Concept Maps

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Concept Maps

• Gabe Mydland Mark GearyTIE09

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What does it mean when a student says, I
understand?.... Does it mean the same thing to
him or her that it does to another student or to
you?.. How can your students demonstrate their
understanding to you?
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• Requires negotiated meaning for meaningful
  learning.
• Adults and kids in two different worlds
• Hardware handshake
• Common vocabulary
• Recalled information may appear in slightly
  different form.

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Students

• Often are challenged with
• Summarizing critical information,
• Describing concepts, and/or
• Organizing ideas in useful ways

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New Subject Matter

• Many times leaves students without any way to
  relate new information with existing knowledge

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Constructivist Learning Theory

• The understanding of content is linked with the
  ability to appreciate the interrelationships
  between different kinds of information
• AND
• Integrate this data into the students existing
  knowledge framework

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Successful Students

• Can distinguish the differences between things
• AND
• Understand the relationships between ideas or
  concepts

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Concept Maps

• Show the relationships between ideas
• Link concepts (nodes) with lines to represent
  relationships (propositions)

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Concept Maps

• Provide us with a window into students minds.

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Concept Maps

• Replicate how information is organized and
  represented in memory

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Concept Maps

• Transform student s into an active learner
• Encourages students to become self-directed
  learners
• Result in greater confidence in the
  comprehension of new material, and
• help to shrink the gap between theory and
  practice in clinical settings

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Concept Maps

• Develop skills in the areas of
• Critical thinking,
• Organization of information,
• Understanding of complex relationship, and
• Integration of theoretical knowledge

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Concept Maps

• Require students to
• Extract and focus on important ideas,
• Think about how these concepts are related, and
• Organize such information into an integrated
  structure.

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References

• De Simone, C. (2007). Applications of Concept
  Mapping. College Teaching , 55 (1), 33-36.
• Harpaz, I. B. (2004). Concept Mapping An
  educational strategy for advancing nursing
  education. Nursing Forum , 27 -- 36.
• Kinchin, I. (2006). Concept mapping , PowerPoint,
  and a pedaogy of access. Jouranl of Biological
  Information , 40 (2), 79-83.
• Shaverlson, R. J., Ruiz-Primo, M., Wiley, E. W.
  (2005). Windows into the Mind. Higher Education,
  49, 413-430.

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Concept Map resources

• The following slides represent some of the best
  we have seen from other presentations.
• They are not the work of Mark or Gabe. When we
  find the source, well share it.

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Stages in the Constructionof a Concept Map

• Brainstorming Stage
• Organizing Stage
• Layout Stage
• Linking Stage
• Revising Stage
• Finalizing Stage

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Brainstorming Stage

• List any and all terms and concepts associated
  with the topic of interest.
• Write them on bubbl.us, one word or phrase per
  note. Or use cmap.ihmc.us to search for a concept
  map from around the world.
• Don't worry about redundancy, relative
  importance, or relationships at this point.
• The objective is to generate the largest possible
  list.

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Organizing Stage

• Spread concepts on a table or blackboard so that
  all can be read easily.
• Create groups and sub-groups of related items.
  Try to group items to emphasize hierarchies.
• Identify terms that represent higher categories
  and add them.
• Feel free to rearrange items and introduce new
  items omitted initially.
• Some concepts will fall into multiple groupings.
  This will become important in the linking stage.

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Layout Stage

• Arrange terms so that they represent your
  collective understanding of the
  interrelationships and connections among
  groupings.
• Use a consistent hierarchy in which the most
  important concepts are in the center or at the
  top.
• Within sub-grouping, place closely related items
  near to each other.
• Think in terms of connecting the items in a
  simple sentence that shows the relationship
  between them.
• Feel free to rearrange things at any time during
  this phase.
• Do not expect your layout to be like that of
  other groups.

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Linking Phase

• Use lines with arrows to connect and show the
  relationship between connected items.
• Write a word or short phrase by each arrow to
  specify the relationship.
• Many arrows can originate or terminate on
  particularly important concepts.

