Abstract
This paper describes two metacognitive tools, concept mapping and Vee diagramming, and reports on research utilizing these tools from grades one through university instruction. The psychological and epistemological foundations underlying these tools is presented briefly. The issues of the dominantly rote-mode nature of much school learning and the resistance of studients (and teachers) to move to meaningful learning strategies fostered by concept mapping and Vee diagramming are discussed. The data available to date from a variety of qualitative and quantitative research studies strongly support the value of these metacognitive tools both for cognitive and affective gains.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alvarez, M. C. and Risco, V. J. (1987a). Vee diagrams: helping students understand the structure of knowledge. Washington, DC.: Paper presented at meetings of the American Educational Research Association.
Alvarez, M. C. and Risco, V. J. (1987b). Concept maps and Vee diagrams: a visual representation of children's thinking. Washington, DC.: Paper presented at AERA meeting.
Ault, C. R.Jr. (1985). Concept mapping as a study strategy in earth science. Journal of College Science Teaching, 15 (Sept/Oct), 38–44.
Ault, C. R.Jr., Novak, J. D. and Gowin, D. B. (1984). Constructing Vee maps for clinical interviews on molecule concepts. Science Education, 68(4), 441–462.
Ausubel, D. P. (1963). The psychology of meaningful verbal learning. New York: Grune and Stratton.
Ausubel, D. P. (1968). Educational psychology: a cognitive view. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Ausubel, D. P., Novak, J. D. and Hanesian, H. (1978). Educational psychology: a cognitive view (Second Edition). New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
Ausubel, D. P., Novak, J. D. and Hanesian, H. (1986). Educational psychology: a cognitive view (Second Edition). New York: Warbel and Peck (reprinted).
Bar-Lavie, B. (1987). Enhancing meaningful learning in an environmental education program: a case study of a class empowered through the use of Novak's and Gowin's principles of leaming how to learn, concept mapping, interviewing and educating. Ithaca, NY.: Unpublished Ph. D. Dissertation, Department of Education, Cornell University.
Barenholz, H. and Tamir, P. (1987). The design, implementation and evaluation of a microbiology course with special reference to misconceptions and concept maps. In J. D. Novak (Ed.), Proceedings of the second international seminar on misconceptions and educational strategies in science and mathematics (Vol. I: 32–45). Ithaca, NY.: Department of Education, Cornell University.
Belenky, M. F., Clinchy, B., Goldberger, N. R. and Tarule, J. M. (1986). Woman's ways of knowing/ New York: Basic Books.
Best, R. (1983). We all got scares. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
Bogden, C. A. (1977). The use of concept mapping as a possible strategy for instructional design and evaluation in college genetics. Ithaca, NY: Unpublished MS Thesis, Department of Education, Cornell University.
Brown, H. I. (1978). perception, theory and commitment: the new philosophy of science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Buchweitz, B. (1981). An epistemological analysis of curriculum and an assessment of concept learning in physics laboratory. Ithaca, NY: Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Education, Cornell University.
Cardemone, P. F. (1975). Concept mapping: a technique of analyzing a discipline and its use in the curriculum and instruction in a portion of a college level mathematics skills course. Ithaca, NY.: Unpublished M.S. Thesis, Department of Education, Comell University.
Chen, H. H. (1980). Relevance of Gowin's structure of knowledge and Ausubel's learning theory to a method for improving physics laboratory instructions. Ithaca, NY.: Unpublished M.S. Thesis, Department of Education, Cornell University.
Cliburn, J. W. (1987). Systematic expository science teaching with concept maps. Cincinnati, OH.: Paper presented at meetings of the National Association of Biology Teachers.
Donaldson, M. (1978). Children's minds. New York: W. W. Norton Publishing.
Edmondson, K. M. (1985). College students' conceptions of their responsibilities for learning. Ithaca, NY.: Unpublished M.S. Thesis, Department of Education, Cornell University.
Feldsine, J. E. Jr. (1987). the construction of concept maps facilitates the learning of general college chemistry: a case study. Ithaca, NY.: Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Education, Cornell University.
Fisher, K. M. (1986). Elaboration of cognitive knowledge of biology from childhood to adulthood (monograph). San Diego: San Diego State University.
Flavell, J. H. (1985). Cognitive development (Second Edition). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
General Accounting Office (1984). New directions for federal programs to aid mathematics and science teaching. Washington, DC.: General Accounting Office (PEMO 84-85).
Gowin, D. B. (1981). Educating. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Halliday, D. and Resnick, R. (1966). Physics. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Helm, H. and Novak, J. D. (1983). Proceedings of the international seminar on misconceptions in science and mathematics conference. Ithaca, NY.: Department of Education, Cornell University.
Hoz, R. (1987). Dimensions of teachers' knowledge structures and their identification by concept mapping. Washington, DC.: Paper presented at the annual meetings of the American Education Research Association.
Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1983). Mental models. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kelley, G. A. (1955). The psychology of personal constructs, Vol. 1 and 2. New York: W. W. Norton.
Kitchener, R. F. (1986). Piaget's theory of knowledge. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lehman, J. D., Carter, C. and Kahle, J. B. (1985). Concept mapping, Vee mapping, and achievement: results of a field study with black high school students. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 22(7), 663–673.
Levandowski, C. E. (1981). Epistemology of a physics laboratory on electricity and magnetism. Ithaca, NY.: Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Education, Cornell University.
Loehr, R. C., Jewell, W. J., Novak, J. D., Clarkson, W. W. and Friedman, C. S. (1979). Land application of wastes, Volumes I and II. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Macnamara, J. (1982). Names for things: a study of human learning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Matthews, G. B. (1980). Philosophy and the young child. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Mayer, R. E. (1981). The promise of cognitive psychology. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.
Mayer, R. E. (1983a). What have we learned about increasing the meaningfulness of science prose? Science Education, 67(2), 223–237.
Mayer, R. E. (1983b), Thinking, problem solving, cognition, New York: W. H. Freeman.
Moreira, M. (1977). An Ausubelian approach to physics instruction: an experiment in an introductory college course in electromagnetism. Ithaca, NY.: Unpublished Ph.D. Disseratation, Department of Education, Cornell University.
Novak, J. D. (1977). A theory of education. Ithaca, NY.: Cornell University Press.
Novak, J. D., Gowin, D. B. and Johansen, G. T. (1983). The use of concept mapping and knowledge Vee mapping with junior high school science students. Science Education, 67(5), 625–645.
Novak, J. D. and Gowin, D. B. (1984). Learning how to learn. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Novak, J. D. (1987). Human constructivism: toward a unity of psychological and epistemological meaning making. In J. D. Novak (Ed.), Proceedings of the second international seminar on misconceptions and educational strategies in science and mathematics, Vol. 1, 349–360. Ithaca, NY.: Department of Education, Cornell University.
Novak, J. D. (Ed.) (1987). Proceedings of the second internatinal seminar on misconceptions and educational strategies in science and mathematics. Ithaca, NY.: Department of Education, Cornell University.
Okebukola, P. A. Students' anxiety toward and perception of difficulty of some biological concepts under the concept mapping heuristic. European Journal of Research in Science Teaching (in press, a).
Okebukola, P. A. Attaining meaningful learning of concepts in genetics and ecology: an examination of the potency of the concept mapping technique. Journal of Research in Science Teaching (in press, b).
Pankratius, W. J. and Keith, T.M. (1987). Building an organized knowledge base: concept mapping in secondary school science. Paper presented at the annual meetings of the National Science Teachers Association, Washington, DC.
Piaget, J. (1965). The child's concept of number. New York: W.W. Norton.
Piaget, J. (1971). Psychology and epistemology. New York: Viking Press.
Piaget, J. (1974). Understanding causality. New York: W.W. Norton.
Piaget, J. (1976). To understand is to invent. New York: Penguin.
Pines, A. L., Novak, J. D., Posner, G. J. and VanKirk, J. (1978). The clinical interview: a method for evaluating cognitive structure. Research Report #6, Department of Education, Cornell University.
Popper, K. (1982). Unened quest: an intellectual autobiography. London: Open Court.
Ridley, D. R. and Novak, J. D. (1983). Sex-related differences in high school science and mathematics enrolments: do they give males a critical headstart toward science-and math-related careers? The Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 29(4), 308–318.
Robertson, M. (1984). Use of videotape-stimulated recall interviews to study the thoughts and feedings in an introductory biology laboratory course. Ithaca, NY.: Unpublished M.S. Thesis, Department of Education, Cornell University.
Robertson-Taylor, M. (1985). Changing the meaning of experience: empowering learners through the use of concept maps, vee diagrams, and principles of educating in a biology lab course. Ithaca, NY.: Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Education, Cornell University.
Sherris, J. D. and Kahis, J. B. (1984). The effects of instructional organization and locus of control orientation on meaningful learning in high school biology students. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 21(1), 83–94.
Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Beyond IQ: a triarchic theory of human intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Symington, D. and Novak, J. D. (1982). Teaching children how to learn. The Educational Magazine, 39(5), 13–16.
Toulmin, S. (1972). Human understanding. Volume 1: The Collective Use and Evolution of Concepts. Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press (edited and translated by Eugenia Hanfmann and Gertrude Vakar).
Weinstein, C. E. (1987) Fostering learning autonomy through the use of learning strategies. Journal of Reading 20(7), 590–595, (April).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Novak, J.D. Concept maps and Vee diagrams: two metacognitive tools to facilitate meaningful learning. Instr Sci 19, 29–52 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00377984
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00377984