Using concept sorting and concept mapping in business and public administration, and in education: an overview

After nearly two decades of knowledge preservation activity, relatively little work has explored the organizational use of Concept Maps elicited from experts. This paper describes an attempt to get back to the roots of Concept Mapping as a means of both representing and evaluating knowledge, in the context of professional work. It describes a pilot project in which the authors used Concept Mapping to elicit and represent knowledge from domain experts, then demonstrated the use of Concept Maps for assessing the mental models of other professionals. The authors introduce Sero! – a prototype Concept Map-based learning assessment platform, and a general model for the organizational use of Concept Mapping and Concept Maps.

OBJECTIVES As the medical profession continues to change, so do the educational methods by which medical students are taught. Various authors have acknowledged the need for alternative teaching and learning strategies that will enable medical students to retain vast amounts of information, integrate critical thinking skills and solve a range of complex clinical problems. Previous research has indicated that concept maps may be one such teaching and learning strategy. This article aims to: (i) review the current research on concept maps as a potential pedagogical approach to medical student learning, and (ii) discuss implications for medical student teaching and learning, as well as directions for future research. METHODS The literature included in this review was obtained by searching library databases including ACADEMIC SEARCH, ERIC, EBSCOHost, PsychINFO, PsychARTICLES, PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL and EMBASE. This literature review is a summary of both conceptual and empirically published literature on the uses of concept mapping in medical education. RESULTS The 35 studies reviewed here indicate that concept maps function in four main ways: (i) by promoting meaningful learning; (ii) by providing an additional resource for learning; (iii) by enabling instructors to provide feedback to students, and (iv) by conducting assessment of learning and performance. CONCLUSIONS This review provides ideas for medical school faculty staff on the use of concept maps in teaching and learning. Strategies such as fostering critical thinking and clinical reasoning, incorporating concept mapping within problem-based learning, and using concept mapping in group and collaborative learning are identified. New developments in medical education include the use of serial concept maps, concept maps as a methodology to assist learners with lower cognitive competence, and the combination of group concept maps with structured feedback.

This paper assesses the usefulness of concept mapping (an educational learning, assessment, and curriculum development technique developed by Novak, widely used in the natural sciences) within an accounting education context. It shows how an accounting-based concept map can be constructed by students and educators to provide a visual, conceptually transparent graphical representation of an individual's understanding of a particular knowledge domain. The method is firmly routed in Ausubel's theory of meaningful learning and its emphasis upon the hierarchical structure of concepts is particularly relevant to accounting. While concept mapping has been used extensively in many (particularly science) disciplines, it has received relatively little attention within accounting education. The paper's contribution is to extend its application within an accounting education context by focusing upon how concept mapping can enhance students' learning by evaluating student-prepared concept maps, showing how concept mapping can be used at different levels within a course (i.e. curriculum, topic and activity) and reporting feedback of its use with two cohorts of students, within a financial accounting theory component. The use of educator-prepared concept maps, with concepts omitted, proved popular as tutorial quiz exercises and increased the quantity and quality of participation. However, students were less willing to construct their own concept maps and engage in meaningful learning. While most students were able to build upon aspects of their prior knowledge, stronger students used a greater range of concepts, a richer set of linkages and more examples than weaker students did. Concept maps were useful in diagnosing students' and instructors' misconceptions. Many students found concept mapping relatively easy to use, provided a better understanding of complex issues, liked the visual representation and holistic view, and so supported their learning. However, educators need to become proficient in constructing maps and using appropriate software, not make the maps too complex, provide students with some initial training in the technique and consider the fit between using the techniques as a learning tool and as an assessment tool. While no significant differences were found in the usefulness of the method for students of different ages and gender, Asian students generally found the method to be more useful than did UK students.

