Concept mapping, a technique of graphically representing concepts and their relationship, was used to assess changes in the structural knowledge of prospective teachers at three levels of a teacher education program. The concept "teacher planning" was mapped at the beginning and end of the semester by 49 students in introductory, intermediate, and…

Presents and discusses results of a project that studied the effectiveness of concept and Vee mapping strategies in helping Black inner-city high school students (N=250) learn biology concepts meaningfully. The project sought to assess effects on achievement of the two methods as part of a carefully designed sequence of instruction. (Author/JN)

Describes a computer-based concept mapping tool that provides rich representational capabilities, including dynamic imagery (video, animated images, sound) and multiple levels of abstraction. The tool can automatically translate a concept map into an alternative representation-an outline-that contains all of the knowledge contained in a…

Examined role of social-referential context in 13- and 18- month-olds' mapping of verbal and nonverbal symbols to object categories. Found that infants at both ages showed evidence of learning both words and sounds when the experimenter produced a label within a familiar naming routine, and failed to learn when labels were emitted from a baby…

Conceptual understanding of chemistry is an important issue in chemistry education. Examination questions with word answers are one way of reinforcing and testing conceptual knowledge and should be included in chemistry courses. Students involved in this study felt they did better on numerical questions and poorer on conceptual questions than they…

Shares details about two prewriting strategies (brainstorming and synthesizing information), and discusses some practical issues related to the use of computer-based concept mapping in the classroom. (SR)

Presents an experimental study conducted at the University of Twente (Netherlands) that investigated the learning effectiveness of concept mapping for computer-supported collaborative problem solving. Highlights include group interaction; shared cognition; knowledge acquisition; learning effectiveness; retention; creativity; and distributed…

Examines a selection of innovative search tools that attempt to solve specific problems in searching. Topics include search difficulties, including controlled vocabularies and keyword searching; retrieval issues, including relevancy ranking; document discrimination problems; creating search tools for specific audiences; and interface design,…

States that in order to gain students' attention, social studies teachers should use more active teaching strategies. Describes six hooking strategies that immediately draw students in: (1) inquiry; (2) media hook; (3) sentence synthesis; (4) what they know, what they want to know, what they learned (K-W-L); (5) roundtable; and (6) concept…

Discusses group learning on the Internet and problems of unequal participation and describes the development of a Web-based learning system called NetShare (Networked Sharing Construction Environment) that uses a cooperative-competitive learning strategy to facilitate participants' equal contributions. Reports preliminary results of a study with…

Hierarchical concept maps can be used to preview or review a topic, serve as a means of formal or informal assessment, promote classroom discourse, and provide a visual representation of mathematical connections. (MKR)

Investigates the effectiveness of inserted questions and concept mapping for enhancing academic performance. The study sample was composed of 141 nursing students enrolled in a 20-week distance education course. Subjects who completed concept mapping exercises outperformed those using inserted questions or a combination of the two instructional…

A control group of 40 eighth graders completed a unit on elements and compounds. An experimental group of 42 completed concept maps on the same topic. Results of a one-tailed T test demonstrated the usefulness of concept maps as advance organizers. (KR)

This article argues that more theoretically based research is needed on the academic expectations of gifted adolescents regarding summer enrichment programs. Concept mapping is suggested as an alternative methodological approach to such research and one such map is presented, which was developed by mapping expectations of 74 seventh and eighth…

Comments on preceding articles include "Studies of the Hexagonal Model" (Holland, Gottfredson); "Structure of Occupations" (Dawis); "Is Holland's Theory Worthy of So Much Attention?" (Schwartz); "Does Enough Evidence Exist to Modify Holland's Theory?" (Hansen); "Research and Application Using Holland's…