scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question

Showing papers on "Concept map published in 2003"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Describing of how three kinds of cognitive tools—semantic networks, expert systems, and systems modeling tools—can be used to externalize learner’s internal representations are provided are provided.
Abstract: The premise of this paper is that the key to problem solving is adequately representing the problem to be solved. Most research has focused on how problems are (re)presented to learners. The assumption that those external representations naturally map onto learners’ internal representations of problems has not been confirmed. New research has examined the role of tools for externalizing learners’ internal representations. Descriptions of how three kinds of cognitive tools—semantic networks, expert systems, and systems modeling tools—can be used to externalize learner’s internal representations are provided. Research is needed to study the efficacy of these tools for supporting problem solving.

302 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The hierarchical map improved comprehension for the low knowledge participants at the global, but not at the local level, and there was no effect of content representation on the comprehension of high prior knowledge students.
Abstract: This study investigated the role of various types of content representation devices on the comprehension of an expository hypertext. We hypothesized that hierarchical representations, but not network representations, may help low prior knowledge students organize their representation of the text contents. Forty-seven students with low or high prior knowledge in Social Psychology were asked to read a hypertext using one of three content representations: a hierarchical map, a network map and an alphabetic list. Then, the participants performed a multiple choice comprehension task, a summary task and a concept map drawing task. The hierarchical map improved comprehension for the low knowledge participants at the global, but not at the local level. There was no effect of content representation on the comprehension of high prior knowledge students. We discuss the implications of these results for a theory of the comprehension processes involved in reading hypertext.

178 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This research program has built on the cognitive learning theory of David Ausubel and various sources of new ideas on epistemology and has focused on understanding meaningful learning and on developing better methods to achieve such learning and to assess progress in meaningful learning.
Abstract: There have been enormous advances in our understanding of human learning in the past three decades. There have also been important advances in our understanding of the nature of knowledge and new knowledge creation. These advances, when combined with the explosive development of the Internet and other technologies, permit advances in educational practices at least as important as the invention of the printing press in 1460. We have built on the cognitive learning theory of David Ausubel and various sources of new ideas on epistemology. Our research program has focused on understanding meaningful learning and on developing better methods to achieve such learning and to assess progress in meaningful learning. The concept map tool developed in our program has proved to be highly effective both in promoting meaningful learning and in assessing learning outcomes. Concept mapping strategies are also proving powerful for eliciting, capturing, and archiving knowledge of experts and organizations. New technology for creating concept maps developed at the University of West Florida permits easier and better concept map construction, thus facilitating learning, knowledge capture, and local or distance creation and sharing of structured knowledge, especially when utilized with the Internet. A huge gap exists between what we now know to improve learning and use of knowledge and the practices currently in place in most schools and corporations. There are promising projects in progress that may help to achieve accelerated advances. These include projects in schools at all educational levels, including projects in Colombia, Costa Rica, Italy, Spain, and the United States, and collaborative projects with corporate organizations and distance learning projects. Results to date have been encouraging and suggest that we may be moving from the lag phase of educational innovation to a phase of exponential growth.

148 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This study proposes a web-based collaborative inquiry learning system that uses the World-wide web as a source of knowledge exploration, and provides exploratory problems to guide students to think and explore.
Abstract: This study proposes a web-based collaborative inquiry learning system. This system uses the World-wide web (WWW) as a source of knowledge exploration, and provides exploratory problems to guide students to think and explore. A concept map is used as a tool of anchoring and representing knowledge during inquiry process. In the process of learning, learners are allowed to exchange the evidence they have collected, their personal opinions, and the concept maps that they have built. In order to effectively integrate the inquiry learning, collaborative learning, and concept map in the system, this study proposes a collaborative inquiry learning model and related learning activities. Two studies were constructed based on the collaborative inquiry learning model to investigate students' learning processes in the collaborative inquiry learning on the web.

