June Kent

Crystal Wise

Picture

Introduction

Novak and Canas

Concept Mapping

Conclusion

External Links

References

Appendix/Table

Introduction

Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge and information. Concept maps include concepts and the relationships between concepts. The maps use connecting lines to link concepts. Concepts are usually enclosed in circles or boxes. Linking words or phrases,(cross links), specify the relationship between the two concepts. Concepts are represented in a hierarchical fashion with the most general concepts at the top to the increasingly specific concepts towards the bottom. The best way to construct concept maps is to seek out answers to a specific question. Concept maps were developed in 1972 in Joseph Novak’s research program at Cornell. Two of the most prominent concept map researchers are Joseph Novak and Alberto Canas.

Novak and Canas

Joseph Novak earned his Bachelors of Science and Mathematics in 1952 from the University of Minnesota. He also earned his Masters of Science Education in 1954 from the University of Minnesota. Novak earned his Ph.D of Science Education and Biology in 1958 from the University of Minnesota. Novak is currently Professor Emeritus at Cornell University for Education and Biology. Novak is also a visiting senior scientist at the University of West Florida and he does work with NASA.

Alberto Canas received his Bachelors degree in Computer Engineering from the Instituto Technologico de Monterrey, Mexico, and his Masters Degree in Computer Science and a Ph.D in Management Science, both from the University of Waterloo, Canada. He is currently an Associate Director of the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. Canas has taught at the Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica, Tulane University, INCAE (in Costa Rica) and currently teaches at the University of West Florida. Canas has been involved in technology in Education, specifically in the K-12 area. Before coming to UWF, Prof. Canas was the Director of IBM's Latin American Education Research Center in Costa Rica.

Concept Mapping

Theory of Education and Use of Concept Maps:

Novak believed that learning by rote was an ineffective practice for long-term retention and application thinking. He explained that “the central purpose of education is to empower learners to take charge of their own meaning making.” (Novak,1998) When Novak referred to meaning making, he believed that meaning making involves thinking, feeling, and acting. These three aspects must be integrated to achieve new knowledge. Meaningful learning is important to the development of cognitive structure which influences our affective and psychomotor learning. Meaningful learning has three requirements:

 Relevant prior knowledge

 Meaningful material: the knowledge to be learned must be relevant to other knowledge

 The learner must choose to learn meaningfully.

In his theory of education, Novak explains the importance of the exchange of meanings and feelings between the student and the teacher. When this exchange occurs, the student and teacher share a sense of power. The five elements in education that need to be considered are: learner, teacher, knowledge, context, and evaluation.

The concept mapping idea was created by Novak and his research team. Concept maps were constructed to represent "visually meaningful relationships among concepts in the form of propositions” (Novak & Godwin, 1984). When addressing concept maps, one should have a clear understanding of concepts and propositions. "Concept is defined as a perceived regularity in events or objects, or records of events or objects,designated by a label" (Canas & Novak 2006). For most concepts, labels are words,but symbols such as + and - may also used. To understand propositions, Canas and Novak (2006), explained that "propositions are statements about some object or event in the universe, either naturally occurring or constructed. Propositions contain two or more concepts connected using linking words or phrases to form a meaningful statement”(Canas & Novak 2006). These units of meaningful statements are called semantic units.

How to construct concept maps:

Concept maps are effective ways to express vital information. Concept map novices may want to start by writing on note cards or "post it" notes to arrange and rearrange the information they elect to use in the concept map. Software programs, such as IHMC's Cmap Tools( Novak & Canas, 2006), and Kidspiration (Llewellyn, 2007) are available to assist in concept map construction.

The first step is to select a domain of knowledge that is familiar to the person constructing the map. Next, one should construct a Focus Question. The focus question clearly states the problem or issue the concept map has to resolve. Once a focus question has been decided on, one should then identify the key concepts that apply to the selected domain. The main idea or main topic should be placed at the top or in the center of the page. The next step is to organize the subtopics in order from the most general to the most specific.These concepts are called nodes. The nodes can be represented as labeled circles or boxes. A linking word should be used to make the concept map more understandable. Cross links may also be used to help make the concept map more user friendly to the reader.The cross links show how the different domains of knowledge are related to one another. The map should then be revised. While editing, one should ensure that the map structure is understandable and flows logically. After all of these important tasks have been taken care of, then the final map can be prepared (Canas & Novak, 2006; Llewellyn,2007)

Why the use of concept maps?

In education our goal is to encourage understanding. Teachers must make the goal clear to our students. One way that teachers can do this is by changing the assessments that are used. If teachers continue traditional usage of multiple-choice tests, fill-in the blanks, and true and false questions they will get what is assesses and not achieve the education goals (Mintzes, 2001). The educational goals must be linked with assessment techniques that encourage students to construct knowledge and use this knowledge in real-world settings.

Concept maps, an assessment for learning tool:

Concept mapping with feedback from the teacher provides a strong tool for assessment for learning. In a study completed by Doctorow, Wittrock, and Marks (1978), the students had to create summaries of an assigned text. The study found that students who were allowed more interactivity significantly increased their comprehension scores when compared to a controlled group given the same task without activities(Taricani,2007).

The teacher may use concept mapping as a tool to facilitate the students' meaningful learning by scaffolding knowledge and putting the pieces of knowledge in a structured form. During this process the teacher must provide feedback, encouraging the students to ask questions and see the relationships between concepts(Novak & Canas,2006). While planning a reading, science, history, or math lesson, the teacher can use concept maps to help the students identify the central idea, and the supporting subconcepts, or nodes.

