Semantic Networks (Concept Maps) as Mindtools Cherie McCollough VaNTH-PER Professional Development

Semantic Networks (Concept
Maps) as Mindtools
Cherie McCollough
VaNTH-PER Professional Development
June 2nd, 2004
Project Based Instruction
Assessment
• “What is needed in education at all levels
is a revolution – not just a change in
methodology, but a fundamental
revolution in spirit.” (Jonassen p. 271)
• Results of Reform: intellectually
challenged students and teachers,
teachers as facilitators, lifelong learners,
energized learners and teachers, no more
memorization of trivia.
3 reasons why learners are not
able to think:
• 1. Too often, they apply a “brute force”
memorization strategy.
• 2. Learners are poorly motivated – “most
pandemic, most insidious cause for
underachievement is lower expectations
for parents, teachers, and society.”
• 3. Students tend to rely on vague
perceptions and global, quick-fix solutions
to problems rather than thinking and
analyzing.
Mindful Learning
• Reflecting on aspects of problem
• Examination and personalizing information
• Generating and selecting alternative
strategies
• Making connections, building new
structures to existing knowledge
• Expending effort on learning
• Concentrating
• Reflecting on how task was performed
Self-Regulated learning
• Maintain orientation to learning goals
• Plan activities that fulfill those goals
• Goals selected for personal ability, prior
knowledge, and interest
• Self motivation
• Access prior knowledge to apply to new
learning
• Apply strategies for getting started
• Attribute success or failure to personal
effort.
Why are concept mapping tools
effective for learning?
All memory systems are inter
dependent. The most critical system

for incorporating knowledge is

short-term or “working memory”.

Working memory can only process

five to nine psychological units at

any one moment. To structure

large bodies of knowledge requires

an orderly sequence of iterations

between working memory and long
term memory as new knowledge

is being received.
Any tool that can externalize mental ideas (schema) has to be
powerful.

