Volume 8, Number 3/4, 1997
Contents
James M. Laffey and Jon Singer 363
David Kennedy and Carmel McNaught 389
Erkki Rautama, Erkki Sutinen, and Jorma Tarhio 407
Piet Kommers and Jan Lanzing 421
Melody Ann Williams 457
Ed M.J.C. Moen and Kerst Th. Boersma
Abstracts
Piet Kommers
University of Twente, The Netherlands kommers@edte.utwente.nlA rather drastic attempt to benefit from computers in our schools is to see them as prostheses for thinking, reasoning, estimating, experimenting, and learning. Most intriguing in these attempts is that we are confronted with new views on the process of learning. An even further speculation would be that learning tools might even change the way we learn, as they finally embody the ways we think and imagine. Looking back to dominant views on learning we see associationism, behaviorism, and cybernetics which gave in-depth change to teaching models, didactic procedures, and the way teachers tend to structure, sequence, and represent learning events. As students are immersed in the teachers’ explanations, thinking procedures, and testing for longer periods we may expect that students are shaped by popular teaching methods and will hence incorporate dominant views on learning at that period.
Teachers are normally considered well-educated, legitimate, representative, honorable, and flexible members of our society; they are trusted to be responsible for the way students think and learn. Computer programs, which articulate, amplify, and consolidate certain aspects of students’ learning, trigger a more fundamental and delicate discussion about the effectiveness and validity of the underlying view on human mentality. Apart from the optimization and validation of the current learning tools, it becomes an ever-increasing challenge to formulate new design rationales for designing the next generation of learning tools.
David H. Jonassen
Instructional Systems Program, 269 Chambers Building The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802-3206, USAdhj2@psu.edu
Thomas C. Reeves
Department of Instructional Technology College of Education, The University of Georgia 607 Aderhold Hall\Athens, GA 30602-7144, USAtreeves@coe.uga.edu
Namsoo Hong, Douglas Harvey, and Karen Peters
The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802-3206, USAIn the past decade, concept mapping has become an increasingly popular educational activity for helping students study and analyze content domains. It has become so popular that, like the hemispherical lateralization brain research of the late 1970s, the rationales and results of concept mapping are being exaggerated and distorted by many accounts. The purpose of this article is to briefly lay a conceptual foundation for using concept mapping as a cognitive learning strategy and as a method for assessing structural knowledge, and to review the small but growing body of research related to both applications. Following that, some of the conceptual and empirical limitations of concept mapping will be described.
Svetoslav Stojanov
Faculty of Educational Science and Technology Division of Educational Instrumentation, University of Twente P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede , The Netherlandsstoyanov@edte.utwente.nl
The effectiveness of cognitive mapping is defined operationally in the terms of general beneficial, differential, and compensation effects. The contribution of the concept mapping method will mainly be discussed in the context of student assignments in an ill-structured hypermedia design environment. The supposed effects will be checked against the uniqueness of cognitive mapping, cognitive mapping styles, and cognitive mapping as a creative problem solving technique. The most salient theories on which the current practice of cognitive mapping is built upon are discussed, with an emphasis on problem solving representations and meta-cognition.
Concept Mapping in Learning Biology: Theoretical Review on Cognitive and Learning Styles
Heling Huai
Capital Normal University Beijing, 100037, Chinahheling@mailhost.cnu.edu.cn
This paper describes the current situation of teaching and learning in China and the features of biology science. It reviews the existing theories of cognitive and learning styles as well as concept mapping. Concept mapping, as a cognitive tool, can be used to compensate the deficiencies of both holists and serialists. A Concept Mapping Training Course (CMTC), which contains two different approaches (globalistic CMTC and specialistic CMTC), is outlined as the integration of concept mapping and learning biology. The students’ different cognitive styles are taken into account in CMTC design.
Collaborative Construction of Conceptual Understanding: Interaction Processes and Learning Outcomes Emerging From a Concept Mapping and a Poster Task
Carla van Boxtel, Jos van der Linden, and Gellof Kanselaar
Utrecht University, Department of Educational Sciences Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht, The NetherlandsC.vanBoxtel@fsw.ruu.nl
The nature of the task is an important factor in cooperative learning which can promote or constrain a productive interaction between students. This article reports the results obtained from an experiment in which interaction processes and learning outcomes of dyads working on different cooperative tasks were compared. The tasks were meant to improve the quality of concept knowledge within the domain of electricity. A concept mapping task was compared with a poster task. The study also examined the impact of a phase of individual preparation before starting collaborative learning activities. Subjects were 40, 16/17-year-old students. An analysis of variance showed no significant effect of the product that was sought. Students who prepared individually scored higher on one unit of the post-test. Interaction in all conditions was characterised by talk that is considered important in stimulating conceptual understanding, such as verbalisation of ideas about concepts, reasoning, and question asking. This kind of talk appeared to correlate with scores on the essay question of the post-test. Students working on a concept map talked more intensively about concepts than students working on a poster. In the conditions with individual preparation, students asked relatively more verification questions.
Using Mapping for Cognitive Assessment in Project Based Science
James M. Laffey
Center for Technology Innovation in Education 111 London Hall University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO 65211, USAjim@coe.missouri.edu
Jon Singer
School of Education 610 E. University Ave., Rm 2413 University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1259, USAMapping techniques have potential for contributing to assessment in project-based science (PBS). Mapping supports students as they articulate their thinking in doing complex learning tasks and supports teachers as they monitor and assess student progress and understanding. To advance understanding of how mapping can contribute to PBS and cognitive assessment, 31 students used mapping in a year-long PBS course. Mapping was one component of a set of assessment techniques. Teacher and student interviews, student surveys, and assessment scores from multiple points in the PBS course show that mapping, as a visual representation of student understanding, benefits both the doing and assessment of projects. The findings of a complex relation of map scores with other assessment measures indicate that a simple, singular model of growth is not sufficient for explaining achievement in PBS and that more study is needed.
