Use Collaborative Concept Mapping to encourage students to organize complex information, develop links between concepts or ideas, and build up their collective understanding of a topic.
Steps
- Prepare a “big picture” question that draws on or connects major themes, events, concepts, etc. in a course. For example: “What were the most significant features of the civil rights movements of the 1960s in the United States? Were these movements successful? Why or why not?”
- Pro Tip! Keep the specific question to yourself for the time being.
- Provide a broad topic or prompt. For example: history of civil rights movements in the 1960s.
- Ask students to individually write down on separate pieces of paper (sticky notes work well for this) all the key terms (concepts, events, people) they can think of related to the topic. Remind them to use a different slip of paper or sticky note for each term they write down.
- Arrange students into groups. Make sure they have adequate space to work.
- Tell students to put all their sticky notes onto a table (or use space on the wall).
- Direct them to organize their notes in a way that makes sense to them. Suggest a mind map or hierarchical structure moving from broader concepts/themes down to more specific points or supporting evidence.
- Ask groups to summarize their answer/argument based on the evidence collected.
- Ask groups to present their concept map to the rest of the class. Guide them to explain how they made connections, how they decided on key points, where their information comes from, what specific examples they found, and so on.
- Alternatively, provide large sticky notes, flip chart paper, or whiteboard space to let groups put up their maps around the room. Have the groups do a gallery walk where they move around the room and examine the maps produced by the other groups. Ask them to consider guiding questions such as: What do you notice about the structure of each map? Do the details clearly connect to the overall interpretation? What is missing or what could be emphasized more? Does anything look out of place?
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