Metacognitive skills can have enormous benefits for students within engineering courses. Unfortunately, these metacognitive skills tend to fall outside the content area of most courses, and consequently, they can often be neglected in instruction. In this context, previous research on concept mapping as a teaching strategy points to meaningful learning. The purpose of this innovation paper is to report an application of concept mapping (1) to facilitate metacognition steps in students, and (2) to identify the muddiest points students struggle with, during both in-person and online instruction of a problem-solving-based biomedical engineering course. This innovation article also looks at the usefulness of concept mapping through instructor and student perceptions and students’ class performance. The entire concept mapping intervention was conducted during weeks 8–10 of the Spring 2019 in-person quarter and during weeks 3–4 and 8–10 of the Spring 2021 online quarter. The exercise involved concept mapping, explanation and discussion with peers, and answering structured reflection prompts. Each concept map activity was contextualized to the metacognitive knowledge domain of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy. The average class performance was compared between students who completed concept mapping vs. those who did not, using a t-test and one-way ANOVA at alpha = 0.05 significance level followed by a Tukey HSD test. Students’ concept maps and reported answers were analyzed qualitatively following the concept mapping intervention. During the Spring 2019 in-person quarter, 59.30% of students completed concept mapping with reflection, whereas 47.67% completed it in spring 2021 online instruction. A two-tailed, unpaired t-test indicated that concept mapping did not significantly enhance students’ class performance (p > 0.05) within each of the in-person and online instructions. Peers’ suggestions to students to improve concept maps revealed themes related to course concepts, prerequisite concepts, and the act of concept mapping itself. Concept mapping was effective in revealing the muddiest points of the course. Concept mapping did not significantly enhance students’ class performance either in-person or online instruction (effect sizes were 0.29 for the 2019 in-person quarter and 0.33 for the 2021 online quarter). However, instructors and students’ perceptions reflected that concept mapping facilitated metacognition in a problem-solving-based biomedical engineering course both during in-person and online instruction. Most students (78%) were optimistic about the usefulness of concept mapping for this course, and 84% were inclined to apply it for a variety of other courses.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43683-022-00066-3.

We describe the use of concept maps within a 4-week nanotechnology survey course, designed for first-year undergraduate students. Because of the extremely short time frame of the class, students would be inundated with an overwhelming number of new concepts and definitions. Hence, we employed concept mapping to increase student retention and ascertain the level of student conceptual understanding for each topic covered in the course. In contrast to most studies that introduce concept mapping via posthoc interviews, we report the use of student-generated concept maps. Examples of concept maps are provided from students who were confused by various subtopics, as well as those who demonstrated a more lucid conceptual understanding. In addition, we found a significant correlation between average concept map scores and the final exam grades for students.

Purpose - This paper describes a multi-year research, developed to verify the validity of Concept Mapping as a resource to promote meaningful learning, in order to cope with students' heterogeneity in a real estate education environment.Design/methodology/approach - Three quasi-experimental, multi-year case studies were conducted at the Real Estate Management discipline of an MBA course. Each time the discipline was given, the procedure was to develop activities that involved the drafting of concept maps about specific topics on Real Estate Management; more specifically, the alignment between business strategies and real estate management. After each activity, the maps were analyzed in terms of the nature of concepts, their relations and hierarchy. The effects of the use of Concept Mapping on students' learning experience were then analyzed.Findings - The results show a clear evolution between the concept maps produced at phase 01 (diagnostic evaluation) and phase 02 (months later), but the most important thing is that after months from phase 02, when the same activity took place in another context (phase 03), students were able to develop concept maps as complex as the ones produced at phase 02. The findings support the assertion found in literature that the knowledge acquired through the use of concept maps is anchored in students' prior knowledge, consolidating itself as new subsumers in students' cognitive structure. The use of Concept Mapping helped the educator to cope with students' heterogeneity in terms of professional experiences and academic backgrounds.Research limitations/implications - Due to the non-randomization of the students, this research does not allow a generalization of the findings, but it does provide empirical evidence that supports the didactic use of Concept Maps in real estate education. Some practical difficulties related to the drawing of the maps were occasionally related, and future research will try to evaluate whether or not more agile, software-supported Concept Mapping techniques are appropriated to be used within this didactic framework.Originality/value - There is no bibliography on concept mapping techniques applied to real estate education. In this paper an overview of concept mapping is provided, and presented as straightforward way to cope with student heterogeneity.

The study was aimed at determining the Effect of Using Concept Mapping and Experimental Techniques in Teaching Biology in Senior Secondary Schools in Federal Capital Territory Abuja. The objective of the study was to compare the mean performance scores of students taught Biology using concept maps, experiments and lecture method, determine their retention level and find out their attitude towards the methods. The design of the study was quasi experimental pre-test posttest control group design. The population consisted of 6,208 SS2 Biology students of the Federal Capital Territory, from which 192 were selected from three schools within Karshi zone of Abuja Municipal Area Council. The major instruments used for data collection were Biology Achievement Test pre-test and post-test (BAT), Biology Achievement Retention Test (BART) used after 2 weeks of instruction and Concept Mapping Attitude Scale Towards Biology Questionnaire (CMASTBQ) and Experiment Attitude Scale Towards Biology Questionnaire (EASTBQ).The treatment package included Concept Mapping Instructional Package (CMIP), Lesson Plan for Experiments and Lesson Plan for Control Group. The items used for the pre-test, post-test and retention test were adopted from Educational Resource Centre (ERC) Abuja. The research questions analyzed using mean and standard deviation while the null hypotheses were analyzed using Two sample t-test, Covariance Analysis (ANCOVA) and Pairwise comparison at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The findings of the study showed that the use of experiments in teaching significantly improved the performance of students in Biology more than the use of concept mapping and lecture method. The use of concept mapping though enhances performance of students is not significantly better than the lecture method. The use of experiments makes for better retention levels than the use of concept mapping and lecture method. Students have a more positive attitude toward the use of concept mapping for teaching Biology than experiments. Based on the findings of the study, the use of experiments in the teaching of Biology are indispensable if the teaching and learning of the subject is to be effective and meaningful. Article visualizations:

Recognition of deep-seated conceptual crosslinks in mathematics is often weak or nonexistent among students and faculty who view and study mathematics merely in procedural terms. Too often mathematical course content is presented as an approach to a currently considered problem with the mediation of deeper meaning and the connections to other mathematical ideas left unaddressed. The development of mathematical mindfulness requires that educators substantively address the topics they teach by locating the conceptual essence of fundamental ideas from a cultural-historical context. This important pedagogical work can be enhanced through the skilful use of concept mapping. This chapter provides an in-depth look at how concept mapping can be used in the development of a meaningful secondary mathematics’ curriculum that avoids rote learning and favors transcendent cognitive development. The implications presented emerge from several related uses of concept mapping. The chapter illustrates an approach to mathematics’ education that first uses concept maps in conjunction with a direct effort to locate the historically grounded conceptual essence of a significant mathematical concept. Without historical context, mathematics′ educators may easily be unaware of the conceptual essence of the concepts they teach. Concept mapping is shown to address this shortcoming. Empirical research is then guided by concept mapping in order to expose the “operating understanding” among students and their teachers revealing specific metonymic inadequacies that exist. By comparative use of concept maps, weak or missing crosslinks are readily identified. Together, these uses of concept mapping inform and guide the design of mathematics′ lessons that mediate mathematical understanding in a profound way. Concept mapping is thus shown to provide a useful approach to secondary mathematics′ education curricular reform aimed at meaningful learning.