114 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: CoMPASS is a hypertext system that presents students with external, graphical representations in the form of concept maps as well as textual representations both of which change dynamically as students traverse through the domain and make navigational decisions.
Abstract: This article discusses the design of Concept Mapped Project-Based Activity Scaffolding System (CoMPASS) and the theoretical foundations that it is based on. CoMPASS is a hypertext system that presents students with external, graphical representations in the form of concept maps as well as textual representations both of which change dynamically as students traverse through the domain and make navigational decisions. In a study in which middle school students used CoMPASS, students' navigation paths, as well as their learning outcomes, were analyzed. A comparison class in which students used the system without the maps for navigation provided information about students' use of the maps for navigation and its effect on their learning. It was found that students who used the maps version of the system performed significantly better in a concept mapping test as well as an essay test, and their navigation was more focused. This article discusses the findings of the study and its implications for designing hypertext systems.

107 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explain concept/cognitive mapping as a teaching strategy for several aspects of course work and discuss strategies for remediation to help learners assimilate new information.
Abstract: Students must deal with vast amounts of information in multiple formats, yet their ability to organize and link data in a logical way varies widely. Concept mapping offers nurse educators a useful tool to assist nursing students in wading through and critically analyzing this information more effectively. This article explains concept/cognitive mapping as a teaching strategy for several aspects of course work. Types and examples of maps developed by undergraduate and graduate students are used as illustrations and points of discussion. Illustrations are assessed according to type of map, information presented, aspects of the maps that facilitate meaningful learning, and what information is missing. Strategies for remediation to help learners assimilate new information are included. Finally, implementation of mapping in nursing education and ideas for research in concept/cognitive mapping are discussed.

94 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe two pilot studies investigating the use of concept mapping for assessing students' conceptual knowledge at a given point and over time, and discuss their implications for theories about the structure of knowledge and identification of the skills associated with a culture of practice.
Abstract: This paper describes two pilot studies investigating the use of concept mapping for assessing students' conceptual knowledge at a given point and over time. In Study 1, three groups constructed concept maps in response to the question, “What are the 10–20 most important concepts in biomedical engineering and how are they related?” Group differences were consistent with expert-novice distinctions in structural knowledge: faculty generated dense networks of higher-order principles and their applications while students generated fewer connections among concepts pertaining largely to domain content. Study 2 assessed students' conceptual understanding of the biomedical engineering design process in a yearlong design course at three different time points. Later maps contained a greater number of concepts, more precise vocabulary, and were more valid. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for theories about the structure of knowledge and identification of the skills associated with a culture of practice.

93 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluated two instruments, the interview and concept map, for accessing practical knowledge in the context of teacher education, and concluded that both instruments can help student teachers to access practical knowledge.
Abstract: Mentor teachers' practical knowledgeoften remains implicit for the student teachersthey supervise. Practical knowledge consists ofvarious cognitions that clarify mentors' ownlessons and the feedback given to studentteachers. The aim of the present study was toevaluate two instruments, the interview andconcept map, for accessing practical knowledgein the context of teacher education. Seventystudent teachers participating in apostgraduate teacher education programme in theNetherlands interviewed their mentors anddiscussed a concept map made by these mentors.They summarised their mentors' explicatedpractical knowledge about 'teaching' and'order', wrote down their learning experiences,and evaluated both instruments. Severalcategories of learning experiences andevaluations were derived from the reports thatwere analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The summaries of practicalknowledge were analysed using two distinctions:(1) 'absolute' versus 'situational' and (2)'descriptive' versus 'analytical' statements.At least half of the student teachers evaluatedinterviewing and concept mapping positively foraccessing practical knowledge. The analysisshowed that concept mapping had elicited morereasons underlying teaching than interviewing.It was concluded that both instrumentscan help student teachers to access practicalknowledge, each revealing qualitativelydifferent information: interviewing yieldedmore concrete, practical information while thatproduced by concept mapping was moreabstract.

