Concept Mapping

Concept Mapping and Related Techniques

Concept maps bear a surface resemblance to semantic networks developed in cognitive psychology in the early 1970s. Such network models depict semantic knowledge as a set of interconnected nodes and assume that when one idea or concept is activated, the activation spreads throughout the network to other related notes. In the late 1970s, Joseph Novak developed concept mapping as a pedagogical tool. The original intent of concept mapping was to track students’ conceptual change over time. For example, a student’s knowledge about the composition of blood may change over the course of a semester-long anatomy [Page 351][Page 352]class, and such changes would be reflected in the changing organization of concept maps produced by the student at different points in the semester. An assumption behind concept mapping is that when learners express their knowledge on a concept map, they express more, or express knowledge differently, relative to what they would express on a different assessment.

Concept mapping shares similarities with other mapping techniques, all of which can be considered types of graphic organizers. In a technique known as knowledge mapping, students create node-and-link diagrams, just as they do in concept mapping, but must use a predefined set of relations to do so (e.g., “part,” “type,” “example”). There is no universal agreement about whether concept maps and knowledge maps are functionally similar activities, and no direct comparisons exist in the literature. Mind mapping is another technique that also involves representing knowledge in a node-and-link diagram, but mind maps typically center on a single concept (node) with several associated images and ideas radiating from this central node. Likewise, causal maps and flowcharts represent knowledge in node-and-link diagrams. While concept maps may represent cause-and-effect relations, concept mapping is generally considered to be different from mind maps, causal maps, and flowcharts.

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