How to Construct a Concept Map
What does it mean when you say, I understand?.... Does it mean the same thing to you as it does to another student or your teacher?..... How can you demonstrate your understanding? Constructing a concept map provides a way to expose, reflect on, deepen, and share your understanding.
What is a concept map?: A concept map presents the relationships among a set of connected concepts and ideas. The concepts, usually represented by single words enclosed in a rectangle (box), are connected to other concept boxes by arrows. A word or brief phrase, written by the arrow, defines the relationship between the connected concepts. Major concept boxes will have lines to and from several other concept boxes generating a network.
Constructing a Concept Map
Brainstorming Phase: Go through your notes and related course material looking for facts, terms, and ideas that you think are in anyway associated with the topic. Make a list of these items and print them neatly on small Post-It® notes, one per note, in very brief form, i. e. a single word or short phrase. This is a brain-storming process, so write down everything that anybody in the group thinks is important and avoid discussing how important the item is. Don't worry about redundancy, relative importance, or relationships at this point. Your objective here is to generate the largest possible list you can. Before your group completes this step, you may have more than 50 items.
Organizing Phase: Spread out your concepts on a flat surface so that all can be read easily and, together, create groups and sub-groups of related items. Try to group items to emphasize hierarchies. Identify terms that represent those higher categories and add them. Feel free to rearrange items and introduce new items that you omitted initially. Note that some concepts will fall into multiple groupings. This will become important later.
Layout Phase: On a large sheet of paper, try to come up with an arrangement (layout) that best represents your collective understanding of the interrelationships and connections among groupings. Feel free to rearrange things at any time during this phase. Use a consistent hierarchy in which the most important concepts are in the center or at the top. Within sub-grouping, place closely related items near to each other. Think in terms of connecting the items in a simple sentence that shows the relationship between them. Do not expect your layout to be like that of other groups. It may be advisable to meet outside of class to work on this assignment and plan for its completion.
Linking Phase: Use lines with arrows to connect and show the relationship between connected items. Write a word or short phrase by each arrow to specify the relationship. Many arrows can originate or terminate on particularly important concepts.
Finalizing the Concept Map: After your group has agreed on an arrangement of items that coveys your understanding, you need to convert the concept map into a permanent form that others can view and discuss. Be creative in a constructive way through the use of colors, fonts, shapes, etc. to communicate your group's understanding. Give your concept map a title. If you want to construct you final concept map on a computer, try using PowerPoint. In reviewing your concept map, consider the following attributes: