Effects of format and student completion of concept maps on college students' learning

Abstract

Concept mapping, one type of spatial learning strategy, is widely studied for its positive effects on learning. Although much research has been conducted to provide evidence of its effectiveness, very little work has been done on the impact of formats and learner completion of concept maps on learning. This study was conducted to examine the main and interactive effects of different formats of concept maps (whole map vs. stacked maps) and learner involvement in concept mapping (instructor-completed maps vs. student-completed maps) on learning. This study also included an investigation of the relationship between cognition and affect within the discipline of death education. A completely randomized factorial-22 (CRF-22) design was performed. The sixty undergraduate subjects participating in the experiment were randomly given one of four versions of the instructional material consisting of a lesson on "children, death, and grief" and one type of concept map (complete whole map, incomplete whole map, complete stacked maps, or incomplete stacked maps). Subjects who received incomplete maps were asked to provide the information which was missing from their maps. In addition, a comfort level pretest and posttest on discussing death with children, a background information questionnaire, a lesson structure test, and an achievement test were administered. The findings indicated that providing students with whole concept maps as a learning aid facilitated better awareness of lesson structure than did providing a set of stacked concept maps. Moreover, providing students with unfinished concept maps and having them complete the concept maps resulted in better recall of the specific information presented in the concept map than did providing students with the instructor-completed maps. Also, positive correlations among the reported extent of concept map use, perceived helpfulness of concept maps and learning suggested that the more a student reported using the concept maps, the more positive the attitude toward concept mapping, and the better the student performed on the learning tasks. Furthermore, students' comfort level in discussing death with children was positively changed after learning more information. The recommendations and implications of these results for applying concept mapping as a learning strategy are discussed.