A Study on Effectiveness of Concept Map Form for the Presentation of Learning Materials

Abstract

This paper verifies the effects of learning materials presented in either the concept map form, one of graphical representation, or the text form on experiments. The learning content used the things that have inclusive or orderly relationship with the keywords. In the experiment, instructional materials were presented on computer display to 10 learners and their recognition test scores were compared. In addition, the more effective concept map form was compared with the text form on recall tests to confirm the previous results. The results show that the concept map is more effective form than the text form, because it makes the learners' comprehension of the whole structure of the materials easier. But in this form, higher key words in the hierarchical structures of learning materials represented on the lower side of the map provided little effect, because of the learner's increased cognitive load. This study suggests, therefore, that the concept map form will support the learners' comprehension of the presentation of instructional materials in the classroom if it represents the higher key words on the upper side of the map.