Effective Learning Strategies Using Concept Maps

1. Effective Learning, Teaching, and Research Strategies Using Concept MapsLearning Strategies (Cont.)September 2017 Simone C. O. Conceição, PhD University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Beijing Normal University Beijing, China

2. Map Layout • Gestalt principles of perceptual organization Proximity SimilarityContinuity Pragnanz Closure Figure-ground Derbentseva, N., & Kwantes, P. (2014). Cmap readability. Concept Map Conference. Santos, Brazil.

3. Let’s Review the Concept Maps • How many concepts does the map have? • What type of map is this? • Does the map have clear propositions? • Does the map have clear linking words? • How many cross links does the map have? • Is the map layout organized in an easy way to read? • Does the content flow well? Is it clear?

4. Visual, Auditory, Tactile/Kinesthetic Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Kolb’s Learning Styles UnderstandingOurownlearningstyle

5. Visual, Auditory, Tactile/Kinesthetic Learning Styles Visual:learnthroughseeing Auditory:learnthroughlistening Tactile/Kinesthetic:learn through moving, doing, and touching

6. Gardner’sMultipleIntelligence

7. Kolb’s Learning Styles (Diagram from Litzinger and Osif 1992, 79)

8. What kind of a learner are you? • Auditory Learners: Hear • Visual Learners: See • Kinesthetic Learners: Touch

9. Helping Our TeachersLearn From Their Students (Brookfield, 1995)

11. What is a Learning Strategy?

12. What is a Learning Strategy? • SOURCE: http://psychologydictionary.org/learning-strategy/

13. Studies Showing Use of Concept Maps in Different Disciplines

14. Undergraduate Education (Lim, Lee, & Grabowski, 2009) Three approaches for creating concept maps with undergraduate students

15. Undergraduate Education(Lim, Lee, & Grabowski, 2009) • Focus: effectiveness of cmapping strategies with different generativity levels on learning outcomes • Students from college stats and information science and technology participated in an experiment • Described human heart based on 1900-word expository text with visual images transformed into web-based version of online materials with 21 screens

16. Undergraduate Education (Cont.)Self-Regulated Learning (SKL) • Regulatory process whereby students plan, monitor, control, and reflect on their learning to achieve their goals and perform better (Pintrich, 2004). Components: • Students’ metacognitive strategies for planning, monitoring, and modifying their cognition – awareness and control of thought process • Students’ management of academic task efforts • Cognitive strategies students use to learn the material

17. Undergraduate Education (Cont.)Research Questions • Do cmapping strategies with different generativity levels influence knowledge acquisition? • Do different levels of SKL skills (low vs. high) influence knowledge acquisition? • Do different levels of SKL skills affect the effectiveness of different cmapping strategies?

18. Undergraduate Education (Cont.)Procedure • Participants divided into 3 groups • Expert-generated cmap • Partially learner-generated cmap • Fully learner-generated cmap • Students completed a 40-item multiple-choice test for factual and conceptual knowledge • Pencil-and-paper format cmap

19. Undergraduate Education (Cont.)Findings • Fully learner-generated cmap group outperformed the expert-generated cmap group • No significant difference between expert-generated cmap group and partially learner-generated cmap group or between the partially learner-generated cmap group and fully learner-generated cmap group • Students with high SKL in learner-generated group significantly outperformed students in other groups

20. Undergraduate Education (Cont.)Conclusions

21. Undergraduate Education (Cont.)Conclusions

22. Undergraduate Education (Cont.)Conclusions

23. Undergraduate Education (Cont.)Conclusions • Students who are asked to elaborate and organize information by themselves eventually perform better, mainly when they have appropriate cognitive skills • Cmapping strategies as generative activities do not work equally well for learners with differences in cognitive processing style

24. Undergraduate Education (Cont.)Implications • Facilitating the highest level of generativity can be an effective way to promote factual and conceptual knowledge acquisition • Learners with high SKL skills can benefit from instructional strategies with the highest levels of generativity.

25. Graduate Education (Conceição, Baldor, & Desnoyers, 2009) Concept maps to synthesize knowledge from theory, research, and models

26. Graduate Education(Conceição, Baldor, & Desnoyers, 2009) • Online course with 5 modules using individually constructed cmaps within a collaborative learning context: • Group discussions • Creation of cmaps • Team project • 30 students – 3 graduate courses • Students analyzed concepts, theories, and research in distance education

27. Graduate Education (Cont.)Research Questions • What factors related to social presence affect student individual construction of knowledge in an asynchronous collaborative online learning environment? • What factors related to cognitive presence affect student individual construction of knowledge in an asynchronous collaborative online learning environment? • What factors related to instructor presence affect student individual construction of knowledge in an asynchronous collaborative online learning environment?

28. Graduate Education (Cont.) Data Collection • Online discussion transcripts • Students self-reflections • Concept maps Data Analysis • Group discussion transcripts (only the first and the last course modules) • Concept map reflections were analyzed based on students’ perceptions and attitudes toward their individual construction of knowledge as a way to triangulate data

29. Graduate Education (Cont.) Findings • Prioritizing Information • Students felt that creating concept maps assisted them in organizing their thoughts • “…it wasn’t until I created my concept map that the connections became clear to me.” • “The concept map gave me the ability to organize my thoughts.” • Integrating Concepts • Students were able to integrate information better once they created their individual concept map.

30. Graduate Education (Cont.)Findings • Confirming Knowledge • Creating concept maps forced the students make their own connections and confirm what they had learned. • “…the process of creating a concept map refreshed my memory about the discussion and reconfirmed my understanding.”

31. Graduate Education (Cont.)Findings • Constructing New Knowledge • Students discovered several relationships among concepts that they didn't see before. • “When you see everything you are thinking about put into a diagram, it becomes clear how everything inter-relates to one another.”