90 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
27 May 2003
TL;DR: The GetSmart system was created to apply knowledge management techniques in a learning environment based on an analysis of learning theory and the information search process and is revealing interesting knowledge representation patterns.
Abstract: The National Science Digital Library (NSDL), launched in December 2002, is emerging as a center of innovation in digital libraries as applied to education. As a part of this extensive project, the GetSmart system was created to apply knowledge management techniques in a learning environment. The design of the system is based on an analysis of learning theory and the information search process. Its key notion is the integration of search tools and curriculum support with concept mapping. More than 100 students at the University of Arizona and Virginia Tech used the system in the fall of 2002. A database of more than one thousand student-prepared concept maps has been collected with more than forty thousand relationships expressed in semantic, graphical, node-link representations. Preliminary analysis of the collected data is revealing interesting knowledge representation patterns.

84 citations


Book ChapterDOI
08 Oct 2003
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an algorithm that uses WordNet to disambiguate the sense of a word from a concept map, using the map itself to provide its context.
Abstract: The construction of a concept map consists of enumerating a list of concepts and – a more difficult task – determining the linking phrases that should connect the concepts to form meaningful propositions. Appropriate word selection, both for concepts and linking phrases, is key for an accurate knowledge representation of the user’s understanding of the domain. We present an algorithm that uses WordNet to disambiguate the sense of a word from a concept map, using the map itself to provide its context. Results of preliminary experimental evaluations of the algorithm are presented. We propose to use the algorithm to (a) enhance the ”understanding” of the concept map by modules in the CmapTools software that aide the user during map construction, and (b) sort the meanings of a word selected from a concept map according to their relevance within the map when the user navigates through WordNet’s hierarchies searching for more appropriate terms.

75 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
23 Oct 2003
TL;DR: This paper describes ongoing research on methods to provide content-based support to users as they extend concept maps by adding concepts and propositions, and as they select topics for new maps, and describes preliminary experiments to assess their performance.
Abstract: Electronic concept mapping tools empower experts to play an active role in the knowledge capture process, and provide a medium for building richly connected multimedia knowledge models---sets of linked concept maps and resources about a particular domain. Knowledge models are intended to be used as a means for sharing knowledge among humans, not as carefully-crafted knowledge bases upon which machines will be performing inference. However, users must still confront the questions of what to include in a concept map and which concept maps to include in a knowledge model. This paper describes ongoing research on methods to provide content-based support to users as they extend concept maps by adding concepts and propositions, and as they select topics for new maps. The goal is to provide scaffolding for experts as they build their own concept maps, link their maps to others', and decide how to extend their knowledge models. The paper presents three approaches which start from a concept map under construction and mine related information---both from prior concept maps, and from the web---to propose information to aid the user's knowledge capture and knowledge construction. The paper begins with a brief summary of the concept mapping process and the CmapTools concept mapping software. It then presents three types of implemented suggesters, to suggest concepts, propositions, concept maps, and new topics to aid experts using the CmapTools, and describes preliminary experiments to assess their performance. It closes with a discussion of next steps for testing and refining these methods.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: TPL-KATS—Concept Map can automate the entire concept map task, from instructions, to administration, to scoring, and can be a valuable resource in training, interface design, and education as well.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider effective dialogue between teacher and student essential for promoting meaningful learning in the classroom, and propose a model of practice to help uncover and explore this overlap, which is called concept maps.
Abstract: This article considers effective dialogue between teacher and student essential for promoting meaningful learning in the classroom. Effective dialogue enables teachers and students to be active in the construction of shared understanding by making explicit the overlap between the perspective held by novice (student) and expert (teacher). Concept maps provide a visual tool to illustrate such overlap in understanding and create something tangible to promote meaningful discussion. A description of a model of practice to help uncover and explore this overlap is given.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Concept maps, a specific kind of mental model, are one method of representing and measuring an individual’s knowledge and may aid the instructor in assessing what students understand and how they relate the material to the overall course goals.
Abstract: Concept maps, a specific kind of mental model, are one method of representing and measuring an individual’s knowledge. They are an alternative tool for teaching through building relevant associations, and a method for measuring knowledge and recall over time. Concept maps provide a visual representation of conceptual and relationship knowledge within a particular domain. Concept maps look like a spider web, consisting of many nodes (i.e., key concepts) connected to one another by lines that indicate relationships. In the learning process, students can develop concept maps as an alternative to traditional note-taking by building associations of non-linear key concepts and organizing them to fit with their individual learning styles and frames of reference. The presence of concepts and relationships on a map can provide an instructor with a snapshot of student knowledge and understanding. The proximity and connection of key concepts provide insight for instructors attempting to evaluate how ideas from class were absorbed by students. Conversely, the absence of concepts or relationships, or inappropriate connections between unrelated concepts, provide clues about what information students failed to internalize or incorporate. Concept maps may aid the instructor in assessing what students understand and how they relate the material to the overall course goals. They are easily taught and can be incorporated in introductory units, mid-term reviews and assessments, or end-ofcourse reviews and assessments.

