Good News about Concept Mapping – Education & Teacher Conferences Skip to main content

Good News about Concept Mapping

AdobeStock_38023369_Credit

This meta-analysis, which looks at studies including almost 12,000 students, concludes that creating concept maps does indeed promote learning.

Specifically, it’s better than simply looking at concept maps, or listening to lectures, or participating in discussions, or even writing summaries.

The article summarizes several hypotheses to explain the benefits of concept mapping: it reduces working memory load by using both visual and verbal channels, it requires greater cognitive elaboration, and so forth.

So, let’s hear it: how do you get your students to map concepts? What successes have you had? Let me know in the comments…

(h/t IQ’s Corner)


Recent Blogs

One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Teaching Experts and Novices
landb

Teachers often hear that we should divide students into different...

“Video Captions Benefit Everyone”: An Investigation
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson

If you've watched educational videos lately, you've probably noticed that...

On Task: How Our Brains Get Things Done by David Badre
landb

I’ve been staring at my to grade pile—essays, exams, books...