Journal of Interactive Learning Research
Volume 8, Number 3/4, 1997
Contents
Piet Kommers, Editor 281
David H. Jonassen, Thomas C. Reeves, Namsoo Hong, Douglas Harvey,
and Karen Peters 289
Svetoslav Stoyanov 309
Heling Huai 325
Carla van Boxtel, Jos van der Linden, and Gellof Kanselaar 341
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
Special Issue Preface
Concept Mapping
Piet Kommers
University of Twente, The Netherlands
kommers@edte.utwente.nl
A 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.
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Concept Mapping as Cognitive Learning
and Assessment Tools
David H. Jonassen
Instructional Systems Program, 269 Chambers Building
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802-3206, USA
dhj2@psu.edu
Thomas C. Reeves
Department of Instructional Technology
College of Education, The University of Georgia
607 Aderhold Hall\Athens, GA 30602-7144, USA
treeves@coe.uga.edu
Namsoo Hong, Douglas Harvey, and Karen Peters
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802-3206, USA
In 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.
Cognitive Mapping as a Learning Method
in Hypermedia Design
Svetoslav Stojanov
Faculty of Educational Science and Technology
Division of Educational Instrumentation, University of Twente
P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede , The Netherlands
stoyanov@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, China
hheling@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 Netherlands
C.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, USA
jim@coe.missouri.edu
Jon Singer
School of Education
610 E. University Ave., Rm 2413
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1259, USA
Mapping 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, Australia
d.kennedy@meu.unimelb.edu.au
Carmel McNaught
Academic Development Unit,
La Trobe University, Bundoora 3083, Australia
C.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, Finland
rautama@cs.helsinki.fi
Erkki Sutinen
Department of Computer Science
P.O. Box 26 (Teollisuuskatu 23), FIN-00014
University of Helsinki, Finland
sutinen@cs.helsinki.fi
Jorma Tarhio
Department of Computer Science
P.O.Box 111, FIN-80101
University of Joensuu, Joensuu, Finland
tarhio@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 Netherlands
kommers@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.
Integrating
Concept Mapping Into the Science Curriculum and Instructional Practice: Teacher
Experiences, Observations, and Recommendations for Future Projects
Melody Ann Williams
Science Department, Shortwood Teachers’ College
77 Shortwood Road, Kingston 8
Jamaica, West Indies
melody@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.
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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 Netherlands
e.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.
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