Anderson-Inman, L., & Ditson, L. (1999). Computer-based concept mapping: A tool for negotiating meaning. Learning & Leading with Technology, 26(8), 6-13.
This article discusses the use of causal mapping software in a middle school science unit on water quality and creek health. The students collected data and made observations on site. Their challenge was to connect the information to cause and effect paradigms. Their measurements were supplemented by others collected by collected by a science club and an existing database. This way the students were able to see the creek as a dynamic process responding to a number of variables: weather, seasons, pollution, and nearby agricultural practices (golf course turf management and animal grazing).
With the mapping tool, the students represented the variables as labeled boxes and postulated the relationships with arrows, either blue (direct) or red (inverse). The thickness of the arrows indicates the strength of the relationships without putting any quantitative formulas into the map.
The mapping exercise is an iterative process as students improved their models by doing adjunct research on the web and negotiating their maps with other students, their teacher and the class. The authors said their teaching was improved, because they were less inclined to direct students to a “right” answer and were more inclined to ask probing questions that got students to think.
They reported that students had trouble letting go of useless information. Therefore, the instructors would challenge their students to simplify their maps—giving a “10 seconds to read rule”.
1. What subjects would this tool be most useful for?
A good test would be, “Is Cause and Effect is an important question?” for this area of inquiry. I think any science topic, including social sciences. In literature, the model could be used to look at a story line or to analyze an author’s style and the context and influences of his work.
2. What is the similarity of Causal mapping to Piaget’s Schema? Take in new data, either assimilate to a current hypothesis or change (accommodate) the map.
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ReplyDeleteSome people argue that the ideas in this article are typical Western mindset that data is the source of human reasoning and that logic is the only legitimate way of thinking. They say that both are not true.