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This meta-analysis reviews experimental and quasi-experimental studies in which students learned by constructing, modifying, or viewing node-link diagrams. Following an exhaustive search for studies meeting specified design criteria, 67 standardized mean difference effect sizes were extracted from 55 studies involving 5,818 participants. Students at levels ranging from Grade 4 to postsecondary used concept maps to learn in domains such as science, psychology, statistics, and nursing. Posttests measured recall and transfer. Across several instructional conditions, settings, and methodological features, the use of concept maps was associated with increased knowledge retention. Mean effect sizes varied from small to large depending on how concept maps were used and on the type of comparison treatment. Significant heterogeneity was found in most subsets.
KEYWORDS: concept map, graphic organizer, knowledge map, meta-analysis, node-link map.
(ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes formulae omitted.)
Concept maps (Novak & Gowin, 1984) and knowledge maps (O'Donnell, Dansereau, & Hall, 2002) are diagrams that represent ideas as node-link assemblies. They are often used as media for constructive learning activities and as communication aids in lectures, study materials, and collaborative learning (Canas et al., 2003). Over the last two decades there has been significant interest among educational researchers in the instructional use of node-link diagrams. Figure 1 shows that the number of publications referring to concept maps, knowledge maps, or node-link maps has greatly expanded since 1985. Through selective searches of the ERIC and PsycINFO databases, we estimate that more than 500 peer-reviewed articles, most published since 1997, have made substantial reference to the educational application of concept or knowledge maps.
The term graphic organizer commonly describes two-dimensional visual knowledge representations, including flowcharts, timelines, and tables, that show relationships among concepts or processes by means of spatial position, connecting lines, and intersecting figures (Alvermann, 1981; Ives & Hoy, 2003; Winn, 1991). As described by Estes, Mills, and Barron (1969), graphic organizers were conceived as an entailment of Ausubel's theory of meaningful learning, according to which learners actively subsume new concepts within preexisting, superordinate cognitive structures (Ausubel, 1968). Graphic organizers were first designed to function as advance organizers, priming students for learning by activating prior knowledge and illustrating its relationship with new concepts (Hawk, 1986).
A concept map can be regarded as a type of graphic organizer...