Concept mapping was developed by Joseph Novak and his colleagues at Cornell as a learning tool for the study of science. It works best for the identification of concepts in a body of study and for the organization of those concepts into a hierarchical arrangement from the most general, most inclusive concept to the least. Here in brief are some of the key features of Novak's theory

MEANINGFUL VERSUS ROTE LEARNING -- Students in the science courses often simply memorize information, never quite comprehending what they study; but with the help of structures they can derive meaning from perceived relationships between concepts. Learning proceeds best when new knowledge is "subsumed " under known concepts.

ALL KNOWLEDGE IN THE SCIENCES IS CONSTRUCTED -- Concept mapping begins with OBJECTS and EVENTS. It actually takes CONCEPTS to define and record such objects and events as meaningful data. Then, guided by PRINCIPLES and THEORIES, each science transforms such records into meaningful KNOWLEDGE that has been tested and advanced.

CONCEPTS EVOLVE AS THEORIES DEVELOP AND PARADIGMS SHIFT -- Each discipline has a small number of telling questions, a set of key concepts, unique methods of inquiry, major knowledge claims, and major values claims. All of these grow in time and many of them are shared substantially by other disciplines.

TO LEARN IS TO CHANGE THE MEANING OF EXPERIENCE Students learn through concept mapping that a) the structure of knowledge is very complex, b) that any concept can be related to any other, and c) that there is no best way to draw a map. Comparing maps helps students recognize the misconceptions that keep them from full understanding. It is a motivational experience to watch the whole class grow with the development of each diagram.

LEARNING IS PERSONAL AND IDIOSYNCRATIC; KNOWLEDGE IS CULTURAL AND SHARED -- It stands to reason that education is the meeting of the student's concept system with that of the culture under study. The quality of integration between the two is a function of the number of relationships, the levels of hierarchy or other holistic patterns, the amount of branching, the facility of moving from general to specific, and the cross-linking of elements in the concept maps the student develops.

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HOW TO MAP