Responses due by 9/22 at 9am.
Question 1: Summarize 1 or 2 main points that you took away from this article. Based on the findings, analyze the pros and cons of using concept mapping in the classroom. Be sure to use findings from the article to justify your analysis.
Question 2: Explain the connection between concept maps and standardized assessments found in this article. Given this connection, do you think concept maps can be used effectively to "Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity" (NETS-T #1)? Use data/findings from the article to justify your answer.
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13 comments:
Question 1.
This article is very confusing and hard to get through. I found it kept saying the same thing over and over again. And now to answer Question #1. One of the themes I could seem to understand was that to have a concept map and a standardized test together was a good way to figure out what a student understood. From what I understood the standardized test was a good way but coupled with the concept maps it showed what the student had learned and allowed them to learn it in a whole different way. Another theme I took away from the article was that there were many different ways to score a concept map. The one that the author seemed to use was fairly complex and wasn't very likely to be used in a regular classroom setting but I could see how it could be helpfull in seeing just what the child knows and not just what he can regurgitate to you.
Question 1
The first main point that I got from this article is that concept mapping is an effective tool for teaching complex scientific concepts. The second main point that I got is that the methods used for scoring concept maps are difficult to come up with, but the specific methods are crucial for accurate scoring.
The pros of using concept maps in a science classroom are that the map scores are highly correlated to scores on classroom, state, and national tests, and that concept mapping “encourages mastery of declarative and procedural learning outcomes” (p.1124). The cons are that it is difficult to create a scoring rubric and that it takes time to teach students how to put a concept map together and how to use it effectively. However, I think that the biggest problem with using concept maps is that, while they appear to be very effective in science classrooms, I have a hard time seeing how well they could be used in other areas, such as mathematics and spelling. (This was not addressed in the article, but is something that kept popping in to my head while reading.)
Question 1: I will try to summarize the way the teacher presented concept mapping: The teacher presented how to use concept mapping, with the teacher deomonstrating the mapping while teaching the first of the 23 week study. The second of the 23 weeks the students were to make the concept maps themselves. These concept maps helped the students while taking the tests on the units. The test and the concept maps correlated in material learned. The only problem was when the student didn't understand where to put the correct information. If the student got the concept of concept mapping they did really well on the test, but if they did not totally understand the mapping, they did not do well at all on the tests. This is my interpretation of the article, it didn't include any of the rubrics for grading.
I had a hard time understanding the text. I am a visual learner so I couldn't comprehend what the author was trying to convey. I honestly can't say what the two main points were. I found Table 11 on page 18 to be somewhat helpful in looking at pros and cons of using concept maps in a classroom setting. The over all positive was a little over half, which could be considered a pro, yet that means that 40% of the students didn't like the concept maps. Another pro for concept maps is teachers can better asses what students know and what they don't know as opposed to mulitple choice tests. The con with that is the teacher then has to spend extra time in reading each map. Another con with concept maps would be having to decipher what a student meant by a particular word or phrase. In the text there are pictures of actual student work and one student crammed all of the information into a small area, but a teacher can fix this by implementing software designed for concept mapping into the classroom. Not only would the teach be able to see how well their student understands the content, it would also provide an opportunity for students to learn new computer skills. It could help in "Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity."
QUESTION 1:
Concept mapping is a useful tool, considering it is taught thoughtfully with time and care, to observe students understanding of concepts, their organization of thought and their learning styles.
Pros:
Concept mapping is a way for students to visually organize information that they are learning about. There are many different types of concept maps to meet the needs of a variety of learners: for example, I opt not to use bubble organizers, I prefer to use bullet points. Concept mapping can be adapted to any subject: reading: students can compare characters or main ideas, writing: students can brainstorm ideas and make connections between thoughts, math: students can create a multiplication graph, science: students can compare/contrast different animal groups, technology: students can use computer programs to create their visual concept map, spelling: students can compare rhyming words or parts of speech. These are authentic applications of these skills; it will help students see connections between ideas, subjects and themes. Students can further develop their deeper thinking skills as they create visual organizers that display the big picture. Students can refer to graphic organizers when studying that will quickly relay a basic thought, which will spark memories that they can further flesh-out.
Cons:
Some graphic organizers work well for some and not others; for example, as I stated above, I do not like bubble organizers I like bullet points. Some students do not learn well with concept maps at all and prefer to have more detailed, written out descriptions.
Also, concept maps cannot be the only tools that students use to learn about a subject, more learning needs to be provided than just an organizer. Concept maps are more of a supplement to learning: for example brainstorming first which will lead into writing a paper. Or learning about mammals, which will end with an assessment where the students create a concept map to compare and contrast certain mammal types. It is also difficult for teachers to create a rubric by which to assess students’ individual concept maps and be able to grade fairly. Time is another important factor: students need plenty of time to allow them to learn how to create and effectively use concept map, the teacher cannot move on until all of the students understand this basic concept, or else those will fall behind and not be able to complete the more difficult tasks that are related.
