Transcript Making sense of 9/11: argumentative dialogues with the

Concept mapping as a vehicle for gaining insight into
students’ understanding of personal development
Institute for Applied Social Research
M. Jankowska (1) and A. Gaitan (2)
(1) Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning,
(2) Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health & Social Science
The central purpose of education is to empower learners to take charge of their own meaning making (Novak 1998:9)
Can concept mapping (CM) capture representations of personal
development (PD) of students from different cultural
backgrounds? Can it help tutors gain insight into students’
understanding of it? These questions contributed to an
investigation of concept mapping in the intangible field of
personal development – firstly as a research tool and secondly as
a reflective tool supporting PDP (unintentional outcome).
What is concept mapping (CMing)?
CMing (CMing) is a research tool which helps reveal learners’ knowledge of a
particular topic and has been used, especially in science, to capture students
representations of particular subjects, diagnose the gaps in knowledge, follow the
progression or, in fact, measure the impact of specific interventions introduced (ref).
But it can also be a powerful teaching tool for making the process of acquiring
knowledge explicit. Novak (1998) believes that the visual representation of knowledge
in the form of a CM promotes the interaction of new material with existing cognitive
structures and in that way contributes to meaningful learning.
Examples of concept maps
Beginning of the semester
End of the semester
Methodology
• Interpretive, phenomenological approach – suitable for investigation of subjective
perspectives on and understandings of personal development
• Mixed method approach for triangulation (semi-structured interviews, concept
maps, an evaluative questionnaire and documentary sources)
• Grounded theory and content analysis
The data here concentrates on findings about the use and value of concept maps.
Sample
The data was gathered on a postgraduate module (winter 2007/08). 64 concept maps
were content analysed (32 at the beginning and 32 at the end of module). 22 maps
from 11 participants (also interviewed) were analysed in a greater detail (Jankowska
2009)
Key findings regarding concept mapping
• Sketching a CM can reveal personal understanding and therefore provide a platform
for personal development;
• CMing can be a valuable scaffold for reflection and has also potential to move (at
least for some) students towards deeper understanding and instigate change (and
therefore offer opportunities for transformative learning);
• Novak’s typology of learning (1998), which proposes a simple division to nonlearning, rote learning and meaningful learning is too simplistic and not useful for
discussions on personal development. A more open ended, phenomenographic
approach, which recognises that CMs have a potential to initiate further reflection and
knowledge construction can be more suitable. Such an approach should take into
account the nature of personal development: non-linear, intangible, ‘soft’, difficult to
capture and measure and marked with periods of incubation, stagnation, transition,
progression and reaching some dead ends.
Findings relating to cultural variations in understanding PD
The most frequently used concepts (at the begining of the module)
CEE
Chinese
on
ey
Se
lf
M
le
dg
e
aw
ar
en
es
s
Se
lf
lim
O
w
its
n
bu
sin
es
s
Jo
b
British
Kn
ow
de
ve
lo
pm
en
t
Fr
ie
nd
s
Student 10 – second map
Pe
rs
on
al
Student 10 – first map
African
Ca
re
er
M
ar
r ia
ge
Frequency of use
9.00%
8.00%
7.00%
6.00%
5.00%
4.00%
3.00%
2.00%
1.00%
0.00%
Concepts
Family and friends are high on the list for all the participants hence social life seems
to be an important area of personal development, regardless of cultural background.
Concepts of marriage and children are specifically used by Africans and high on their
priorities. Moreover, only Africans highlight religion as an important aspect of
development.
Student 9 – first map
Student 9 – second map
CEE focus more on self exploration (self awareness, self improvement, self limits,
personal satisfaction) and academic development (knowledge, experience). At the
end of the course this tendency is retained and more concepts are added (e.g. selfactualisation, university). CCE are the only participants who explicitly use concepts of
fun in learning and challenges.
A concept of educational qualifications seems to be of a big importance to Chinese
and British participants. British participants used substantially more concepts and
links in their maps than any other group (hence their maps are more complex).
However, as the group was very small, it is difficult to draw any conclusions.
Student 5 – first map
Student 5 – second map
Outcomes
- Discussion of the opportunities and challenges of CMing both for a researcher and
participants
- Critique of current approaches
- Exemplification of the cultural variations in the visual and conceptual representation
of PD
- Outline of an unintended research outcome – a discovered strength of CMing in
supporting students’ reflection in the area of PDP.
Chinese participants stress social life even more than others – apart from the
concepts used by all the students (family, friends), they mention social activities and
personality (beginning of the course) and relationship or being a useful person (at the
end). They value education and educational qualifications a lot. They are the only
group that openly stresses money, salary and life style (quality of life). In terms of
career, at the beginning of the course they mentioned having own business; towards
the end a general notion of a job is used more frequently.
References
Hay, D. B. (2007). Using Concept Maps to Measure Deep, Surface and Non-learning Outcomes. Studies in Higher Education, 32 (1), 39 – 57.
Hay, D.B. (2008) Developing dialogical concept mapping as an e-learning technology, British Journal of Educational Technology, 39 (6), 1057-1060.
Hay, D. B. & Kinchin, I. M. (2006). Using Concept maps to reveal Conceptual Typologies. Emerald Education + Training, 48, (2-3), 127-142. Emerald Group
Publishing Limiting.
Hay, D.B., Kinchin, I.M. (2008) Using concept mapping to measure learning quality, Education and Training 50 (2), 167-182.
Jankowska, M. (2009). Concept mapping technique as a vehicle for gaining insight into students’ understanding of personal development. Presentation on
International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI), Madrid, 16-18 November 2009. (ICERI 2009 proceedings, ISBN: 978-84-613-2953-3).
Kinchin, I.M., Lygo-Baker, S., & Hay, D. B.. (2008). Universities as centres of non-learning. Studies in Higher Education 33(1), 89_103.
Kinchin, I.M., Cabot, L. B., & Hay, D. B.. (2008) Visualising expertise: towards an authentic pedagogy for higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 13(3),
315 – 326.
Novak, J.D. & Canas, A.J. (2006). The Theory Underlying Maps and How to Construct Them. Technical Report IHMC CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 01-2008, Florida
Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, 2008", available at: http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.pdf.