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Revising Stage

• Carefully examine the draft concept map.
• Rearrange sections to emphasize organization and
  appearance.
• Remove or combine items to simplify.
• Consider adding color or different fonts.
• Discuss any aspects where opinions differ

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Finalizing the Concept Map

• After your group has agreed on an arrangement of
  items that coveys your understanding, convert the
  concept map into a permanent form that others can
  view and discuss.
• Be creative in a constructive way through the use
  of colors, fonts, shapes.

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Evaluating Concept Maps

• Accuracy and Thoroughness. Are the concepts and
  relationships correct? Are important concepts
  missing? Are misconceptions apparent?
• Organization. Is the concept map laid out in a
  way that higher order relationships are apparent
  and easy to follow? Does it have a title?
• Appearance. Is the assignment done with care
  showing attention to details such as spelling and
  penmanship? Is it neat and orderly or is it
  chaotic and messy?
• Creativity. Are there unusual elements that aid
  communication or stimulate interest without being
  distracting?

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Uses of a Concept Map?

• Graphic organizer
• Displays hierarchy and connections among
  ideas/objects/people, etc.
• Diagnostic tool
• Displays understandings and misconceptions
  through placement of ideas/objects/people, etc.
  and the links forged between them.
• Planning tool
• Displays a break-down of simple or complex
  concepts/tasks/programs

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Concept Map of Concept Mapping
Source Learning How to Learn, Novak and Gowin
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Background

• Grew from Joseph D. Novaks research at Cornell.
• Piagetian interviews
• Ausubel subsumption theory
• Constructivist?
• The more we learn and organize knowledge in a
  given domain, the easier it is to acquire and use
  new knowledge.

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Practice

• Novaks instructions for building a concept map
  (Learning, Creating, and Using Knowledge)
• Identify a focus question that addresses the
  problem, issues, or knowledge domain you wish to
  map. Guided by this question, identify 10 to 20
  concepts that are pertinent to the question and
  list these. Some people find it helpful to write
  the concept labels on separate cards or
  Post-itsTM so that they can be moved around. If
  you work with computer software for mapping,
  produce a list of concepts on your computer.
  Concept labels should be a single word, or at
  most two or three words.
• Rank order the concepts by placing the broadest
  and most inclusive idea at the top of the map. It
  is helpful to reflect on your focus question to
  help decide the ranking of the concepts.
  Sometimes this process leads to modification of
  the focus question or writing a new focus
  question.
• Work down the list and add more concepts as
  needed.
• Begin to build your map by placing the most
  inclusive, most general concept(s) at the top.
  Usually there will be only one, two, or three
  most general concepts at the top of the map.

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• Next select the two, three, or four subconcepts
  to place under each general concept. Avoid
  placing more than three of four concepts under
  any one concept. If there seem to be six or eight
  concepts that belong under a major concept or
  subconcept, it is usually possible to identify
  some appropriate concept of intermediate
  inclusiveness, thus creating another level of
  hierarchy in your map.
• Connect the concepts by lines. Label the lines
  with one of a few linking words. The linking
  words should define the relationship between the
  two concepts so that it reads as a valid
  statement or proposition. The connection creates
  meaning. When you hierarchically link together a
  large number of related ideas, you can see the
  structure of the meaning for a given subject
  domain.
• Rework the structure of your map, which may
  include adding, subtracting, or changing
  superordinate concepts. You may need to do this
  reworking several times, and in fact this process
  can go on indefinitely as you gain new knowledge
  or new insights. This is where Post-itsTM are
  helpful, or better still, computer software for
  creating maps.

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• Look for crosslinks between concepts in different
  sections of the map and label these lines.
  Crosslinks can often help to see new, creative
  relationships in the knowledge domain.
• Specific examples of concepts can be attached to
  the concept labels (e.g., golden retriever is a
  specific example of a dog breed.)
• Concept maps could be made in many different
  forms for the same set of concepts. There is no
  one way to draw a concept map. As your
  understanding of relationships between concepts
  changes, so will your maps.

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• Streamlined instructions
• Brainstorm concepts and individualize. Words or
  images will work.
• Organize the concepts in terms of hierarchy of
  general to specific.
• Map the concepts on paper with labeled links
  between them, adding or subtracting as needed to
  paint as complete a picture of understanding as
  possible.