The main aim of school education is to promote learning and therefore enhance the knowledge of the students. Concept mapping is one of the important strategies that evolved as a useful tool towards meaningful learning. Prof Joseph D.Novok first developed the use of concept maps as a teaching strategy in 1980. This strategy is based on Asubel’s meaningful learning theory which gives emphasis to the prior knowledge to learn about new concepts. The main aim of the theory is that the material to be learned must be conceptually clear and presented with language and examples related to the learners prior knowledge.
Concept mapping is typically used as a classroom tool for students to construct their own learning by linking complicated concepts and their components to one another. Concept mapping is a technique of representing the knowledge in graphs and thus knowledge graphs are networks of concepts. The fundamental idea behind the concept mapping is to represent the concepts and subject matter in diagrammatic forms which shows meaningful relationships between concepts in the form of propositions that are linked together by words, circles and cross links. Concept maps are represented in hierarchical fashion with most inclusive and most fashioned concept at the top and more specific and less general at the bottom. With the help of concept map we can find out the answers of a particular question which we seek to answer or some problems which we want to understand with the help of some diagrammatic representation. Hence this approach organizes the knowledge in the form of concept maps.
Concept mapping plays very crucial role in the teaching and learning of science. It is an innovative approach or tool for integration of concepts Concept mapping tools create necessary “minds on” environment for coherent learning activities. This approach engages the students in constructive and transformative cognitive operations which enhances the memory and retention in subject. So a teacher only motivates the students to assimilate the new knowledge with prior knowledge rather then the simple memorizing it.
Concept mapping is a technique that allows students to understand the relationships between ideas by creating a visual map of the connections. Concept maps allow the student to (1) see the connections between ideas they already have, (2) connect new ideas to knowledge that they already have, and (3) organize ideas in a logical but not rigid structure that allows future information or viewpoints to be included. A concept map consists of nodes or cells (often a circle) that contain a concept, item or question and links (lines). The links are labeled and denote direction with an arrow symbol. The labeled links indicate the relationship between the nodes. Words are used to label the links in order to more explicitly depict relationships. As shown in the diagram 1.1
Advantages of Concept Mapping
• Concept mapping helps to explore the new knowledge.
• It’s a good tool for brainstorming.
• It clearly explains the central idea of the topic by positioning it at the center.
• It allows emphasis on each idea by figuring out the links among them.
• It helps to understand the problems by viewing it in different ways. It always allows the addition of new information.
• Concept map helps the science students to improve clarity of thoughts.
• The main advantage of concept map is the assimilation of thoughts.
• It is very useful for achieving deeper knowledge. Knowledge retention is the main aspect of the concept mapping which includes recall and recognition.
• Concept mapping also involves the visual teaching and learning which helps in teaching science education to special children.
• It helps to refine critical thinking and creativity which is essential for Science Education.
