A Comparative Approach to the Effectiveness of Concept Maps in Principles of Microeconomics between Australian and USA Students

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of concept maps as a teaching and learning tool in Principles of Microeconomics lectures and tutorials in two different countries, Australia and USA. While Australian students found concept mapping as a tool for understanding concepts in economics, they did not extend the effectiveness of this tool in exam preparation and in other subjects. USA students valued concept maps relatively less than Australian students. We provide two explanations. First, there may be differences in prior training between Australian and USA students. Second, there were significant differences in class structure as the link between collaborative study-groups and the construction of concept maps was not maintained in the case of USA students.

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