Two experiments investigated the effects of characteristic features of concept mapping used for prior knowledge activation. Characteristic demands of concept mapping include connecting lines representing the relationships between concepts and labeling these lines, specifying the type of the semantic relationships. In the first experiment, employing a within-subjects design, 20 psychology students completed a label-provided-lines economics mapping task and then a create-and-label-lines meteorology mapping task or vice versa. The analysis of 40 think-aloud protocols indicated more elaboration processes for the label-provided-lines task than for the create-and-label-lines task. On the other hand, the protocols indicated more model-construction and organization processes in the create-andlabel-lines task. The second experiment used the same variation but focused on learning outcomes and perceived self-efficacy as dependent measures. Forty-two psychology students were randomly assigned to either a label-provided-lines mapping task or a createand-label-lines mapping task. Subsequently, both groups completed a learning phase in a hypertext environment and a posttest. Results showed substantial differences in learning outcomes and perceived self-efficacy in favor of the label-provided-lines prior knowledge activation task. The findings are congruent with coherence effects found in text-comprehension research and support the position that concept mapping should not be seen as a unitary method but be differentiated according to the specific tasks to be completed.Keywords Prior knowledge activation Á Concept mapping Á Coherence Á Mental set Á Hypertext Is prior knowledge activation only the activation of specific concepts in long-term memory or does the specific task used for prior knowledge activation matter? Is concept mapping a unitary instructional method, or does a variation of characteristic task features make a substantial difference for cognitive and metacognitive processes, learning outcomes, and
We investigated whether and how prior knowledge activation improves learning outcomes for high school (less experienced learners) and university students (experienced learners) in a hypertext environment. Map coherence was defined as the extent to which relationships between the concepts in the map were made explicit. Therefore, we classified the mapping task of creating and labelling lines as low-coherent, and the mapping task of labelling provided lines as high-coherent. Learners were randomly assigned to the conditions of (1) high-coherent knowledge activation; (2) low-coherent knowledge activation; and (3) a baseline condition without prior knowledge activation. We found an overall effect for prior knowledge activation, learning experience, and an interaction between learning experience and the coherence of the prior knowledge activation task on learning outcomes. High school students benefited most from labelling provided lines, while university physics majors benefited most from creating and labelling lines. This interaction effect and effects of the specific mapping tasks on process measures support the claim that different prior knowledge activation tasks are suited for different groups of learners.
Does the specific structure of advance organizers influence learning outcomes? In the first experiment, 48 psychology students were randomly assigned to three differently structured advance organizers: a well-structured, a well-structured and key-concept emphasizing, and a less structured advance organizer. These were followed by a sorting task, a text study phase, and a posttest. The results indicated that differently structured advance organizers lead to different proto-schemata before and different learning outcomes after the text study phase. The second experiment replicated and extended these findings with 53 mathematics students. As in experiment 1, three differently structured advance organizers were used; but to rule out alternative explanations, the sorting task between the advance organizer and the text study phase was omitted. The results showed strong beneficial effects of well-structured advance organizers on near and far transfer tasks. Taken together, both experiments support the claim that the structure of advance organizers has an effect on preliminary schemata and learning outcomes. On a general level, the results indicate that advance organizers can support the generation of proto-schemata and thus can be more than the activation of ''existing'' concepts in long-term memory. With regard to education, this implies that educators should not only think about whether prior domainspecific knowledge is present, but also about how to scaffold the generation of protoschemata at the beginning of instruction.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.