What we learn from students’ conceptual maps by analyzing meanings of their linking words

Abstract

This paper describes the adequacy of students’ conceptual map with network structure as an evaluating method, by analyzing meanings of each linking word. For this purpose, a method for evaluating students’ conceptual map by overlapping their teacher’s map is proposed. The adequacy of the conceptual map is investigated by comparing meanings of linking words with problem solving ability.

Students’ conceptual maps were constructed after 4 weeks of instruction in which they were taught the change of theories about continental drift. The subjects were 150 students of grade 10, who were given 15 nodes concerned with the context of the instruction to construct conceptual map with network structure.

The findings of this paper are as follows:

・20 percent of connected links were not linked properly.

・Some students understand a proposition by using different words and different direction of the link-arrow from the teacher’s. This shows that it is important to investigate meanings of students’ linking words in order to evaluate students comprehension in a strict sense.

・Students who recognized the meaning of a node superficially tend to have worse marks in the test and also fail to catch proper meaning in other propositions.

・Concepts used to answer a question are represented in students’ maps who give correct answers.

The above findings verifyed that the conceptual map reflects not only students’ knowledge structure but their problem solving ability, and that it is also an effective evaluating method.