Hawar Khalandi
Article Topic: ACM
Submitted: 9/26/2006 12:27:57 PM
Wang, C., & Dwyer, F.2004. Effect of Varied Concept Mapping Strategies on Student Achievement of Different Educational Objectives, Int'l J of Instructional Media, 31, 371-382.
Summary: This article was about a study that examined the effects of three concept mapping strategies in assisting achievement of different types of educational objectives. The three concept mapping strategies that were examined in this experiment were concept identifying, proposition identifying and student generated concept mapping. The material instructed was about the physiology and functioning of the human heart. Achievement was measured by three individual and a total criterion test. 156 college level students were randomly given one of four instructional treatments. The first one was where the students were required to interact with the instructional material and then when they felt they had understood the material, they were to test an online test (This was the controlling group). The second group was required to interact with instructional material and to use concept identifying mapping strategy to summarize the material learned. This group took the online test after they had constructed the concept map. The third group was to read and study the material and to use proposition identifying mapping strategy to summarize the material learned. This group took the online test after they had constructed the concept map. The fourth group was required to interact with instructional material and was required to generate their own concept map to summarize the material learned. This group took the online test after they had constructed the concept map. There were significant differences between group 1 & 2 and 1 & 4, but there were insignificant differences between 1& 3. 1&2: Results indicated that concept identifying mapping strategy was effective in assisting learning the concepts, by using concept identifying mapping strategy, the students' attention was primarily focused on interacting with those key concepts of instructional material. 1&4: Results indicated that student generated concept mapping strategy was effective in assisting conceptual learning. However, the student generated concept mapping method did not significantly effect the accomplishment measured by comprehension test. 1&3: The concept mapping activities in this group appeared too complicated for the students to complete; over 1/3 of the students in this group did not complete the required concept mapping activities. They concluded that specific concept mapping strategies can improve student achievement of specific types of educational objectives a lot and that all types of concept mapping strategies are not equally useful in aiding student achievement.
Reaction: I thought this article was very interesting. I liked it a lot. I actually had never thought about the different concept mapping strategies I could use in a classroom. This article discussed the different strategies and picked out the most useful ones. This will help me a lot introducing and teaching concept mapping.