32. Graduate Education (Cont.)Implications • Reflection • After completing the concept map, often students refined and expanded their knowledge by rethinking and recreating their original concept map. • Student Understanding • The process of creating the concept map made it clear to students the knowledge they had acquired through readings and the connections they made through interactions with others in the online discussion.

33. Graduate Education (Cont.)Implications • Positive Attitudes • Students experience a sense of comfort and order when participating in collaborative learning activities. • Theory • The use of concept maps can be especially effective when students are learning new theories because students can critically analyze complex concepts and connect them with previous knowledge. • The skill of critical thinking gained through creating concept maps can help students make use of knowledge meaningfully in other situations.

34. Graduate Education (Cont.)Conclusions • When students work in a community of learning and inquiry in an asynchronous online environment, individual learning occurs when cognitive strategies that involve individual construction of knowledge such as concept maps are present. • Community of learning and inquiry was a good base for the design of collaborative and interactive aspects of the course. • Collaborative and individual strategies proved to be effective to facilitate individual construction of knowledge in an online environment: • Collaborative community: explore different ideas and concepts • Concept maps: refined and expanded knowledge and construct personal meaning

35. Economics Education (Marangos & Alley, 2007) Concept maps used in lecture and tutorial

36. Economics Education(Marangos & Alley, 2007) • Purpose: evaluate use of cmaps as a teaching and learning tool in microeconomics courses in Australia and USA. • Lecture most common instructional strategy with support of blackboards/whiteboards and overheads, textbooks, and classroom discussion. • Two one-hour lecture • One-hour tutorial (mini-lecture session or lab) presented by a Graduate Assistant

37. Economics Education (Cont.)Procedure • Concept maps were incorporated into the teaching material in courses • Students introduced to cmaps in the first lecture: meaning, usefulness, and building • In the first tutorial, GA emphasized the usefulness and use in tutorial exercises • At the end of the semester, students completed a survey about the use, effectiveness, and accessibility of cmaps

38. Economics Education (Cont.)Procedure • Students constructed cmaps from concepts provided by the question before the class in a presentation • Fellow students would comment, agree or disagree with the linkages or provide own alternative cmap • Same instructor for both classes

39. Economics Education (Cont.)Findings Australian Class (n=120) USA Class (n=101) Tutorial with 60 students Students were asked to voluntarily form groups due to the size of the class Students valued cmaps relatively less Link between collaborative student-study-groups and construction of cmaps was broken due to class size • Tutorial with 20 students • Students spent more time constructing the map individually and during tutorial sessions • Small number of students used cmaps for exam preparation or in other subjects • Students found cmaps as a tool for understanding concepts in economics

40. Economics Education (Cont.)Conclusions • Positive response by students in both groups to the introduction of cmaps in lectures and tutorials • Class size can be an issue when implementing cmaps with groups

41. Science Education (Hilbert & Renki, 2008) Concept maps used to learn from newspaper articles on stem cells

42. Science Education(Hilbert & Renki, 2008) • Purpose: examine interindividual differences between learners constructing concept maps as a strategy to learn from texts. • Sample: 38 German students average age 23.8 years old volunteered to participate in study • Six short newspaper articles on stem cells with a total of 2,116 words, from 80 to 1,029 words each article

43. Science Education (Cont.)Methodology • Cmapexperiences, questionnaire, and demographic data • Intelligence-Structure-Test 2000 for: • Verbal abilities: 20 tasks tested to be completed in 6 minutes • Spatial abilities: 20 problems to be completed in 9 minutes • Answer stem cell question to assess prior knowledge

44. Science Education (Cont.)Procedure • Students were given 6 newspaper articles to read in 15 minutes • After reading, they revised answers to stem cell question • Then, produced a concept map about stem cells – they received an introduction to cmapping and an example of a cmap – 30 min • Students used think-aloud during cmapping • Students used newspaper articles during cmapping and verbalized anything that came to mind during cmap construction • Once completing the cmap, students revised answers to stem cell question again

45. Science Education (Cont.)Findings and Implications • The more learners labeled the links in their cmaps, the better were they able to integrate knowledge about stem cells from different articles • The more unlabeled links learners included in cmap, the worse was their achievement in the integration test • Implication: important to recognize nodes are related and type of relationships between concepts

46. Science Education (Cont.)Findings and Implications • Students who reflected more often on relationships between concepts did not show a higher increase of knowledge, but performed better on integration test • Implication: the greater amount of correctly labeled links in cmaps is associated with better knowledge acquisition

47. Science Education (Cont.)Findings and Implications • Students who thought more frequently about the type of relationships between concepts labeled their links more often correctly • Students who expressed comprehension difficulties achieved poorer results in integration test • Implication: the comprehension problems hindered students from articulating the relationships between concepts and this impaired the integration of knowledge

48. Science Education (Cont.)Conclusions • Students often cannot integrate information from multiple texts. Cmapping can be a useful tool to foster learning that involves multiple sources • To be successful in cmapping, students need to plan the mapping process and during mapping they have to concentrate on the connections between the nodes and how to label them. They also need to monitor progress. More experienced learners achieve better results

49. Nursing Education (Adema-Hannes & Parzen, 2005) Concept maps used to promote meaningful learning in a clinical setting

50. Nursing Education (Adema-Hannes & Parzen, 2005) • Purpose: Facilitate student’s ability to think critically and link theory to practice • Help student focus on interrelationships of their client rather than being task focused • Visual learners benefit the most in terms of organization, processing, and prioritization of information in a creative fashion • Linear thinkers can be pushed to a higher level of thinking • Help students identify and clarify misunderstandings before new learning is built on incorrect assumptions