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1 – 10 of over 64000Joana G. Aguiar, Alfred E. Thumser, Sarah G. Bailey, Sarah L. Trinder, Ian Bailey, Danielle L. Evans and Ian M. Kinchin
Concept maps have been described as a valuable tool for exploring curriculum knowledge. However, less attention has been given to the use of them to visualise contested and tacit…
Abstract
Purpose
Concept maps have been described as a valuable tool for exploring curriculum knowledge. However, less attention has been given to the use of them to visualise contested and tacit knowledge, i.e. the values and perceptions of teachers that underpin their practice. This paper aims to explore the use of concept mapping to uncover academics’ views and help them articulate their perspectives within the framework provided by the concepts of pedagogic frailty and resilience in a collaborative environment.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were a group of five colleagues within a Biochemical Science Department, working on the development of a new undergraduate curriculum. A qualitative single-case study was conducted to get some insights on how concept mapping might scaffold each step of the collaborative process. They answered the online questionnaire; their answers were “translated” into an initial expert-constructed concept map, which was offered as a starting point to articulate their views during a group session, resulting in a consensus map.
Findings
Engaging with the questionnaire was useful for providing the participants with an example of an “excellent” map, sensitising them to the core concepts and the possible links between them, without imposing a high level of cognitive load. This fostered dialogue of complex ideas, introducing the potential benefits of consensus maps in team-based projects.
Originality/value
An online questionnaire may facilitate the application of the pedagogic frailty model for academic development by scaling up the mapping process. The map-mediated facilitation of dialogue within teams of academics may facilitate faculty development by making explicit the underpinning values held by team members.
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Cathy Atkinson, George Thomas and Sarah Parry
Motivational interviewing (MI) has developed considerably since its inception, which may have led to diverse practice across contexts and differential understanding of core…
Abstract
Purpose
Motivational interviewing (MI) has developed considerably since its inception, which may have led to diverse practice across contexts and differential understanding of core principles. Concept mapping is one potential method for offering insight into practitioner awareness, understanding and application of MI. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 29 professionals from a range of disciplines, including counselling, education and health, completed concept maps about MI, following brief training at the UK regional MI interest network. In total, 17 completed maps were submitted for analysis using quantitative and qualitative methods.
Findings
A total of 186 concepts and 175 propositional links were found within the 17 maps. The most commonly identified concepts were: change, empathy, collaboration, open-ended questions, affirmations, reflections, summaries (OARS), client centred and compassion. The concept maps also suggested differing levels of expertise across network members using concept mapping morphology classification.
Research limitations/implications
The sample was small scale and located in one region of the UK. Maps were submitted anonymously meaning that participant data could not be matched to the maps.
Practical implications
Concept mapping is a potentially useful method for auditing practice and developing skills in MI, as well as exploring participants’ understanding of related concepts and therapeutic mechanisms.
Social implications
MI has a strong evidence-based across a variety of disciplines and contexts. Refining practitioner skills in MI has implications for the integrity of delivery, and improved client outcomes in areas such as substance use, health promotion and educational disaffection.
Originality/value
This is the first study to investigate concept mapping as a means of understanding MI practice. It has potential implications for training, monitoring, supervision and development in MI practice.
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This paper reports on the outcomes of a study in a service industry in which concept maps were used to facilitate the process of employees at all levels of an organisation…
Abstract
This paper reports on the outcomes of a study in a service industry in which concept maps were used to facilitate the process of employees at all levels of an organisation discussing and negotiating work issues. The use of the maps in the discussions facilitated inter‐employee co‐operation and communication. Specifically the use of the maps assisted employees to understand the perspective of others, organise their own thoughts, keep on track during meetings, reduce confrontation in meetings, share information, and involve all participants. The authors include, as an example, a description of one of the nine cases in the study in which two employees redesign a component of their work, and in the process improve their working relationship, thus addressing issues of significance to both employees. The authors conclude that concept mapping is an innovative tool which can be used by employees at all levels of an organisation for co‐operative work redesign.
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Finds a statistically significant relation between top‐down concept‐mapping and the right cerebral hemisphere, and between bottom‐up concept‐mapping and the right hemisphere…
Abstract
Finds a statistically significant relation between top‐down concept‐mapping and the right cerebral hemisphere, and between bottom‐up concept‐mapping and the right hemisphere. Correlates scores on concept‐mapping with scores on hemispheric tests, and compares the scores of the subjects on hemispheric tests with the preferable style of concept‐mapping. Concludes that top‐down concept‐mapping, the right hemisphere, and Frege’s logic are mutually related. Similarly, bottom‐up concept‐mapping, the left hemisphere, and Russell’s logic are mutually related.
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Devi R. Gnyawali and Beverly B. Tyler
Our primary objective is to provide method-related broad guidelines to researchers on the entire spectrum of issues involved in cause mapping and to encourage researchers to use…
Abstract
Our primary objective is to provide method-related broad guidelines to researchers on the entire spectrum of issues involved in cause mapping and to encourage researchers to use causal mapping techniques in strategy research. We challenge strategists to open the black box and investigate the mental models that depict the cause and effect beliefs of managers, “walk” readers through the causal mapping process by discussing the “nuts and bolts” of cause mapping, provide an illustration, and outline “key issues to consider.” We conclude with a discussion of some promising research directions.
David Hay and Ian Kinchin
This paper aims to describe a method of teaching that is based on Novak's concept‐mapping technique.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe a method of teaching that is based on Novak's concept‐mapping technique.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper shows how concept mapping can be used to measure prior knowledge and how simple mapping exercises can promote the integration of teachers' and students' understandings in ways that are meaningful.
