Selected Terms Concept Mapping
You provide a list of concept labels (10 to 20) and ask students to construct their maps using only these labels. The focus here is on the linking relationships, and the evolution of structural complexity of students' knowledge frameworks.
Seeded Terms Concept Mapping
In this approach, also known as "micromapping" (Trowbridge and Wandersee, 1996), you furnish a small set of concept labels (5 to 10) and invite students to construct a concept map using these, and an equal number of labels drawn from their own knowledge of the topic.
Guided Choice Concept Mapping
Here you present a list of some 20 concept labels from which students select 10 to construct their maps. When done over a period of time, the instructor focuses on which concepts appear and which disappear. The assumption is that these changes represent significant restructuring of the students' knowledge frameworks.
Analysis
To start, we suggest that you focus primarily on the qualitative aspects of students' concept maps with emphasis on the accuracy or validity of the knowledge students represent. Among the questions you might ask yourself are the following:
As you and your students gain experience with concept mapping, you might consider trying one or more of the quantitative "scoring rubrics" currently available (Novak and Gowin, 1984). In the most well-established scoring scheme, 1 point is given for each correct relationship (i.e., concept-concept linkage); 5 points for each valid level of hierarchy; 10 points for each valid and significant cross-link; and 1 point for each example.
