ScootPad features a rich Concept Library that provides all the building blocks students need to reach true mastery. However, while we highlight concepts often, you might wonder where skills fit into the picture. Does ScootPad only teach concepts or also teach skills? Read on to find out more about what ScootPad concepts mean for you and your students’ learning.
What is the difference between a concept and a skill?
At its heart, a concept is a piece of knowledge that forms a core of understanding. A skill is the practical application of that knowledge in a specific and defined manner. Both are vital in the learning process, and each plays a different role.
The simple answer to the question “Does ScootPad teach concepts or skills?” is that ScootPad teaches both! ScootPad is designed to help students master the ideas and skills they need to be successful. ScootPad collects and organizes these ideas and skills into a broad collection of ScootPad “concepts” and the Concept Library comprises hundreds of such concepts in each subject area.
ScootPad concepts encompass several approaches to learning material, including more conceptual knowledge and practical applications. This is the best way to ensure that students achieve true mastery and can show what they know in new and novel situations.
Two types of ScootPad concepts
There are two main types of ScootPad concepts: knowledge-based concepts and skill-based concepts.
A knowledge-based concept gives students practice with questions that develop a core of understanding regarding a given topic. These concepts aim to teach the ideas at the foundation of an area of learning. Take a look at this ScootPad concept as an example of a knowledge-based concept:
Understand that a plane figure that can be covered by n unit squares has an area of n square units.
This concept takes students on a journey towards understanding what area means and how unit squares relate to area, which is a conceptual understanding that every other ScootPad concept based on area can then build on. When they master this concept, that means they have come to know the how and why of area and unit squares.
By contrast, a skill-based concept gives students practice with questions that allow them to apply their acquired understanding. These concepts aim to teach certain methods and techniques. Let’s examine a ScootPad concept that serves as an example of a skill-based concept:
Measure areas by counting unit squares.
This concept also deals with area and unit squares, but in this case, students are working towards mastery of a concrete skill: using unit squares to measure area. This is a specific method that builds upon the conceptual relationship explored by the first concept.
Both types of concepts are included in ScootPad’s Concept Library and both play an equally important role. Knowledge-based concepts help students develop the core understandings they need, while skill-based concepts allow students to apply those understandings in a variety of ways.
What is the big picture?
All of ScootPad’s concepts are woven together into a comprehensive Knowledge Map, starting with grade K and extending to grade 8. Each concept has one or more prerequisites, and this set of prerequisite relationships forms the Knowledge Map. What this means for your students is that when they struggle with a certain ScootPad concept, they receive automatic scaffolding in the prerequisite concepts that ScootPad has identified.
Since the Knowledge Map includes both skill-based concepts and knowledge-based concepts, these different types of concepts work together seamlessly to support students. For example, if a student struggles with a certain skill, they will receive scaffolding in a concept that focuses on the core understanding underlying that skill. By developing this deeper understanding, students then return to the original skill with a better foundation. In some cases, the reverse may also be true. A student may be having difficulty with a concept based on advanced conceptual understandings, and by receiving scaffolding in the practical application of skills within that domain, they may be able to bring a new lens to that concept when they return to it.
As you review your students’ work in ScootPad, keep an eye out for the ways in which concepts and skills interlock and weave together to form a broader web of mastery.
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