Using Concept Maps as a Research Tool in Science Education Research

Concept maps were initially developed as a data analysis tool in Novak's research program. In his twelve-year longitudinal study Novak and his research group constructed concept maps to represent changes in children’s understanding of science concepts. Since their development, concept maps have been widely used for many purposes and in many different contexts. Concept maps are most well known as metacognitive tools that facilitate student meaningful learning. In our own research programs, we continue to use concept maps in the context for which they were developed -- as a research tool to analyze data. This paper describes our use of concept maps in four research studies. In the first, concept maps were used as a tool for analyzing interview data of students’ understanding of ecological processes over a six-year period. In the second, concept maps are being used to compare individual students’ understandings of the transformation of matter with students’ shared understandings. In the third study, concept maps were used as a research tool by a team of research scientists. They were found to help some members of the team to identify research questions that guided their individual research project. The fourth study, is using concept maps to investigate the development of students’ conceptual understanding of science in environmental problem solving-based courses at colleges and universities across the U.S.