01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: VCM, the verified concept mapper is described, a novel form of concept mapping designed to elicit a learner’s understanding, as a basis for building a learners model.
Abstract: Concept mapping is a technique for externalising a conceptualisation in terms of a visual two dimensional layout which shows the propositions believed by the learner as well as other similarity and hierarchy relationships. In this paper, we describe VCM, the verified concept mapper. It is a novel form of concept mapping designed to elicit a learner’s understanding, as a basis for building a learner model. We describe the display of the learner model as an aid to reflection. We report an early evaluation of the system and the ways that it has informed our understanding of the need for incremental modelling and reflection steps.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Assess-To-Learn framework provides a basis for the design of assessment activities incorporating principles from contemporary theories of learning and uses concept maps as the main tool of its assessment toolbox.
Abstract: Introduction Educational assessment is a process of drawing reasonable inferences about what students know on the basis of evidence derived from observation of what they say, do or make in selected situations (Pellegrino, Chudowsky, & Glaser, 2001). Educational assessment helps students to identify what they have already learned, to observe their personal learning progress and to decide how to further direct their learning process. On the other hand, teachers can exploit the assessment results in the direction of giving appropriate feedback and support to the students during the instruction, formulating judgements about the quality and the effectiveness of the provided educational material and modifying the curriculum, their instruction and their teaching practices/strategies. During the design of the assessment process, the teacher has to decide and determine basic elements of the assessment process, such as the purpose (i.e. formative assessment or summative assessment), the duration, the educational and the assessment goals, the educational resources that are necessary to support the assessment process and the assessment tools. The determination of these elements depends on various factors such as the diversity of learning theories, the diversity in what counts as evidence of learning, the teaching strategies that are followed, the number of students and the constraints of the educational setting, such as the cost. A variety of assessment tools may be employed in order to integrate the assessment process with the ongoing instruction, to document the students' growth, and to identify changes in their thinking and learning skills, such as various types of questions (e.g. free-response questions, questions based on short cases, etc) and concept mapping tasks. Each of these assessment tools has specific characteristics and may serve various assessment functions. Concept maps are considered to be a valuable tool of an assessment toolbox, as they provide an explicit and overt representation of the students' knowledge and promote meaningful learning (Mintzes, Wandersee, & Novak, 2000; Novak & Gowin, 1984; Novak, 1998). As reported in Pearsall, Skipper, and Mintzes (1997), concept maps "provide a unique window into the way learners structure their knowledge, offering an opportunity to assess both the propositional validity and the structural complexity of that knowledge base." In this paper, we propose a coherent and integrated framework for educational assessment purposes serving various assessment functions, ranging from a need to identify the students' prior knowledge to a need to draw conclusions about their overall understanding of the subject matter. The AssessToLearn framework provides a basis for the design of assessment activities incorporating principles from contemporary theories of learning and uses concept maps as the main tool of its assessment toolbox. It comprises a three-step process consisting of (i) Ascertaining the Students' Prior Knowledge--Activating Knowledge, (ii) Promoting Knowledge Construction & Identifying Conceptual Changes--Constructing & Enriching Knowledge, and (iii) Assessing Knowledge Construction--Refining Knowledge. The Assess-To-Learn framework constitutes the basis for the development of a web-based adaptive assessment environment, referred to as PASS (Personalized Assessment System supporting Adaptation and Learning). PASS aims to support the assessment process in the context of the framework and provide adaptive capabilities as far as the adaptation of the assessment process and the guidance/feedback given to the students during the assessment process are concerned. For the application and evaluation of the proposed assessment framework in a real classroom environment, an experimental study was conducted. The study was carried out in the context of the postgraduate course of "Distance Education and Learning" at the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications of the University of Athens during the spring-semester of the academic year 2001-2002. …