Along with knowledge of the needs of adult learners, people facilitating adult learning need a repertoire of teaching methods to be effective (Galbraith, 2004). Concept mapping is a technique that encourages students to learn in a meaningful way and retain knowledge. The use of concept maps has spread since it was first described in the 1960s and later documented by Novak and Gowin (1984). The technique is being used in adult education as well as other fields, including psychology, sociology, pharmacy, nursing, and medicine (Daley, 2001, 2002; Hill, 2004). Concept maps are being used for instruction and learning in settings ranging from K-12 schools to higher education and are employed as (a) an instructional strategy for improving comprehension and retention of knowledge, encouraging cooperative and collaborative learning, and fostering problem-solving, critical thinking, and transformative learning: (b) an organizational tool for facilitating curriculum and program development; and (c) a management tool for evaluation and assessment (Expand use of, 2002). Concept mapping has been used to collect and analyze data in research regarding teaching and learning (Daley, 2001; Donald, 2002). Concept mapping is an active learning process that involves students in meaningful learning because it engages complex cognitive structures within the brain. Meaningful learning refers to the acquisition of new information by an individual and its interrelationship with existing relevant knowledge mental structures (Novak, 1998, 2003; Trepagnier, 2002). The learning tends to be long lasting because the new knowledge is related to and integrated within a person's knowledge structure (Novak, 1998). Cognitive learning theory suggests that the brain learns most effectively by relating new experiences and knowledge to prior knowledge, and that meaningful learning requires deliberate effort to link new knowledge with higher-order, more inclusive concepts in a person's cognitive structure (Ausubel, Novak, & Hanesian, 1986; Heit, 1997; Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007; Novak, 1998). Constructivist learning theory relates learning to how adults construct meaning to make sense of their experiences (Merriam, Caffarella, & Banmgartner, 2007). Since adults have a greater accumulation of experiences than children (Knowles, 1980), concept mapping is a learning tool well suited to adulthood. According to Daley (2002), an adult learner progressively differentiates concepts into more and more complex understandings and also reconciles abstract understanding with concepts garnered from previous experience (p. 21). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] [FIGURE 2 OMITTED] While conceptual mapping has dearly demonstrated its utility in helping students learn in the natural sciences, creating concept maps is especially useful in learning abstract, conceptual topics in which there are multiple ways to interpret abstract relationships between concepts (Trepagnier, 2002). Concept mapping enables students to diagram their understanding of key ideas and demonstrate their perception of relationships among them (Novak, 1998; Novak & Gowin, 1984). In linking concept mapping with transformational learning, Deshler (1990) writes that opportunities for concept mapping can help adult learners articulate their current knowledge, critique it, and view how their meanings and values have changed over time. This may involve both critical and transformational learning (Deshler, 1990, Brooldield, 2004). Constructing a Concept Map A concept map is a schematic tool that allows adult students to graphically represent their knowledge. A concept map consists of an overarching, inclusive main concept with connections to several general concepts that relate to the main concept and are more specific and less general (See Figure 1). These branch off into several more specific concepts, and this branching process may occur several times. …

Collaboration Learning as a Tool Supporting Value Co-creation. Evaluating Students Learning through Concept Maps

The use of concept maps have been shown to be a more effective study method, however students report that they rarely adopt this practice and resort to highlighting and rereading their notes. It is possible that students are intimidated to attempt new, unfamiliar strategies and that with some training, they may be more likely to employ better methods. The purpose of this study was to assess if we could modify student study behaviours through modelling various active learning strategies throughout the year, including concept mapping.As part of this study, students in our first and second year undergraduate human physiology courses were invited to participate. These courses had mandatory tutorials each week where students worked in small groups that we had assigned. During the year, different types of active learning methods were introduced. Among these, two tutorials were designed to model the use of concept mapping. In the first semester, students were given a partially constructed concept map on skeletal muscle physiology to demonstrate how concept maps can be used to connect material they learned in class. In the second semester, the students were given a list of terms and concepts related to renal physiology and were asked to construct their own maps.In our first tutorial, we surveyed students to determine the learning strategies they currently employed using a modified strategies for learning questionnaire (pre‐MSLQ). Participants used a 7 point Likert scale to answer the 30 item survey, with a value of 1 indicating a strong disagreement to the statement and 7 reported for strongly agreeing. Again at the end of the year, students were asked to complete the same modified strategies for learning questionnaire (post‐MSLQ). We compared this to the pre‐MSLQ to determine if their methods used to approach studying course material had changed with regards to the learning activities, including concept mapping. Additionally, at the end of the year, students were asked to complete a learning attitudes survey, which evaluated the students’ perceptions of learning achieved with the use of these learning techniques modelled in their tutorial times.When comparing the pre and post‐MSLQ surveys, participants reported a score of 4.6 in the pre‐course survey, but an increased score of 5.4 in the post‐course survey (p<0.01, paired t‐test) to the statement “When I am studying a topic, I try to make everything fit together into a “big picture” (ie. charts, concept maps). In the learning attitudes survey, preliminary data from the statement “I feel I learned more when I used concept maps in the learning process than when I used my usual study techniques”, 60% of students reported that they agreed with this statement. Meanwhile, 70% of participants agreed with the statement, “I hope to employ concept maps in future learning activities”, suggesting that they found the activity beneficial.In follow up studies, we hope to determine the quality of created concept maps and analyze if this correlated to differences in participants performances on evaluations in the course. Since participants also reported an increase in the use of other active learning techniques, such as peer teaching, we also plan to explore whether these adopted techniques may contribute to any observed improvements in course evaluations.

