Using Concept Maps for Student Centered Assessment
Location
Assembly Hall
Event Website
http://www.cpe.vt.edu/cuenr/index.html
Start Date
3-26-2010 4:00 PM
End Date
3-26-2010 4:30 PM
Description
Although most college professors desire students to learn course content deeply and be able to use their learning after emerging from the course, students often choose to learn only “for the test”. The challenge for educators is to create appropriate challenges for students that will require them to make the connections necessary for continuous construction of knowledge and the ability to access what has been learned in the future. For students to generate concept maps describing learning during a semester‐long course, they must demonstrate understanding of the big ideas, the connections between the big ideas, and where details fit into that bigger picture. In addition, students can be challenged to develop narrative descriptions of their maps to provide further evidence of their learning and thinking about course content, and to make it more likely that their learning will be useful in the future. Learners innately tend to organize information, old and new, into schema that allow them to establish connections and hierarchical arrangements of concepts and facts. Concept maps give students the opportunity to create their own patterns that connect topics and information into a scheme that provides for deeper learning and better retention of information. Preparing visual representations of information requires students to process/translate information and emphasize the relationships among “pieces” of information. This process is likely to be more natural for visual learners who may struggle in classrooms with a strong verbal approach. Because of the potential disparity between verbal presentation and visual representation as a means of evaluation (as well as differences in learning styles), classroom practice in developing concept maps should be a prelude to using them for assessment. This session will engage participants in thinking and discussion about assessment in a learning‐ centered context, and further will involve participants in developing initial schema for their own courses that may serve as models for development of assessment tools that emphasize student ownership of knowledge and concepts. Examples of student‐generated maps and rubrics developed for their evaluation will also be shared.
Using Concept Maps for Student Centered Assessment
Assembly Hall
Although most college professors desire students to learn course content deeply and be able to use their learning after emerging from the course, students often choose to learn only “for the test”. The challenge for educators is to create appropriate challenges for students that will require them to make the connections necessary for continuous construction of knowledge and the ability to access what has been learned in the future. For students to generate concept maps describing learning during a semester‐long course, they must demonstrate understanding of the big ideas, the connections between the big ideas, and where details fit into that bigger picture. In addition, students can be challenged to develop narrative descriptions of their maps to provide further evidence of their learning and thinking about course content, and to make it more likely that their learning will be useful in the future. Learners innately tend to organize information, old and new, into schema that allow them to establish connections and hierarchical arrangements of concepts and facts. Concept maps give students the opportunity to create their own patterns that connect topics and information into a scheme that provides for deeper learning and better retention of information. Preparing visual representations of information requires students to process/translate information and emphasize the relationships among “pieces” of information. This process is likely to be more natural for visual learners who may struggle in classrooms with a strong verbal approach. Because of the potential disparity between verbal presentation and visual representation as a means of evaluation (as well as differences in learning styles), classroom practice in developing concept maps should be a prelude to using them for assessment. This session will engage participants in thinking and discussion about assessment in a learning‐ centered context, and further will involve participants in developing initial schema for their own courses that may serve as models for development of assessment tools that emphasize student ownership of knowledge and concepts. Examples of student‐generated maps and rubrics developed for their evaluation will also be shared.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/Sessions/Understanding/2
Comments
Citation: Thompson, J.R., B.L. Licklider. 2010. Using concept maps for student centered assessment. UENR Biennial Conference, Session Innovations in Pedagogy, Improving Understanding, Paper Number 2. http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/Sessions/Understanding/2/.