Proceedings ArticleDOI
12 Jan 2003
TL;DR: The interface components for a system called Bettys Brain, an intelligent agent developed for studying the learning by teaching paradigm, and the next generation interfaces in a multi-agent paradigm that should be more effective in promoting constructivist learning and self-regulation in thelearning by teaching framework are proposed.
Abstract: Bettys Brain [1] is a learning-by-teaching environment where students "teach" Betty by constructing a concept map that models relations between domain concepts. The relations can be causal, hierarchical, and property links between the entities that represent the domain. The goal is for students to understand and then teach Betty about interdependence and balance among entities in a river ecosystem. As a part of the teaching process, students can query and quiz Betty to assess her understanding based on what she has been taught.Students can query Betty by asking her two types of questions: (i) "What happens to when increase/decrease?" and (ii) "Tell me about ". Betty answers questions by employing a qualitative reasoning mechanism, and explains her answers verbally and by using animation. Bettys explanations, and some feedback on the correctness of the answers should prompt the students to think more deeply about the domain processes, and motivate them to learn better before they teach her againStudents can request external feedback by asking Betty to take quizzes that are administered by a teacher agent. The teacher agent uses an overlay model to provide hints about concepts and links missing from the concept map. The hint levels start from general (e.g., suggesting that the student read a particular resource) to specific (e.g. indicating that a link is missing between two specific concepts. By seeing the quiz questions, students become aware of which concepts are important to model domain phenomena. The feedback from the teacher agent, points the students to understanding interrelationships among conceptsResults from our most recent study indicate that the query feature appeared to be effective in helping students develop an understanding of the interrelationships of living and non-living things in an ecosystem. The quiz feature is effective in helping students decide the important domain concepts and types of relationships to teach Betty. However, our observations of students during the study suggest that students using the quiz feature may have been overly focused on "getting the quiz questions correct" rather than "making sure that Betty (and themselves) understood the information.To help students focus more on learning, the next versions of Betty and teacher agent will be more interactive and metacognitive. In addition, the teacher will provide feedback that is related more to the global issues of balance and interdependence instead of individual links.At the demonstration, we will have a working version of our teachable agent system, Bettys Brain. We will demonstrate its user interfaces for the student to create and modify their concept maps, the query interface, and Bettys response to queries, and the teacher agent interface that responds when the students ask for help. In addition, the system also contains online resources that students can refer to when they are creating and updating their concept maps.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Nursing educators must use teaching strategies designed to develop critical thinkers to continue the development of new nurse critical thinking skills using concept maps.
Abstract: Nursing educators must use teaching strategies designed to develop critical thinkers. Concept mapping helps fulfill this goal. Staff development instructors should continue the development of new nurse critical thinking skills using concept maps in a variety of ways.

01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the characteristics of environmental science and the teaching methods of Beijing Normal University, and discussed how to use constructivist teaching models in environmental science teaching and found that during teaching and learning, both the concept map and mind map are useful tools to promote active learning and the students' abilities to integrate knowledge; and that problem-based learning (PBL) and case studies can effectively motivate students' learning curiosity and develop creative abilities.
Abstract: Constructivist theory has been one of the latest catchwords in higher education circles in recent years. It not only emphasises active and collaborative learning, but also requires students and teachers to discover and construct knowledge together. This paper analyses the characteristics of environmental science and the teaching methods of Beijing Normal University, and discusses how to use constructivist teaching models in environmental science teaching. This paper will show: that during teaching and learning in environmental science, both the concept map and mind map are useful tools to promote active learning and the students’ abilities to integrate knowledge; and that problem-based learning (PBL) and the use of case studies can effectively motivate students’ learning curiosity and develop creative abilities. It is argued that constructivist teaching models and perspectives can improve environmental education reform in Chinese universities.