The ability of students to construct connections between chemistry concepts is of major concern to educators. This study, conducted in a large-enrollment introductory chemistry course, investigated whether concept maps constructed by students helped develop increased understanding of chemical concepts. Three cycles of research, implemented during three different semesters, used concept maps in a variety of situations to enhance student understanding. Cycle one utilized concept maps as homework assignments and as a post-laboratory assignment. Cycle two utilized concept maps as homework assignments and as assessment techniques on weekly quizzes. Cycle three used concept maps as group activities and as optional assessment techniques.Results indicated that concept maps provided an excellent tool for students to generate meaningful connections between chemical concepts. Evidence is given that concept maps can be used to provide students, professors, and teaching assistants with information about a student's conceptual understanding. A grading rubric for assessing student concept maps is also presented. Several issues regarding the use of concept maps as assessment tools and the attitudes of students and teaching assistants toward the instructional use of concept maps are discussed.

Aims: To explore the present status of concept mapping in teaching and learning process in India. Also, to find answers of certain questions pertaining to the usage, awareness and present status of concept maps in real life education. Further to provide some recommendation for the teaching learning process. Method: In this study, the researcher developed a questionnaire using google form containing 14 items. The items were revolving around the concept map and its practical usage in teaching and learning process. The questionnaire was sent to 200 teachers in the month of June, 2020; out of which 80 responses were received back. All the teachers are teaching in various school of the country. The types of schools included private, government, rural and urban. The region covered for data collection was mainly Delhi, however some respondents were from other parts of India also. The data was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Ms. Excel was used for quantitative analysis. Findings: The study indicated that there is an awareness of concept mapping among the teachers. There are several teachers who are using concepts maps in their regular teaching learning process. Many of them learn concept maps when they were students. The use of concept maps is always considered to be effective in the classroom. However, there were some respondents who found making and implementing concept maps time-consuming and effortful. All opined that concept maps are in use and found effective in the teaching learning process. Novelty: The study investigates the status of uses of concept maps in teaching learning process. It also throws light on the problems faced by the teachers in using concept maps; hence the study contributes to plan the school-time table, curriculum and other activities. Moreover, the study provides basis for further in depth study pertaining to problems faced by teachers in using concept maps. Keywords: Concept mapping; awareness; usage; teaching; learning; education; concept maps; purpose of concept maps; challenges

This study describes the use of concept mapping (CM) in design, instruction and assessment, related to a microbiology program prepared for high school (grades 10 and 11) students in Israel. It describes how CM was used in developing an hierarchically sequenced program. The impact of the new program on students’ achievements was determined by comparing two groups: (a) students who studied the new program using CM themselves (mappers); and (b) students who studied the new program without CM. It was found that CM students’ overall gain was higher. Students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards mapping were mostly favourable towards the cognitive benefits of CM. However, many students did not like certain aspects of CM. Some teachers exploit the potential of CM better than others.

This study aims to describe the use of material concept mapping by teachers to help students understand theoretically music subject. The literature review used in this research is related to the notion of school instruction; learning during a pandemic; Learning of cultures and Arts (music) according to K13; and conceptual mapping of subject matter. This research belongs to a quantitative research using a descriptive analysis approach. Based on the research results during three online learning meetings in class X-2, it can be explained that the use of concept mapping of music art subject matter by the teachers based on the concept map made on the blackboard and PowerPoint slides has encouraged an increase in student understanding especially in terms of mastering the materials. The concept mapping made by teachers and assigned to students helps students better understand the subject matter of music in a more structured and organized way. Thus, it is in accordance with the theoretical ideas of the subject matter studied.