Concept map
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Concept mapping is a technique for visualizing the relations between concepts. Its purpose is to form or assess a person's cognitive map. A concept map is a diagram showing the relationships between concepts. Concepts, like "tree" or "plant", are connected with labelled arrows, for example ("is-a", "related-to" or "part of"). The addition of labeled and flexible links (attached during or after construction) has been found to significantly improve the level of meaningful learning and communication of the concept mapper.
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Usage
Concept maps are used to stimulate and organize idea generation, and are believed to aid creativity. For example, concept mapping is sometimes used for brain-storming. Although they are often personalized and idiosyncratic, concept maps can be used to communicate complex ideas.
Formalized concept maps are used in software design, where a common usage is Unified Modelling Language diagramming amongst similar conventions and development methodologies.
Concept mapping can also be seen as a first step in ontology-building, and can also be used flexibly to represent formal argument.
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Concept maps are widely used in education and business for:
- Note taking and summarizing
- Knowledge elicitation
- Knowledge capturing
- New knowledge creation
- Institutional knowledge preservation (retention)
- Collaborative knowledge modeling and the transfer of expert knowledge
- Determining shared understanding within the organization
- Instructional design
- Training
- Brainstorming
- Increasing meaningful learning
- Communicating complex ideas and arguments
- Enhancing metacognition (learning to learn)
- Enhancing memory
- Improving language ability
Contrast with Mind mapping
Concept mapping can be contrasted with the similar idea of Mind mapping. The latter is restricted to radial hierarchies and tree structures, whereas concept maps allow for a greater range of connections between concepts and promote meaningful learning and communication through the specific labeling of between-concept associations
Empirical evidence
Decades of empirical and qualitative research has verified the efficacy of concept maps for the tasks mentioned above.
The technique of concept mapping was developed by Joseph D. Novak [1] (http://wwwcsi.unian.it/educa/curriculum/vita_jdn.html) [2] (http://www.ihmc.us/users/user.php?UserID=jnovak) at Cornell University in the 1960s. Concept maps have their origin in the learning movement called constructivism. In particular, constructivists hold that prior knowledge is used as a framework to learn new knowledge. His work was based on the theories of David Ausubel (assimilation theory), who stressed the importance of prior knowledge in being able to learn about new concepts. In his book Learning to Learn, Novak concluded that "meaningful learning involves the assimilation of new concepts and propositions into existing cognitive structures."
See also
External links
- IHMC CmapTools (http://cmap.ihmc.us/download).
- Inspiration is a commercial mind-mapping application by Inspiration Software (http://inspiration.com/productinfo/inspiration/index.cfm).
- Thinking with Pictures (http://www.logo.com/cat/view/thinking-pictures.html) is commercial highly visual model mapping software for children running on MS Windows.
- Wiki dedicated to conceptmapping (http://wiki.conceptmapping.org/)
- Concept Mapping Homepage by Jan Lanzing (http://users.edte.utwente.nl/lanzing/cm_home.htm)
- "The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How To Construct Them" (http://cmap.coginst.uwf.edu/info/printer.html), Joseph D. Novak, Cornell University
- Italian Site on the Concept Mapping use in the school, by Marco Guastavigna (http://www.pavonerisorse.to.it/cacrt/mappe/)
- For more information see the WikEd version of Concept mapping: [3] (http://moodle.ed.uiuc.edu/wiked/index.php/Concept_mapping)
- Advance organizers (http://moodle.ed.uiuc.edu/wiked/index.php/Advance_organizers)