Concept Mapping

What is Concept Mapping?

According to the website http://www.udel.edu/chem/white/teaching/ConceptMap.html "a concept map presents the relationships among a set of connected concepts and ideas. It is a tangible way to display how your mind "sees" a particular topic. By constructing a concept map, you reflect on what you know and what you don't know. In a concept map, the concepts, usually represented by single words enclosed in a rectangle or circle, defines the relationship between the connected concepts."

Another definition could be a graphical representation of one's knowledge framework consisting of circles or boxes and lines. Each circle or box represents a concept and the lines represent the relationships between the two concepts.

Professor Joseph D. Novak at Cornell University was the original developer of the the concept mapping technique in the 1960s. This work was based on the theories of David Ausubel, who stressed the importance of prior knowledge in being able to learn about new concepts. Novak concluded that "Meaningful learning involves the assimilation of new concepts and propositions into existing cognitive structures".

Mind MappingŪ is a popular related technique, invented (and copyrighted) by Tony Buzan in the UK. He describes mind maps as: "a mind map consists of a central word or concept, around the central word you draw the 5 to 10 main ideas that relate to that word. You then take each of those child words and again draw the 5 to 10 main ideas that relate to each of those words."

The difference between concept maps and mind maps is that a mind map has only one main concept, while a concept map may have several. This comes down to the point that a mind map can be represented as a tree, while a concept map may need a network representation.

Other great websites to check out are:

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