Snapshots your current knowledge to assess understanding. Provides clear communication of complex ideas. Fosters discovery of new concepts and their connections. Encourages brainstorming and high-level thinking. Synthesizes information by integrating new and old concepts to better grasp the big picture. Facilitates comprehension with its visual format. It's used most frequently in academia, but the process can be easily applied to other fields.Ĭoncept mapping offers benefits for any learning process: This diagram is a popular way to capture understanding of a topic for work, school, or personal study. Thinking through and visually representing relationships between ideas forms mental connections that allow for better retention of knowledge. Designed as a tool to organize and represent knowledge, concept mapping can help you visualize relationships between various concepts and test your understanding of complex subjects. The brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than it processes text. Both the cross-links and the hierarchical structure facilitate creative thinking, and these cross-links often indicate moments of creativity. Cross-linksĬross-links are relationships between concepts in different domains of the concept map, allowing you to visualize how ideas within these different domains are connected. This list is referred to as a parking lot, as you will move the items into the map as you figure out where they fit in. Establish a rank ordered list from the most general concept to the most specific. Parking lotīefore beginning your concept map, it can be helpful to come up with a list identifying the key concepts that need to be included. Within the hierarchical structure, the focus question should be at the very top of the concept map and serve as a reference point. Developing a focus question allows you to design with a context in mind and thus helps guide and maintain the direction of your concept map. Focus questionĪ focus question defines the issue or problem the concept map needs to solve. As such, a concept map is designed to read from top to bottom. The most general and inclusive concepts are positioned at the top of a concept map with the more specific and exclusive concepts arranged hierarchically below. 
Hierarchical structureĪ key element of the concept map is its hierarchical structure. Essentially, a concept map visually conveys a set of propositions about a certain topic. Concepts and propositions are the foundation for the creation of new knowledge in a domain. These statements are also known as semantic units or units of meaning.
Propositions are meaningful statements made up of two or more concepts connected with linking words. Examples include "causes," "includes" and "requires." Propositional structure They are as concise as possible and typically contain a verb. Linking words or phrases are located on the lines connecting objects in a concept map, and these words describe the relationship between two concepts. ConceptsĬoncepts are defined as “perceived regularities or patterns in events or objects, or records of events or objects, designated by a label” and are depicted as shapes in the diagram. While other types of diagrams may look similar, concept maps have specific characteristics differentiating them from other visual tools. Concept maps are also referred to as conceptual diagrams.
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