Are high‐coherent concept maps better for prior knowledge activation? Differential effects of concept mapping tasks on high school vs. university students

Gurlitt, Johannes; Renkl, Alexander

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2729.2008.00277.x

Cited by 51 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…31 In the application of concept maps, the pre-knowledge of the concepts included in the map is important. This is confirmed by research conducted by Gurlitt and Renken, 32 which showed that the use of concept maps triggered the necessary pre-knowledge. The linking of concepts in maps facilitated learning with understanding, and, consequently, the synthesis of knowledge, which also affected the attitude of students to chemistry.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Concept Maps as a Tool for Teaching Organic Chemical Reactions

Šket

Glažar²,

Vogrinc³

2015

ACSi

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The purpose of the research was to establish the impact of the application of a concept map in chemistry lessons on the effective solving of tasks with organic reactions content. In the first phase of the research, a concept map was produced representing the reactions of hydrocarbons, organic halogenated compounds and organic oxygen compounds, and in the second phase the produced concept map was introduced in lessons. Its impact was tested on a sample consisting of 186 students (average age of 17.8 years), who were divided into a control group (88 students) and an experimental group (98 students). Prior to the experiment, the two groups were equalized in terms of their level of development of formal logical thinking and their average grade in chemistry. A knowledge test, consisting of five problem tasks comprising multiple parts, was used as a quantitative instrument for measuring the impact of the applied concept map. The content of the knowledge test was selected on the basis of the chemistry lesson plan (reactions of organic oxygen compounds) for general upper secondary schools (in Slovenian: gimnazija). An analysis of the task solving showed statistically significant differences in the responses of the experimental group members and the control group members (experimental group M = 15.9; SD = 6.33; control group M = 13.6; SD = 7.93; p = 0.03). The produced concept map contributed to the more effective interrelation of concepts and, consequently, to more effective problem task solving.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Concept Maps as a Tool for Teaching Organic Chemical Reactions

Šket

Glažar²,

Vogrinc³

2015

ACSi

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“…One possible explanation is that participants in the low-coherence condition were not able to use organization and model construction processes to compensate for less structure in the map and less elaboration processes during prior knowledge activation. Related research using the same tasks in the domain of physics supports this view (Gurlitt and Renkl 2008). The latter research showed that although learners in the low-coherence condition asked more model-construction questions, only learners with a higher level of expertise (physics major students versus high-school students) were able to benefit from the low-coherence prior knowledge activation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Prior knowledge activation: how different concept mapping tasks lead to substantial differences in cognitive processes, learning outcomes, and perceived self-efficacy

Gurlitt

Renkl

2009

Instr Sci

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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

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“…Concept mapping has been used effectively for some time as a tool to facilitate meaning-making in science (Novak, Gowin, & Johansen, 1983), help students make their prior knowledge and understandings of science explicit (Gurlitt & Renkl, 2008), and to assist low-achieving students in improving their comprehension of science (Guastello, Beasley, & Sinatra, 2000). While an examination of Table 4 shows that there were significant differences between Experimental a , Experimental b , and the Comparison condition at Time 1 with Experimental a being only marginally better than Experimental b , by Time 2 there were no significant differences between any of the conditions (see Table 5) with students' scores in all conditions having improved markedly from Time 1 to Time 2 (see Figure 1).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of scientific representations on primary students’ development of scientific discourse and conceptual understandings during cooperative contemporary inquiry-science

Gillies

Nichols

Khan

2015

Cambridge Journal of Education

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Teaching students to use and interpret representations in science is critically important if they are to become scientifically literate and learn how to communicate their understandings and learning in science. This study involved 248 students (119 boys and 129 girls) from 26 grade 6 teachers' classes in nine primary schools in Brisbane, Australia. Teachers were randomly allocated by school to one of three conditions: the contemporary science + representations condition (Experimental a ), the contemporary condition (Experimental b ), or the comparison condition as they participated in an eight-week inquiry-science unit on Natural Disasters. Data on students' discourse were collected at two time points during the implementation of the unit and data on the concept maps were collected preand post-intervention while data on the reasoning and problem-solving (RP-S) task were collected following the intervention. The results show that when students participate in an inquiry-based science unit that is augmented with a variety of multimedia resources presenting a range of current contemporary events (Experimental a and Experimental b conditions), they demonstrate significantly more social language and basic scientific language and marked increases in moderate scientific language than their peers in the comparison condition. Interestingly, although there were no significant differences on the Personal Concept Map scores between the conditions at Times 1 and 2, the students' scores in all conditions improved decidedly across time. It appears that as the children had more time to engage with the material, participate in cooperative peer discussions, and receive encouragement from their teachers to provide elaborated feedback to each other, their conceptual understandings of earthquakes were enhanced. However, although the children in the experimental conditions demonstrated significantly more social and scientific language than their peers in the comparison condition, these oral language skills did not transfer to the RP-S task, possibly because they may not have had enough time to consolidate their application in a novel context where they had to work independently.

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Are high‐coherent concept maps better for prior knowledge activation? Differential effects of concept mapping tasks on high school vs. university students

Cited by 51 publications

References 45 publications

Concept Maps as a Tool for Teaching Organic Chemical Reactions

Concept Maps as a Tool for Teaching Organic Chemical Reactions

Prior knowledge activation: how different concept mapping tasks lead to substantial differences in cognitive processes, learning outcomes, and perceived self-efficacy

The effects of scientific representations on primary students’ development of scientific discourse and conceptual understandings during cooperative contemporary inquiry-science

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