Critical Evaluation Toolkit

Concept maps

Using concept maps in planning a curriculum or instruction on a specific topic helps to make the instruction 'conceptually transparent' to students. Many students have difficulty identifying and constructing powerful concept and propositional frameworks, leading them to see science learning as a blur of myriad facts or equations to be memorized. If concept maps are used in planning instruction and students are required to construct concept maps as they are learning, previously unsuccessful students can become successful in making sense out of science and acquiring a feeling of control over the subject matter.

The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How To Construct Them.
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 23 October, 2006.
http://www.cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryUnderlyingConceptsMaps.pdf

Using concept maps

Concept maps are tools for organising and representing ideas, concepts and information diagrammatically, through a series of interconnected circles, boxes and lines.

The benefits of concept maps are that they enable students to:

• Establish connections between ideas they already have;
• Connect new ideas to existing knowledge; and
• Organise ideas in a logical, but not rigid, structure that can be updated.

How to create a concept map

• Read widely on the subject to identify 10-15 key concepts or ideas and several examples. (Use different colours to distinguish concepts and examples);
• Write ideas on a large sheet of paper with the most abstract ones at the top and the most specific at the bottom. Don't include the examples yet. (Do this step on post-it notes so that you can move the concepts around);
• If possible, arrange the concepts so that ideas go directly under ideas that they are related to (hierarchically). Duplicate the post-its to show overlap. Add concepts that help explain, connect, or expand the ideas;
• Connect the abstract concepts at the top to the specific concepts lower down or on the same level. Rearrange the post-its during this stage;
• On the connecting lines, write words or phrases that explain the relationship between the concepts. Continue to rearrange the pieces of paper until the relationships are clear;
• Put the examples under the concepts they belong with, and connect the concept to the example with a phrase such as 'for example.'

Adapted from: Concept Mapping.
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 20 March, 2006.
http://www.gpc.edu/~shale/humanities/composition/handouts/concept.html

Why not:

Take 15 minutes of a lecture to ask students to break into groups of four and pool their understanding of how your course or subject 'fits' in the overall design of the degree program by concept mapping.

Then draw your own understanding on the board and check students' concept maps against it.

Some further information and software tools for concept mapping

Concept Maps: A Theoretical Note on Concepts and the Need for Cyclic Concept Maps.
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 20 March, 2006.
http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/Cyclic%20Concept%20Maps.pdf

Concept Mapping.
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 20 March, 2006.
http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/map_ho.html

An example of a basic concept map appears below:

Figure 1. An example of a simple concept map. This map illustrates some of the key characteristics of concept maps.

Fraser, K. (1996). Student Centred Teaching: The Development and Use of Conceptual Frameworks . Herdsa Green Guide. ACT, Australia: HERDSA, p.3.

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