Concept mapping to support university academics’ analysis of course content

Abstract

The authors’ goal in working with university academics is to support an intellectual process of close examination of instructional decisions, making explicit the rationale and intentionality underlying those decisions. Subject matter understanding is the primary point of reference in this process. The focus of the research described here is the use of an unstructured form of concept mapping to support academics in the analysis of course content as the first step in a course design process. While some academics with whom the authors have worked have been initially skeptical about concept mapping, the large majority of them, in the end, report that they value the process and what they gained from it. The findings show that the concept mapping process provided an alternate means to rethink course content, one that highlighted relationships among concepts, encouraged a view of the course as an integrated whole, and frequently provided the occasion to make explicit the types of thinking required in the course.