Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Using concept mapping to measure learning quality

Using concept mapping to measure learning quality Purpose – This paper aims to describe a method of teaching that is based on Novak's concept‐mapping technique. Design/methodology/approach – The paper shows how concept mapping can be used to measure prior knowledge and how simple mapping exercises can promote the integration of teachers' and students' understandings in ways that are meaningful. Findings – The concept‐mapping method facilitates quick and easy measures of student knowledge‐change so that teachers can identify the parts of the curriculum that are being understood and those that are not. This is possible even among very large student groups in the 50‐minute slots that are allocated to so much teaching in higher education. Research limitations/implications – Concept mapping is discussed in the wider context of student learning style. The styles literature has been criticised because it tends to encourage undue labelling of people or behaviours. The approach described here also uses “labels” to typify learning (using the terms non‐learning and rote or meaningful learning to identify different qualities of change). Originality/value – The difference in this approach is that terms are attached to empirical measures of learning outcome, not to personal or psychological styles. Concept mapping makes learning visible so that the actual quality of the learning that has occurred can be seen and explored. Using concept mapping in the course of teaching means that learning is no longer a complex and intractable process, measurable only by proxy, but an observable phenomenon. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Education + Training Emerald Publishing

Using concept mapping to measure learning quality

David Hay; Ian Kinchin
Education + Training , Volume 50 (2): 16 – Mar 21, 2008
Download PDF
16 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/using-concept-mapping-to-measure-learning-quality-pAuum01gGh

References (29)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0040-0912
DOI
10.1108/00400910810862146
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to describe a method of teaching that is based on Novak's concept‐mapping technique. Design/methodology/approach – The paper shows how concept mapping can be used to measure prior knowledge and how simple mapping exercises can promote the integration of teachers' and students' understandings in ways that are meaningful. Findings – The concept‐mapping method facilitates quick and easy measures of student knowledge‐change so that teachers can identify the parts of the curriculum that are being understood and those that are not. This is possible even among very large student groups in the 50‐minute slots that are allocated to so much teaching in higher education. Research limitations/implications – Concept mapping is discussed in the wider context of student learning style. The styles literature has been criticised because it tends to encourage undue labelling of people or behaviours. The approach described here also uses “labels” to typify learning (using the terms non‐learning and rote or meaningful learning to identify different qualities of change). Originality/value – The difference in this approach is that terms are attached to empirical measures of learning outcome, not to personal or psychological styles. Concept mapping makes learning visible so that the actual quality of the learning that has occurred can be seen and explored. Using concept mapping in the course of teaching means that learning is no longer a complex and intractable process, measurable only by proxy, but an observable phenomenon.

Journal

Education + Training – Emerald Publishing

Published: Mar 21, 2008

Keywords: Knowledge mapping; Assessment

There are no references for this article.