening paragraph before naming what the writer is doing. Novices tend to build abstract ideas out of instances, so a definition that comes second names something the class has already worked on, and the new idea has somewhere to go.
The steps
- Choose one clear example before you plan the explanation. Pick an instance that shows the feature you will define, with as little else going on as possible. Two fractions with unlike denominators, one strong opening paragraph, one circuit that will not light. At this stage, a clear example is worth more than an interesting one.
- Open with the example and give the class a job. Show the example before you say or write the term, and set a short task on it: comparing, attempting, or describing what they notice.Nothing to write yet. Look at these two fractions: three quarters and five sixths. Which is bigger? Convince your partner.
- Steer the class towards the feature you will name. Ask questions that draw attention to the part of the example the definition describes. "What did we have to do to the quarters before we could compare them?" If the discussion drifts towards surface details, narrow the question.
- Give the definition while the example is still up. Say the term and connect it to what the class has just done. Then write the definition where everyone can copy it.What we just did has a name. We rewrote both fractions in twelfths, and twelfths works for both of them, so we call it a common denominator.
- Test the definition on a second example. Show a new instance and ask every student to apply the term to it. Change the surface details so that students meet the idea in more than one form.
- Fade the concrete as the class gains instances. Make later examples leaner, moving from the drawn diagram to the bare numbers. Once the class holds several instances, a new definition can come first and students can supply the example.
What it looks like
Mr Draycott's class of 13-year-olds has just read a chapter in which Maria waits for a letter the reader watched burn two chapters earlier. He keeps the term to himself and begins with the scene. "What do we know that Maria doesn't?" "That the letter's gone, sir." "So what happens to us while she keeps checking the door?" "It's horrible. You want to tell her."
He is one question away from naming it when Dana cuts in: "Is that dramatic irony? We did it last year." Half the build-up is gone. He adjusts. "It is. So earn the term: which exact line switches it on?" Finding the line takes three minutes and settles the definition more firmly than his planned reveal would have. The term goes on the board, and the class searches the previous chapter for a second case.
How you’ll know it’s working
- The example goes up and is discussed before the term is said or written; a visitor could reconstruct the order from the board.
- Students describe the feature in ordinary words before they hear its name.
- When asked the next day for a fresh example of the term, at least half the class can produce one.
- Definitions in books and exit tickets appear with an instance beside them.
Pitfalls & fixes
- A first example with too much going on. The memorable example is often the wrong opener because its details compete with the feature you want students to notice. Keep the first instance plain, and save the richer one for the second or third meeting.
- Never landing the definition. Concrete-first is a sequence with a destination, and that destination is still the abstract idea. If the lesson stays in examples, students leave with an experience but no transferable name. Say the term, write the definition, and have students use it within the same lesson.
- Sticking with one example. The idea fuses to the instance: students may decide that a common denominator is always twelfths, or that dramatic irony belongs only to that chapter. Vary the surface details across two or three examples before the lesson ends.
- Letting it become a guessing game. Ten minutes spent fishing for a word the class has never heard wastes the time the example bought. Students work on the example, and after a few minutes you supply the name yourself.
Weigh it up
Why it’s worth it
- Definitions tend to hold. An abstraction met through an instance is stored with that instance, so students can rebuild the idea later rather than reciting a sentence they cannot use.
- It answers "why are we learning this" before anyone asks. The example sets up a small problem, and the definition arrives as its solution, which gives dry terminology a purpose.
- The example phase doubles as a check on prior knowledge: how the class handles the instance shows you what they already know before you commit to a full explanation.
- It costs almost nothing to adopt. Most lessons already contain both the example and the definition, so the change is usually a reordering of material you already have.
- It gives students who freeze at abstraction a way in. Everyone can say something about two fractions on the board, so the opening discussion draws in more of the room.
The costs
- Choosing the first example is genuine planning work. The instance has to show the feature cleanly, and your favourite example is often the wrong opener because its details distract.
- It is a few minutes slower per definition than simply stating the term, and in terminology-heavy topics those minutes add up.
- A class that already half-owns the idea gains little from the run-up and may read it as delay.
Adaptations
- Early years / lower primary: concrete before abstract is already how most teaching works at this stage: counters and objects come before symbols. What the technique adds is the fade, a deliberate move from objects to pictures to bare symbols rather than staying concrete all year.
- Secondary: most existing slide decks already contain the example; it usually sits two slides after the definition. Reordering the deck is often all the preparation required.
- Post-16 / adult: lead with a case, a dataset or a scenario before the principle. Adults will sit through a definition-first lecture, but they still tend to remember the principle better when a case has carried it in.
- Maths and science: run the fade across a sequence of lessons, moving from objects or diagrams to bare notation. This lesson-sequence version is the one the research has tested most thoroughly.
Where this comes from
The sequence is an old one: Jerome Bruner described learning as moving from action to image to symbol in the 1960s, and teachers of young children have worked concrete-to-abstract for longer still. Its modern experimental form, called concreteness fading, has been studied by Emily Fyfe, Nicole McNeil, Ji Son and Robert Goldstone: start with a concrete instance, then strip detail away until the bare abstraction stands on its own. Their review found encouraging results, mostly in maths and mostly with younger learners, which is why the badge stays at promising. The everyday habit of opening an explanation with an example is teacher craft that sits comfortably alongside the research.
Sources
Related techniques
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