Which maxim of teaching is best applied when a teacher uses real-life objects…

Concept — A maxim of teaching is a general rule about the order in which subject matter should be placed before a learner. The concrete-to-abstract maxim holds that instruction should begin with material the learner can directly perceive and handle, and only afterwards move to the ideas, symbols and generalisations that such material stands for. Its justification is psychological: an abstraction carries no meaning for a learner until it is anchored in sensory experience.

Application — Here the teacher brings real-life objects into the lesson. Real objects are perceptible and manipulable, so the lesson begins at the perceptible end of the range. The learning target, however, is the idea those objects illustrate — actual coins used to build the notion of value, real leaves used to build the concept of venation. Presenting perceptible material first and the idea afterwards is exactly the sequence the concrete-to-abstract maxim prescribes, so that is the maxim operating in this situation.

Cross-check — Each maxim is defined by a different ordering axis, so it helps to name the axis of each:

• Easy to difficult orders material by the difficulty a learner of that stage experiences.

• Simple to complex orders material by how many elements or relations the content combines.

• Analysis to synthesis orders the learner’s operation — decomposing a whole, then recombining the parts.

• Concrete to abstract orders material by the form in which it reaches the learner — perceptible objects before symbols and generalisations.

Using real objects changes the form in which content reaches the learner, which is the axis of the concrete-to-abstract maxim. Hence the answer is concrete to abstract.