History of concept mapping
Concept mapping as a method was developed by Joseph Novak and a team of researchers at Cornell University in the 1970s. Dr. Novak was searching for a new tool to describe explicit changes in children's conceptual understanding.
Both he and his colleagues at Cornell had studied psychologist Jean Piaget's theories on cognitive operational stages. Piaget and other experts assumed that children weren't capable of comprehending abstract concepts, such as the nature of matter, before the age of 11. Dr. Novak launched a research project that would observe minute changes in the way children learned new ideas.
The result was a new tool developed by the Cornell team during their longitudinal study: the concept map. These maps were simple—just one or two words to represent the main idea, with lines showing linking words that created a meaningful statement. The most general concepts were grouped at the top of the map, and the most specific terms were at the bottom.
Since then, concept mapping has become extremely popular, as specialists across fields from education to healthcare realize its unique benefits.
Theoretical foundation
Concept maps are based on Ausubel's Assimilation Theory and Novak's Theory of Learning, which explain how people learn new information by integrating it with knowledge they already have. Novak stated, "Meaningful learning involves the assimilation of new concepts and propositions into existing cognitive structures."
Through meaningful learning, discussed more below, the integration of new concepts into our cognitive knowledge structure occurs by linking new knowledge to concepts already understood. A concept map provides a visual demonstration of the connections between concepts in our cognitive structure. The origin of concept maps is based in constructivism, which discusses how learners actively construct knowledge.
Physiological foundation
Children acquire concepts from birth to three years as they begin identifying labels or symbols for regularities they observe in the world around them. This early and autonomous learning is known as the discovery learning process. After age three, the reception learning process begins, where new meanings are formed by asking questions and understanding the relationships between old and new concepts. Concepts are no longer defined by the learner but described by others and transferred to the learner.
In addition to exploring these two learning processes, Ausubel also differentiates between rote and meaningful learning. Rote learning occurs when there is little or no relevant knowledge to the new information being presented and no internal commitment to incorporate new and existing knowledge. As a result, information is easily forgotten.
Meaningful learning can only occur under the following three circumstances:
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The new material being presented must be clear and relatable to the learner's prior knowledge. Concept maps are helpful here, as they identify general concepts held by the learner that can be built upon.
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The learner needs to have relevant prior knowledge, especially when trying to understand detailed and specific knowledge in an area.
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The first two conditions can be controlled directly by the instructor, but the third requires the learner to make an effort to assimilate new and old information rather than just memorizing it.
The distinction between rote and meaningful learning is a continuum, as individuals possess different amounts of relevant knowledge and different motivation levels for knowledge assimilation. Creativity is a very high level of meaningful learning on this continuum.
Concept mapping is powerful for meaningful learning because it acts as a template to help organize and structure knowledge, even though the structure must be built piece by piece with small units of interacting concepts and propositions. This process allows for the use of knowledge in new contexts and for increased retention. In addition, research shows that our brain prefers to organize information in the hierarchical structure characteristic of concept mapping.
Epistemological foundation
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy dealing with knowledge and new knowledge creation. The growing consensus is that new knowledge creation is a constructive process that involves our knowledge and our emotions.
Concept maps are associated with constructivist theories of learning in which learners are active participants rather than passive recipients of knowledge. Learners must make an effort to bring new meaning to information they already know. Building concept maps is a creative process, as concepts and propositions are the foundation for knowledge in any domain.
