Probing personal knowledge: The use of a computer-based tool to help preservice teachers map subject matter knowledge

This paper reports on the use of a HyperCardTM-based tool to create and modify concept maps about science related subject matter. The tool was trialed with seventy-one preservice teachers who were planning to teach a science topic to a primary school class. Data gathered from interviews, journals and analysis of concept maps indicated that the concept mapping tool was easy to use because it generated little cognitive load and quickly became transparent to the users. This allowed preservice teachers to focus their attention upon the construction of their maps and to organise their cognitive frameworks into more powerful integrated patterns. It was also found that the process of concept map construction may enhance preservice teacher thinking about effective teaching.

[1]  Wynne Harlen,et al.  The Teaching of Science , 1991 .

[2]  Susan D. Pittelman,et al.  Semantic Mapping: Classroom Applications. Reading Aids Series, IRA Service Bulletin. , 1986 .

[3]  Norman G. Lederman,et al.  Knowledge structures in the preservice science teacher: Sources, development, interactions, and relationships to teaching , 1995 .

[4]  Bonnie B. Armbruster,et al.  An Investigation Of The Effectiveness Of "mapping" Text As A Studying Strategy For Middle School Students , 1979 .

[5]  K. Langfield-Smith.  EXPLORING THE NEED FOR A SHARED COGNITIVE MAP , 1992 .

[6]  O. Jegede,et al.  The effect of concept mapping on students' anxiety and achievement in biology , 1990 .

[7]  Susan D. Pittelman,et al.  Semantic Mapping: Classroom Applications , 1986 .

[8]  James H. Wandersee,et al.  Concept Mapping and the Cartography of Cognition. , 1990 .

[9]  Carol V. Lloyd.  The elaboration of concepts in three biology textbooks: Facilitating student learning , 1990 .

[10]  Gary Heywood,et al.  Problems of Educational Innovation: The Primary Teacher's Response to Using the Microcomputer , 1988 .

[11]  P. Ramsden.  Learning to Teach in Higher Education , 1991 .

[12]  David H. Jonassen,et al.  What are Cognitive Tools , 1992 .

[13]  Barbara A. Beyerbach,et al.  Using a computerized concept mapping program to assess preservice teachers' thinking about effective teaching , 1990 .

[14]  J. Novak,et al.  Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View , 1969 .

[15]  L. West,et al.  Cognitive Structure and Conceptual Change , 1985 .

[16]  Joseph D. Novak,et al.  Learning How to Learn , 1984 .

[17]  Donald F. Dansereau,et al.  Spatial learning strategies : techniques, applications, and related issues , 1984 .

[18]  John H. Clarke,et al.  Using Visual Organizers to Focus on Thinking. , 1991 .