excellent book on generation<\/a>, by the way.) For this reason, I’m not surprised that creating a map from scratch results in more learning than completing a partial map.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe opportunity to compare maps collaboratively also makes sense. If my map and your map differ, we can debate the relative merits of our maps: a debate that should help us both learn more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before I sound too confident, I want to highlight one small — and one large — limitation in this study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First: 226 students might sound like a lot. However, divided among twelve different groups and subgroups, that number rapidly dwindles. Teachers can certainly take note of studies with fewer than twenty students per group, but we shouldn’t translate their conclusions into iron rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
10-Year-Olds and 20-Year-Olds<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Beyond this procedural note, another of this study’s limitations ought to get our attention as well. Most research in psychology and education relies on college students as participants. We’re always happy to know how college students learn best, but we should remember that age and academic experience do matter. A study strategy that works well with college students might not work so well with younger students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ve quickly reviewed the concept-map research field more broadly. We can use these conclusions to hone the advice given above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First<\/strong>: yes, concept maps do help students learn. Our best evidence is in science classes, and for students in grades 6-12. Primary school students don’t seem to benefit as consistently.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSecond<\/strong>: students need practice and guidance. That is: unlike these college students — who learned from concept maps even though they didn’t have much experience with them — grade 6-12 students need to be taught how to create them. And, they need practice with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThird<\/strong>: as with everything else in education, working memory load matters<\/em>. If students don’t know much about a topic, they’re likely to experience overload. In these cases, using guided concept maps will be a useful scaffold until students gather background knowledge and mapping experience. Equally important, abstract topics create a higher working-memory load than concrete ones do. Such topics would also benefit from guided concept maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThese caveats fit comfortably in the concept of “desirable difficulty.” We want our students to think hard<\/em>; their concept mapping work should be cognitively challenging — that is, “difficult.” But if their hard thinking becomes too <\/em>hard, we call that experience “working memory overload.” Of course, overload is “undesirable.” <\/p>\n\n\n\nConcept maps, then, are not a magic strategy that works universally. Used thoughtfully \u2014 with the right balance of independence, collaboration, and support \u2014 they can be a powerful way to help students organize and remember what they learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAmante, C., Lucero, M., & Montanero, M. (2026). Learning with concept maps: the effect of activity structure and the type of task. Instructional Science<\/em>, 54<\/em>(1), 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Teachers regularly hear that “concept maps help students learn.” While that advice gives us a useful starting place, it also lacks specifics. Just off the top of my head, I’d like to know: And so forth. I’ve found a study that answers most of those questions. The headlines: In fact, the right combination of those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6672103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[271],"class_list":["post-6672052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-concept-maps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6672052"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6672104,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672052\/revisions\/6672104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6672103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6672052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6672052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6672052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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