Rote learning vs. Meaningful
Learning
• Rote Learning
– Birth to 3 years: infants and children
recognize of regularities in the world in the
world around them and begin to identify
language labels or symbols for these
regularities.
– After 3 years: reception learning process
where new meanings are obtained by asking
questions and getting clarification of
relationships between old and new concepts.
Meaningful learning requires
three conditions:
• Material learned must be conceptually
clear and presented with language and
examples relatable to learner’s prior
knowledge.
• Learner must possess prior knowledge.
• Learner must choose to learn
meaningfully.
Concept Maps (semantic maps) can help
make the transfer from rote to meaningful
learning.
• Concept maps involve knowledge construction
•
•
which is a relatively high level of meaningful
learning.
New knowledge is always being created.
The process of knowledge construction has been
is still being extensively studied and researched.
Concept maps becoming a more accepted and
valued tool for knowledge integration,
knowledge construction, and assessment of
knowledge.
So where’s the problem?
• Students have had years of rote-mode learning
•
•
practice in school settings.
So called “learning style” differences are
generally differences in the patterns of learning
that students have used varying from continuous
rote-mode learning to meaningful mode
learning.
It is not easy to help students in the former
condition to move to patterns of learning of the
latter type.
What are semantic networks?
• Also known as cognitive structures,
conceptual knowledge, and structural
knowledge.
• Are graphs consisting of nodes
representing concepts and labeled lines
representing relationships among them.
• Used for:
Semantic
Networks
Planning
Knowledge
Assessment
Knowledge
Integration
Constructing computer-based
semantic nets engages learners in:
• The reorganization of knowledge
• Explicit description of concepts and their
•
•
•
relationships
Deep processing of knowledge that promotes
better remembering and retrieval and transfer
Relating new concepts to existing concepts and
ideas, which improves understanding.
Spatial learning through spatial representation of
concepts in an area of study.
What is structural knowledge?
• Provides the conceptual bases for knowing
WHY.
• Is the organization of the relationships
among concepts in long-term memory.
• Therefore, semantic networking helps
learners map their cognitive
structure.
Why study structural knowledge
in using semantic networks?
• Understanding structural foundations in any
•
•
•
•
content domain improves comprehension.
Is essential to recall and comprehension.
Learners construct structural and declarative
knowledge when they study.
Is essential to problem solving and procedural
knowledge acquisition.
Experts’ SK differs from novices’; understanding
the differences is facilitated by semantic
networking.
Structure of Concept Maps
Novak, J. D. The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct Them.
What ways can semantic nets
be used in the classroom?
Semantic Nets As A Learning Tool
Study guides
Knowledge
integration
Planning tool
Semantic Nets as Study Guides
• Should be used as a review strategy, NOT
to memorize content.
• Students MUST construct their own nets –
NOT the teacher.
Semantic Net as Knowledge
Reflection and Integration Tool
• SN helps students reflect on what they know
•
•
•
•
and what they DON’T know.
Students with concept mapping experience are
better problem solvers.
Provides valuable evidence of self-reflection and
metacognitive reasoning.
Not only does concept mapping facilitate
problem solving, but also helps learners to
transfer those skills.
**Learners become aware of and control the
cognitive processes of the task.
Semantic Networking as a
Planning Tool
• SN’s can provide a shorthand form for
organizing and sequencing ideas.
• Examples – outlining chapters,
organizing essay construction,
“generating ideas” in Legacy cycle,
planning research projects…
Semantic Networks to Assess
Learning
• The semantic nets learners generate after
instruction reflect the growth of their
knowledge structures.
• Pre- and post-assessment of knowledge
highly beneficial as assessment for both
student and teacher.
Coaching the Construction of
SN’s in the classroom
• 1. Make a plan and set perspective for
analyzing a domain.
– Concept map structures are dependent on the
context in which they will be used. Identify
the text, lab activity, or particular question
that one is trying to understand.
– Helpful to select a limited domain of
knowledge for first concept maps.
– “Think like” – physicists, scientists,
mathematicians when analyzing the domain.
2. Identify Important Concepts
• Identifying important concepts in a
content domain is crucial not only to
understanding content but also for
collaborating on tasks.
• These could be listed, and then from this
list a rank order should be established
from the most general, most inclusive
concept for this particular situation to the
most specific, least general concept.
3. Create, define, and elaborate
nodes.
• Create and label a note for each concept
listed in Step 2.
– Can add pictures, descriptive text, and
synonyms
– Computer tools
4. Construct links and link
concepts
• Difficult process – having to precisely describe
•
•
•
relationship between two ideas.
See Fig. 4.8 – page 71 for examples of links.
What characterizes a good link? Preciseness,
succinctness, and most importantly
descriptiveness. Use links that tell something
meaningful about the relationship.
Interconnectedness adds to meaningful
understanding.
5. Continue to expand the net.
• Linking process continues, adding new
nodes or concepts to help explain existing
ones.
• This process mirrors the natural pattern of
knowledge acquisition in construction and
integration of knowledge.
• A good concept map is really never
finished.
6. Students reflect on the
process.
• Reflection should be formative, not summative –
•
•
should be an ongoing process as students
continuously review the process, make changes,
evaluate goals, answer questions.
Following completion: What Have I Learned?
– About semantic nets, cooperative learning,
multiple perspectives, meaningful thinking?
Reflection cements the knowledge that learners
construct.
Teaching Skills
• Teacher no longer purveyor of knowledge but
•
•
•
•
instigator, promoter, coach, helper, model and
guide of knowledge construction.
Viability of knowledge of assessed in terms of
community standards.
Relinquish authority – admit you do not know
everything.
Educate: Educe – evoke, extract, elicit, draw out
what learners know; help articulate what they
DO know and they will come to know it better.
Administrative and technological support
Advantages of Semantic
Networks
• Easy to use – most can gain proficiency in 1 – 2
•
•
•
•
•
hours.
Provide spatial representations of content which
helps memory.
Enhance comprehension and retention of ideas;
structural knowledge improves retention of
content being studied.
Demonstrate interconnectedness of ideas from
different subjects and different courses.
Should improve problem-solving performance.
See Tables 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 (pp. 73 – 74).
Limitations of Semantic Networks
• Limited ability to represent causal relationships.
• Are not truly maps of the mind, but rather
•
•
representations of what we think is in the mind.
Knowledge represented on a SN is dynamic;
structural knowledge changes over time. Not
entirely accurate or would constantly be in
revision process.
Networks in the mind are much more complex
and multidimensional.
Assessing Semantic Nets
• Compare learner’s net with expert’s
(teachers). ??
• Determine learner’s knowledge growth.
• Accept learner’s different perspectives
• Compare learner’s nets to course goals –
SN’s can be related to examination
performance.
• Evaluating: See pp 74 – 75 for different
criteria for assessment of SN’s.
Assessment and Learning
• “If you sow the seeds of critical thinking,
then you should harvest critical thoughts
and not reproductive learning.” p. 283
• Have students self assess their knowledge
bases before they submit them – this
helps foster self regulation. P. 285
• Assessing collaboration – students working
together produce knowledge bases but
also learn more in the process. P. 286
Assessing Thinking
• Assessing Critical Thinking – difficult to
assess; can’t always see transfer; emerges
over time with lots of practice. Still, are
obligated to try.
• Critical thinking, creative thinking,
complex thinking rubrics pp. 287 – 289.