Hawar Khalandi
Article Topic: TCM
Submitted: 9/7/2006 7:47:39 PM
David S. Brown2003. High School Biology: A Group Approach to Concept Mapping, The American Biology Teacher, 65, 192-197.
Summary: This article talked about the importance of concept mapping, especially group concept mapping. The author mentions that concept mapping examines the students’ prior knowledge in certain subject area and helps them learn the material better. The article mentions that in order for successful learning to occur, a student must recall what he/she knows and try to relate the new information to what is already sorted in the memory. This is a from of concept mapping in the students brain that we all have used at different times; starting out with a topic and searching for related information to relate to it. This article points out that a group approach to concept mapping is a great tool in every classroom because in a group, students are able to listen, learn, observe, and share what they know about a subject. This provides social interaction between the students and helps them understand and question the material they don’t know. The article also talks about how most of today’s classrooms are teacher-centered and are composed of long periods of lecturing by the teacher. Concept mapping will be a great activity the class can do together. It will be a great way of involving the students into the learning and understanding the material. Lumpe & Staver did a study over concept mapping and found out that “students who create concept maps in small groups outperform those who create concept maps as individuals or who do not create concept map at all.”
Reaction: I really liked the article. I liked this article because it not only talked about concept mapping but also group concept mapping. I believe that this approach will be something I will use in my own classrooms in future. This activity will help the students think together and come up with a concept map that they could teach the class about it. This will be a great way of involving the students with the teaching and the material being taught.