01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: A preliminary model of a concept map, based on Ausubel and Novak's work, was designed, and it proved to be relatively easy to construct and use and prompted the start of the planning phase of the implementation of the proposed knowledge repository.
Abstract: This working paper is an official research output for the Carnegie project, forming part of subproject 1 (ICT competencies in the workplace). Mind maps are inspected as a possible knowledge presentation tool, but are found to be unsuitable. Concept maps, based on Ausubel and Novak’s work, appeared to hold promise as a vehicle for implementation of the knowledge repository. A number of software programs are available to assist in the creation of concept maps, and one of them was used in the preliminary model. A large number of applications of concept maps in education was found in the literature, with mostly positive research results. Healthcare and related fields, as well as other less often covered areas were also represented in the literature. Based on the positive feedback, a preliminary model of a concept map was designed, and it proved to be relatively easy to construct and use. This result, plus the positive feedback from the literature survey, prompted the start of the planning phase of the implementation of the proposed knowledge repository.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss problems in developing Novak's style concept maps in Turkish caused by linguistic differences between Turkish and English and report the findings of a research study conducted to adapt concept maps to Turkish.
Abstract: Concept maps are being used by an increasing number of educators in Europe and the US. This paper has four goals. First, it discusses problems in developing Novak's style concept maps in Turkish caused by linguistic differences between Turkish and English. Second, it reports the findings of a research study conducted to adapt concept maps to Turkish. Third, it recommends three methods for the adaptation resulting from research findings. Finally, it discusses the implications of the adaptation for educators worldwide and for future research.


Journal Article
TL;DR: Examination of the students' textual communications showed that students would frequently manage teamwork coordination and collaborate on how to proceed with the group tasks, however, they rarely worked on processing knowledge, which should be central to the generation of concept maps.
Abstract: This study investigated how elementary school students cooperate to complete a shared learning task in a networked environment. A total of thirty students were organised to use a computer supported collaborative system to accomplish group tasks. The task included generating three concept maps. The collaborative system provided each member of each group with the capacity to control and modify shared concept maps. Examination of the students' textual communications showed that students would frequently manage teamwork coordination and collaborate on how to proceed with the group tasks. However, they rarely worked on processing knowledge, which should be central to the generation of concept maps. The findings of this exploratory study will not only enable us to identify the features of computer supported collaborative learning, but also provide hints on how to design or improve a collaborative system when applied in education.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Concept mapping is the most salient exemplar in this new line of visualization, which starts to accept that learning has lot to do with mental and emotional growth in which information access plays only a subordinate role.
Abstract: As computer-based visualizations like those in virtual reality and modelling for design and idea generation become more common, research interest may shift into a new and highly intriguing field: the question of how to promote a new type of visualization that is based on human conceptual imagination rather than the conventional perception of the 3D world around us. This is not an essentially new step, as we have already extended our naturalistic way of displaying what we saw into the more or less abstracted indication of what we take as crucial behind the meaning and impact of the issue, as in, for example, quantitative graphs, schematic displays of complex functioning, not to forget the topographical map itself. Maps may suggest that you see a landscape from a bird's-eye perspective. However, we soon perceive that without filtering and articulation there is no conveyance of thought and navigation. As visualization techniques develop, we attempt to display conceptual entities rather than reminiscences to objects and physical space. Concept mapping is the most salient exemplar in this new line. The paradigm is that any mental entity or process may appear in a spatial configuration of both concrete and abstract ideas. The further formalisms-how to control expressiveness and topology by pruning and zooming--are a matter of conventions that should fit in the contract between a task, its user, and the concrete representational device like a white board or a computer screen. Some tasks inherently aim at configurational awareness, such as planning and decision-making. Some tasks address the more intuitional stages of human thinking, like learning, persuasion, or worship. Concerning learning and teaching, the so-called instructional approach has almost become synonymous with effective cognitive growth. Over more recent years we have seen, however, that the cybernetic aspiration of the 1960s and 1970 has mainly led to an over-organization of study programmes and to students complaining that the school is like a factory and at the same time like a hospital. The term existential learning attempts to indicate the complement to this, in which the student is the main character in his or her longer-term development. Here we again start to accept that learning has lot to do with mental and emotional growth in which information access plays only a subordinate role.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
17 Sep 2003
TL;DR: A need for concept mapping to be used in conjunction with practical and cognitive apprenticeship is indicated, which will enlarge and strengthen the insight into the programming process and set a climate for enhancing programming skills of holistic learners.
Abstract: The current methods for teaching programming skills fail to concentrate on the effective tools and strategies conducive to the creation of in-depth understanding of programming concepts and procedures. Mind tools such as concept mapping are not appropriately investigated in the present programming classrooms. Thus the needs of learners, particularly the holistic learners, are neglected.The aim of this paper is to explore concept mapping and instructional strategies applicable in promoting programming skills of holistic learners. The nature of this research required a qualitative research approach where individual interviewing was used to gather data. Ten students at the institution for higher education were identified as holistic learners with a pre-screening device.The findings of this study reveal the necessity for concept mapping and a peer-based collaborative environment in order to enhance a meaningful programming atmosphere. Holistic learners commented that concept mapping enhanced their learning, as it stimulated simultaneous, deductive or intuitive, concrete, and subjective processes relevant to their style of learning. Concept mapping enabled learners to focus on fine details, experiencing a structured step-by-step approach, representing their knowledge structures graphically and visualising programming concepts and procedures as a network of interrelated ideas. Findings indicated a need for concept mapping to be used in conjunction with practical and cognitive apprenticeship. This will enlarge and strengthen the insight into the programming process and set a climate for enhancing programming skills of holistic learners.