Use of Concept Mapping in the Design of Learning Tools for Interactive Multimedia
David Kennedy
The University of Melbourne Multimedia Education Unit Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australiad.kennedy@meu.unimelb.edu.au
Carmel McNaught
Academic Development Unit, La Trobe University, Bundoora 3083, AustraliaC.McNaught@latrobe.edu.au
This is a time of rapid technological change in educational technologies. The advent of the World Wide Web (WWW) in particular has the potential to alter the design and delivery of academic courses in higher education. However, the need to embed sound pedagogy in the design of WWW courseware and provide lecturers/ teachers with flexible, simple to implement computer-based learning tools is paramount if there is to be any lasting improvements in student learning outcomes.
This paper describes the use of concept mapping as a tool to gather data about student misconceptions. The student concept maps have been used to inform the design and development of an innovative, simple to use, computer-based learning tool which may be incorporated into on-line courseware. The interactive graphing tool (IGT) is designed to allow students to construct their own understanding of the relation between dynamic time-based variables. The examples provided in the paper are from chemistry, however, many other academic disciplines will benefit from a learning tool which allows students to develop an understanding of graphical representations of knowledge.
Supporting Learning Process with Concept Map Scripts
Erkki Rautama
Department of Computer Science P.O. Box 26 (Teollisuuskatu 23), FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finlandrautama@cs.helsinki.fi
Erkki Sutinen
Department of Computer Science P.O. Box 26 (Teollisuuskatu 23), FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finlandsutinen@cs.helsinki.fi
Jorma Tarhio
Department of Computer Science P.O.Box 111, FIN-80101 University of Joensuu, Joensuu, Finlandtarhio@cs.joensuu.fi
Concept mapping is a method used to comprehend and interpret a complex subject. We describe a framework for computer-aided concept mapping that provides the means to easily trace the learning process. We present the construction of a concept map as a script which consists of elementary operations, like adding a new concept and linking it to other ones. Our approach can be applied in presentation tools, in evaluating the learning process, and in computer-aided learning.
Students’ Concept Mapping for Hypermedia Design: Navigation Through World Wide Web (WWW) Space and Self-Assessment
Piet Kommers and Jan Lanzing
University of Twente, The Netherlandskommers@edte.utwente.nl
This chapter addresses the main functions of concept mapping as a student activity in their learning processes. Concept mapping can be used as a
1. design method to be used as a structural scaffolding technique before and during the development of hypermedia products,
2. navigation device for students who need orientation while they explore wide information domains like hypermedia documents on CD-ROMs or WWW,
3. knowledge elicitation technique to be used by students as they try to articulate and synthesize their actual states of knowledge in the various states in the learning process, and
4. authentic knowledge assessment tool to enable students to diagnose their own level of understanding and to detect misconceptions.
The conclusion in this article is that concept mapping is essentially a method to regulate the ratios between fragmentation/coherence and cognitive-overhead/flexibility during the students’ browsing in hyperlinked documents. As a hypothesis for further research it is posed that increasing the coherence criterion reduces the cognitive flexibility, while decreasing the cognitive overhead brings along a higher risk of fragmentation. As a consequence there is the need for additional metalevel awareness by the student, accomplished with a dynamic browsing control as an applet, in for example, Netscape. Two appendices demonstrate a rule-based mechanism (in Prolog) and a Java-applet for the regulation of learners’ browsing scope.
Melody Ann Williams
Science Department, Shortwood Teachers’ College 77 Shortwood Road, Kingston 8 Jamaica, West Indiesmelody@colis.com
The Jamaican lower secondary education system is currently undergoing curriculum reform. In order to clarify essential, but vulnerable aspects of the methodology for science curriculum, three self-instructional modules were developed for the concept mapping, co-operative grouping, and laboratory practical approaches. These modules were pilot-tested in Jamaica in order to make conclusions on the quality of each module and gather information to improve the modules for further implementation. Six teachers were invited to use the modules and evaluate each one mainly in terms of its practicality and effectivity; experts evaluated the modules in terms of accuracy of content and application of instructional design principles; students gave their perceptions of the strategy. Questionnaires, observation schedules, and interviews were the primary means of data collection. The formative evaluation revealed, among other things, that the modules enhanced the teachers’ understanding of the R.O.S.E., or Reform Of Secondary Education methodology. However, the content of each module needs to be reduced to facilitate ease of use on the job. Suggestions for improvement were noted and will be used to revise the modules. For the purpose of this journal, only those issues that have implications for student learning and teaching using the concept mapping strategy will be discussed.
The Significance of Concept Mapping for Education and Curriculum Development
Ed M.J.C. Moen and Kerst Th. Boersma
National Institute for Curriculum Development (SLO) Department of Research and Development PO Box 2041, 7500 CA Enschede, The Netherlandse.moen@slo.nl / k.boersma@slo.nl
In this article the significance of concept mapping for education and curriculum development is explored. The results of the exploration will be used for the evaluation of concept mapping tools. Functions of concept mapping tools are explored in a description of a reproductive and a productive curriculum, curriculum development, and education. Knowledge production seems to be a common element in curriculum development for a reproductive curriculum and productive learning. Knowledge production is a process of structuring, presenting, and reflecting knowledge elements. Concept mapping is a tool that contributes to the efficiency of these processes. However, the formalisms of concept mapping are not sufficient for modelling knowledge and complex thinking processes. Research shows that a rigid use of concept mapping in education is not effective and should be supplied carefully according to the student’s prior knowledge. Furthermore, the use of concept mapping should be integrated into the school’s vision upon knowledge construction and should be synchronous with other didactic planning issues.