A Symbol Is Worth A Thousand Words
Oregon middle school teacher George Windham is a firm believer in
concept mapping. He says that having students create concept maps is in
many cases better than having them write notes, write papers or even
complete a written test. It's a somewhat controversial stance, but Mr.
Windham has been using concept maps in his school long enough that he's
seen firsthand how powerful they can be.
| Concept maps are essentially diagrams of a topic and its
related subtopics. They're like visual outlines, where symbols
represent each level and drawn links show how they interconnect.
|
We
have more information on creating concept maps here.
To see some examples of concept maps other teachers have used in
the classroom, visit this area of the
site. |
"Symbols are richer than words," Mr. Windham states, and
then tells an anecdote about Zack, one of his students, to illustrate
his point.
Zack and his classmates were asked to create maps explaining a series
of scientific concepts, then present those concepts to the others with
just the map for notes. Zack's speeches were particularly good. He
always seemed excited and knowledgable about his subject, he spoke with
confidence, and he maintained eye contact with the rest of the class.
Always, that is, until he had to explain lightning. Zack's speech
that day started well, but it degenerated about half way through. He
lost his confidence; he started reading from his notes, staring at the
paper rather than the class; and he grew so frustrated he nearly walked
away.
When Mr. Windham asked Zack what had happened, Zack just showed him
the concept map. "I ran out of time last night," he told his
teacher. "I couldn't draw enough symbols." The right side of
the map, which held the notes from which he'd spoken successfully, were
a wealth of detail. Each main point was represented by a symbol, linking
with just a bit of text to a series of symbols explaining individual
processes. The left side of the map, however, was covered in complete
sentences.
"When Zack used symbols linked with key words or phrases, he was
able to talk about his topic in his own words," Mr. Windham
explained. "But when he came to the sentences, he could only read
them as written, and he lost his audience."
Mr. Windham sees this all the time. "Symbols are richer than
words. The symbols in a concept map fix ideas in a student's mind,"
he says. "It's a step beyond the written word. It's the difference
between concept and definition."
Mr. Windham discovered Mind Mapping, which he says is concept mapping
with more symbols, back in 1992, and he immediately understood their
power. First he used mapping himself, then introduced it into the
school. Back then, he had his students create their maps by hand. Since
he was introduced to Inspiration in January, 1996, he's had his students
create them on a computer.
Kids like creating their maps on Inspiration because it's a friendly
program that takes little time to master. And when a map is created on a
computer, it can be rearranged and corrected much more easily than one
created by hand. It's also much quicker to create.
More importantly for Mr. Windham, Inspiration allows him to use
concept maps as an assessment tool. Inspiration allows students to
update their maps as they learn more. So if Mr. Windham compares maps
created at the beginning of the semester with those created later, he
can see clearly the progress of his students' understanding - or
misunderstanding.
These maps measure learning development better than written tests, in
many cases. "Proximity, links and richness of symbols can give a
very accurate snapshot of a student's understanding."
As for Zack, he went on to create more and better concept maps, and
did after all learn the facts about lightning. He - and most of Mr.
Windham's other students - seemed to enjoy both learning about science
in general and creating maps on the subject. Which is really what it's
all about.
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