Proceedings ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The development of the holistic metric is described and the scored maps relative to a number of student related factors are analyzed to evaluate programmatic objectives.
Abstract: In assessing students' conceptual understanding of their engineering discipline, traditional methods such as exams and surveys do not capture the level of knowledge integration that students have obtained about their field of study. At the University of Pittsburgh, we are investigating the use of concept maps to measure this "knowledge integration" as part of meeting program objectives. Unfortunately the qualitative nature of concept maps makes scoring and data analysis laborious. To combat this, a holistic metric was developed that effectively measures the comprehensiveness, structure and correctness of students' maps. In the spring of 2000, a sample of sophomore, junior and senior industrial engineering students developed concept maps of their field of study. This experiment was repeated in the fall of 2002 with seniors, many of who had participated in the initial experiment as sophomores. When traditional methods of scoring the maps yielded little information of value, a holistic approach was developed in an effort to quantify students' conceptual understanding of their engineering academic program. This paper describes the development of the holistic metric and analyzes the scored maps relative to a number of student related factors. Also discussed is how the scored maps can be further used to evaluate programmatic objectives.

01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: In this paper, a series of lessons about the particle model was developed for secondary schools in the Netherlands, where students were interviewed before they received instruction, and after about half of the instruction.
Abstract: A new chemistry curriculum for secondary schools is currently under construction in the Netherlands, in which chemical knowledge will be embedded in contexts that show applications of chemistry in the society. Several research groups develop such modules and a committee appointed by the Dutch Ministry of Education advises about the chemical content and concepts. A central issue in chemistry education is the relation between the real, molecular and symbolic world. Skilled chemists switch easily between these worlds, but beginning students do not. They could get better results and will be more able to solve problems if they would make better connections between the three chemical worlds. The University of Twente has developed a series of lessons about the particle model. Included in this instruction material are animations of chemical processes at the molecular level. In the lessons students are supported and stimulated to make connections between the three chemical worlds. Students are shown the importance of new chemical knowledge in society. The mental images and the knowledge schemata of the students are investigated in this research. The students were interviewed before they received instruction, and after they received about half of the instruction. At the end of the instruction they were asked to make a concept map. It appeared that the links between the real, molecular and symbolic world are not strengthened after the instruction. The students make more links between the real and symbolic world, but hardly connect these world to the molecular world or vice versa. There is still a gap between the students’ mental models and scientifically accepted models as represented in animations and illustrations in the instruction. Most students liked the animations in the instruction and mentioned them as strong point. It is therefore surprising that some students could not remember the animations when they were interviewed, whilst others their representations were about the same as the animations. Clearly, the effectiveness of the animations must be enhanced and more research is needed for this.


Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the views of preservice teachers on the concept of function are examined in relation to mathematical statements that can be related to different topics on a variety of levels in mathematics; in particular, concept mapping technique is a research tool of interest.
Abstract: This thesis consists of an overview of the subject, where in particular five papers are put into a frame. The research conducted for the thesis concerns the views of preservice teachers on the concept of function. Preservice teachers’ conceptions of the function concept are in particular examined in relation to mathematical statements that can be related to different topics on a variety of levels in mathematics; in this research, concept mapping technique is a research tool of interest. Questions concerning preservice teachers’ conceptions of the significance of functions in mathematics, and the presence of functions in school mathematics, are also considered relevant aspects of their views of functions. The final part of the research study includes an intervention study regarding the concept of function, located to a calculus course as one of the concluding courses in mathematics on the educational programme. There is a range of findings from the study that is summarized and further discussed in the overview part of the thesis. One result, is that preservice teachers in their reasoning show signs of knowledge compartmentalization which is an issue of concern in their development of conceptual frameworks rich in meaningful connections. This might have consequences for their abilities to operate in a constructivist environment and reason with their students from different points of view. The function concepts’ large network of relations to other concepts is frequently omitted in the preservice teachers’ reasoning. One reason for this is that to preservice teachers, properties of functions seem to be results of isolated procedures, associated with operational conceptions rather than structural conceptions of functions. The findings imply that preservice teachers should encounter functions in a variety of context, to develop their views of the concept of function – including frameworks rich of meaningful relations – and realize that the concept of function is one of the underlying concepts of mathematics, and an important concept to introduce to their future students. The preservice teachers’ reflections concerning functions in school mathematics contribute to emphasize the significance of the process of transformation of subject matter knowledge to pedagogical content knowledge. Further results of the research study, and an outline of the implications, are included in the concluding discussion of the overview part of the thesis. The preservice teachers participating in the study are enrolled in a four and a half year teacher preparation program in mathematics and science, grades 4 to 9. The five papers included in the thesis, describe parts of a larger study essentially conducted until the sixth term during the concluding mathematics courses of the program.

01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the design, use, and evaluation of an alternative form of instruction and assessment in a yearlong senior biomedical engineering (BME) design course at Vanderbilt University.
Abstract: Grounded in interdisciplinary efforts to improve student learning and professional development in the domain of bioengineering, this paper describes the design, use, and evaluation of an alternative form of instruction and assessment in a yearlong senior biomedical engineering (BME) design course at Vanderbilt University. Specifically, members of the Vanderbilt-Northwestern-Texas-Harvard/MIT Engineering Research Center (VaNTH ERC) Assessment and Evaluation Team and the instructor of a yearlong capstone BME design course developed and implemented ways in which concept mapping would (1) promote active student engagement with course material and (2) serve as a framework for helping students integrate new knowledge into existing knowledge. Consistent with our previous work in this area, quantitative analyses of concept maps created by students (n = 51) at the beginning and end of the fall semester showed significant growth in students’ conceptual knowledge of the design process. However, early and late maps did not differ in terms of associations among concepts. These findings suggest that while students are acquiring knowledge about design, they do not have a deep understanding of relationships among elements of the design process. As an indication of the extent to which concept maps actively engage students with course material, we are comparing this year’s class (i.e., Innovative group) and the previous year’s class which received traditional instruction (i.e., Traditional group), in terms of student final exam scores, course evaluations, learning strategy use, intrinsic motivation to learn, and perceptions of the course experience. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for theoretical understanding of the structure of knowledge, and instructor efforts to enhance students’ conceptual understanding of the design process.