While using concept maps direct presentation and discovery teaching methods are used by the teacher(Novak & Canas,2006). After the teacher has demonstrated the construction and use of a concept map the students can build their own maps. It is suggested that teachers begin with having the students evaluate the correctness of a completed concept map or an add-on task (Baroody & Bartels,2000). Concept maps can be an individual task or a group task. If the students are working in a group mapping task they have to use negotiation skills. The students have to ask and answer questions, resolve disagreements, and co-construct meanings(Boxtel,etc.2002). The individual and group concept mapping tasks provide the teacher opportunities to assess for learning, recognizing the student's prior knowledge of a topic and observing how they are linking the concepts.

When using concept maps, what would you learn about your students?

Engaged students discuss their thoughts about and experiences with the concepts in collaborative concept mapping. When using concept-mapping, productive student interaction occurs as evidenced by: the required group product is large enough to be shared, contains visually represented information, does not require many concrete activities at the cost of abstract talk, and forces students to use the scientific concepts and discuss their meanings and relationships (Boxtel, Linden, Roelofs & Erkens, 2002).

The use of concept mapping as a learning strategy requires the learners to produce the maps themselves. The learners become active participants in the learning process and work to construct a meaningful understanding of information that will connect them with the material (Taricani, 2007).

Concept maps are effective tools that help teachers identify their student's prior knowledge and understanding. This is what led Novak and his team to the design and construction of the first concept map( Birbili; Novak 1998). Teachers can also use concept maps to help in planning lessons, units, and themes. Concept maps may also be used by teachers to assess student learning. Another important use is to present difficult material in a step by step manner. Students can use concept maps as well. Students can use concept maps to organize notes. Students can use concept maps to identify when they do not understand information and identify where exactly the breakdown is in their comprehension. As described above, concept maps are very useful tools for both students and teachers.

Conclusion

With the current emphasis on teaching for understanding and the importance of conceptual knowledge, teachers need techniques that help children see patterns and connections, rather than memorize facts. Children need to form mental structure that will help them master new knowledge and relate it to acquired knowledge. (Birbili) Concept maps can facilitate teaching and learning. They can help both teachers and students to identify the key concepts and principles that they must focus on for any specific learning task (Novak & Godwin, 1984). Today, concept mapping is used by teachers and students in the classroom and in the corporate world (Novak, 1998).

External Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_map

This website gives a summary of concept maps and will take you to other links.

http://wwwcsi.unian.it/educa/curriculum/vita_jdn.html

This website gives information about Novak's accomplishments.

http://www.inspiration.com/vlearning/index.cfm?fuseaction=concept_maps

This website gives information about the use of graphic organizers, using colorful diagrams. This site also connects you to Kidspiration.

http://www.graphic.org/goindex.html

This website gives information and examples of graphic organizers, concept mapping, and mind mapping.

http://www.ihmc.us/users/user.php?UserID=acanas

This website gives information about Canas's accomplishments.

http://users.edte.utwente.nl/lanzing/cm_home.htm

This website gives vital information on concept maps and also includes links for extra information.

References

Baroody, A. J. & Bartels, B. H.(2000). Using Concept Maps to Link Mathematical Ideas.

Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 5 n9.

Birbili, Maria. ( no date) Mapping Knowledge: Concept Maps in Early Childhood Education. http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v8n2/birbili.html

Retreived 4-3-2007.

Boxtel, C., Linden,J., Roelofs, E. & Erkens, G. (2002). Collaborative Concept Mapping: Provoking and Supporting meaningful Discourse. Theory into Practice 41.

Cañas, A. and Novak, J. (2006). The Theory Underlyng Concept Maps and How to Construct Them. Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition , Pensacola Fl

Llewellyn, Douglas. (2007). Making the most of concept maps. Science Scope 30.

Mintzes, J. J.,Wandersee, J. H., & Novak, J.D. (2001). Assessing understanding in biology. Journal of Biological Education, 35.

Novak, Joseph D. 1998. Learning, Creating, and Using knowledge:

concept Maps as facilitative Tools in Schools and Corporations. Lawrence erlbaum Associates. Mahwah, New Jersey.

Novak, J.D. & Godwin, D. B.(1984). Learning how to learn. Cambridge University Press. New York.

Taricani, Ellen. (2007).Effects of the Level of Generativity in Concept Mapping with knowledge of correct Response Feed Back on Learning. International Journal of Instructional Media, 34.

Appendix

------Comments by Julie McGill

This wiki looks very professional. I was immediatley impressed with the concept map you provided and the table. I noticed that the link to the hierachy page is not working, or that page had not been created.

Also, the one external link referring to Novak and NASA could be created by placing your |name so that the web address doesn't show.

Is there any research that relates schema and concept mapping?

Your statement "concept mapping is used in the classroom and the coporate world." What rspecific examples from reading (especially with emergent readers)research is available? Kim Freeman

--------commentary by Kelly Murphy

I think that you guys did a great job on this wiki. However, I think it would be helpful if you would put the concept map visual closer to the beginning of your page. As a student of Barnes I am familiar with concept mapping because he introduced it to me, but if I was not in his class I would have never seen one. So, I think if I was unfamiliar with concept mapping I would have a difficult time understanding the page without seeing an example before hand.

I noticed that one of your links is not working. On the focus question link your sentence does not make sense.

I think it would be interesting if you made a relationship between concept mapping and schema theory.

This commentary is a work in progress.

Commentary by Annette Gebhardt

Concept maps are something fairly new to me. Your wiki explained them well. I found the directions to construct them particulary helpful. I also enjoyed learning about the connection their creators have to UWF. I agree that concept maps seem intimidating but you explained their construction well and I am eager to give them a try.

In the Introductory paragraph, you used commas and parentheses around "cross links." I was wondering if you meant to make that a link because the commas are not necessary.

I found another link that looked interesting about different kinds of concept maps Concept Maps.