Question 1:
I think that one of the main points in this article was just to use digital resources for educational instruction in the classroom. Using digital libraries, you make projects to help with instruction for science related subjects. A pro to using concept maps is that it is a teacher can better assess students knowledge and learning, as opposed to written tests. One of the biggest cons I see, is that it seems like it would be quite time consuming for both the teacher and the student. I kind of feel that a teacher has so much to teach, and so many curriculum goals to reach, and that taking the time for concept maps, might not be worth it.
tQuestion 1
One of the main points that I got out of this article was the importance of scoring the concept maps. I liked the point that the article stated about not allowing the students to see the teachers concept map so they could not just memorize the information. This is important in scoring the maps because it shows if the students truly understand the subject because they never saw the right answers they just learned about key terms. Through out the article it shows different ways that they scored the tests. So as a teacher it will be a personal opinion on how you choose to grade your map. Even though there were many ways to grade the maps the article stressed the importance of creating rubrics on the specific requirements so it would make grading them fair and easy. Another theme I got out of it was that teachers need to make sure they teach all of the subjects in the map and teach the children how to map. By teaching them everything on the map they can create multiple choice questions based on terms that relate to each other on the map.
Some of the pros about concept maps as the article stated that they found that they were very fair. It said that they found no bias between gender or race. I also think it is positive because it shows that the students have a deep understanding of the information learned. I think that a con would be that if students had bad handwriting or were not very artistic it would be hard to follow and read. Also the article states that it is very time consuming to create the scoring rubrics, which is always an issue when you are a teacher. This article was interesting because I have never heard of assessing children in this way.
Question 2: I like the part where the article mentioned how much emphasis is placed on standardized tests, because that seems to be where the focus of everyones' minds are when it comes to teaching. Those end of the year tests, what with No Child Left Behind, definitely put success in those standardized tests as the priority. I worry that emphasis is moving away from students learning how to reason and discover for themselves, and put on simply answering the question. This test mentioned in the article seems to be trying to move away from that, and helping students to "Facilitate and Inspire student learning and creativity". I think it is a good idea, but it is too much to grade to implement in the end of the year tests. It is something that would be taught with more emphasis if used for these end of the year tests, so students would definitely learn how to use them and apply their knowledge to. This would take away the scare that students who did not understand the concept of the mapping perform poorly, as understanding would be ensured.
Question #2:
Some correlations are closer than others in the different ways of comparing concept map scores and standardized assessment scores. The general feel I got from the article was that there were high correlations between the concept map scores and multiple choice tests. Because of this I think concept maps can be used effectively to "Inspire and Facilitate Student Learning and Creativity. Concept mapping is considerably open ended and it does encourage creativity in learning. In the article it talked about how the class would have discussions about their maps but ultimately on the tests the students came up with there map and there wasn't necessarily one right answer for a concept map. This makes it tricky to grade and shouldn't be used for the only assessment scores, but it does fulfill NETS-T #1.
Question 1:
One of the main points i got from this article is that concept maps are a way of "Altertative Assessment". I would agree, one thing i can think of, would be number recognition. You could make a concept map and have letters and numbers on it and then have your students circle or move which things go together. This way, you can kind of get a better understanding of what they know and how their brain may work. One of the cons for concept maps would probably be for young children. Young children can learn fast, but i don't know if they would be able to have the patience to work out moving the objects on the computer. I guess it would just depend on how you set it up, because in class we had some difficulties.
Question #1
One main point the article makes is there are a wide range of methods for constructing and scoring concept maps. Educators have been encouraged to experiment with their own scoring keys and refinements of scoring criteria. Another point the article makes is there are questions about scoring concept maps. When using concept maps they should be used to asses student achievement. They have to be valid and methods need to be developed and validated that show a stronger relationship between students learning in science and reliable scores which measures what the students should learn and their outcomes at the end of what they are learning in science.
Pros
One pro in using concept maps is it allows different domains of science learning not just emphasizing one aspect of learning over another. Another pro is that it can be easily taught. Once the students have learned how to do this they can easily do it without a lot of help from the teacher. Another pro in using concept map is that it can be used with large groups.
Cons
Because students may have low task motivation they do not develop the skills necessary in concept mapping. Another con about concept maps is the validity of the assessment being used.
I think concept maps can be valuable for letting the students sort of show themselves how they understand it fitting together. The high correlation with the standardized tests is somewhat surprising since it is questionable as to what those standardized tests are measuring. Still, I doubt many teachers would complain about that. However, knowing how to effectively grade a concept map is the trick, since the teacher must be able to see all possible connections to be unbiased. Still, the question remains as to whether the concept maps are the cause of the high scores or whether students with high scores tend to do well on concept maps.
Question #2
There is deffinently a big contrast between concept maps and standard assesments. I think that standard assesments are good. But concept maps give you a better understanding of what the student understands about a certain concepts. I think that concept maps can be used effectively to "Facilitat and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity".
Sarah Bedard
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