Findings
The concept‐mapping method facilitates quick and easy measures of student knowledge‐change so that teachers can identify the parts of the curriculum that are being understood and those that are not. This is possible even among very large student groups in the 50‐minute slots that are allocated to so much teaching in higher education.
Research limitations/implications
Concept mapping is discussed in the wider context of student learning style. The styles literature has been criticised because it tends to encourage undue labelling of people or behaviours. The approach described here also uses “labels” to typify learning (using the terms non‐learning and rote or meaningful learning to identify different qualities of change).
Originality/value
The difference in this approach is that terms are attached to empirical measures of learning outcome, not to personal or psychological styles. Concept mapping makes learning visible so that the actual quality of the learning that has occurred can be seen and explored. Using concept mapping in the course of teaching means that learning is no longer a complex and intractable process, measurable only by proxy, but an observable phenomenon.
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Alon Friedman and Richard P. Smiraglia
The purpose of the research reported here is to improve comprehension of the socially‐negotiated identity of concepts in the domain of knowledge organization. Because knowledge…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the research reported here is to improve comprehension of the socially‐negotiated identity of concepts in the domain of knowledge organization. Because knowledge organization as a domain has as its focus the order of concepts, both from a theoretical perspective and from an applied perspective, it is important to understand how the domain itself understands the meaning of a concept.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides an empirical demonstration of how the domain itself understands the meaning of a concept. The paper employs content analysis to demonstrate the ways in which concepts are portrayed in KO concept maps as signs, and they are subjected to evaluative semiotic analysis as a way to understand their meaning. The frame was the entire population of formal proceedings in knowledge organization – all proceedings of the International Society for Knowledge Organization's international conferences (1990‐2010) and those of the annual classification workshops of the Special Interest Group for Classification Research of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (SIG/CR).
Findings
A total of 344 concept maps were analyzed. There was no discernible chronological pattern. Most concept maps were created by authors who were professors from the USA, Germany, France, or Canada. Roughly half were judged to contain semiotic content. Peirceian semiotics predominated, and tended to convey greater granularity and complexity in conceptual terminology. Nodes could be identified as anchors of conceptual clusters in the domain; the arcs were identifiable as verbal relationship indicators. Saussurian concept maps were more applied than theoretical; Peirceian concept maps had more theoretical content.
Originality/value
The paper demonstrates important empirical evidence about the coherence of the domain of knowledge organization. Core values are conveyed across time through the concept maps in this population of conference papers.
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Antje Bruesch and Martin Quinn
Interpretive research in management accounting and control provides rich insights from empirically based studies, but it has been criticised for lacking generalisability and…
Abstract
Purpose
Interpretive research in management accounting and control provides rich insights from empirically based studies, but it has been criticised for lacking generalisability and potential subjectivity. On the latter, triangulation is useful, and this paper aims to offer some insights on a triangulation technique thus far not commonly reported in management accounting/control research.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on a study of the roles of management accountants in performance management systems, this paper offers some insights from empirical experiences on the use of concept maps as a tool to assist triangulation and improve understanding of complex empirical phenomena.
Findings
The concept maps as utilised revealed additional insights which were not recounted by interviewees during the normal interview time. This is a potentially important finding for consideration of future researchers.
Practical implications
In this paper, how concept maps were used is detailed, and it is hoped that future researchers will find their use beneficial in interview settings.
Originality/value
Thus far, concept maps seem under-utilised in management accounting and control research. This paper gives some initial insights on how they may be used in case study settings.
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Concept maps are popularly used within academic development spaces, especially to teach new concepts at beginner levels for undergraduate students. Their popularity is partly…
Abstract
Concept maps are popularly used within academic development spaces, especially to teach new concepts at beginner levels for undergraduate students. Their popularity is partly based on the fact that they employ visual tools such as charts, diagrams, pictures, tables, etc., to simplify concepts that students would otherwise consider dense. This paper reports on the findings of an extended orientation project conducted between February and June of 2022 with a small cohort of 15 first-year students registered in an entrepreneurship course at a vocational higher education institution in South Africa. The research question guiding this study is: How can concept maps inspire entrepreneurial thinking for first-year ECP students at a vocational institution in South Africa? Using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), I analysed the two iterations of the students' concept maps together with selected data from the focus group interviews. Key findings reported include the students' fuzzy knowledge of what entrepreneurship as a discipline entails, the planned career trajectories for most of the participating students, as well as indecisiveness as to whether the students will be pursuing entrepreneurship after graduation. In the language of CHAT, the above findings are described as presenting tensions between the subject, tool and object. This layer of analysis calls for an urgent re-think of how the students are recruited and orientated into the programme and how the curriculum is delivered at the first-year level.
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Justin Greenleaf, Lori Kniffin, Kaley Klaus and Megan Rust
Mind mapping can be a pedagogical tool that helps students brainstorm how to organize information in a way that incorporates creative and active learning, as well as critical…
Abstract
Mind mapping can be a pedagogical tool that helps students brainstorm how to organize information in a way that incorporates creative and active learning, as well as critical thinking. In this article, we describe the application of using mind maps in an undergraduate course focused on teaching leadership theory as an effort to help students think more holistically about how theories intersect with their lives. The assignment description, rubric, and details of the application are provided. Examples of ways students have organized their maps to integrate theories into their lives (e.g., based on themselves, organizations, or metaphors) are also included. Through this practice, we found that mind mapping leadership concepts to areas of students’ lives develop their ability to describe how leadership theories operate holistically in their life, rather than limiting their understanding to one or two popular theories. We recommend leadership educators consider mind mapping as a pedagogical tool to teach theories and other content that require understanding in a broader context.