Concept maps, as we define them, were first developed in 1972 as a tool to study changes in children’s conceptual understanding of basic science concepts (Novak & Musonda, 1991). We faced the challenge in our research program of trying to find a way to illustrate clearly what cognitive changes were taking place in the 6-7 year old children we were working with, providing instruction in the particulate nature of matter, energy and energy transformations. While we found modified Piagetian interviews appeared to probe children’s knowledge, it was difficult to see clearly what changes were occurring in their cognitive structure that was leading to their manifest better understanding of basic science concepts. Novak’s research group at Cornell University revisited key ideas in Ausubel’s (1963, 1968) cognitive learning theory on which their research and instruction was based, and decided to try to represent the concepts and propositions put forward by their students in the simplest possible form, namely concept labels in boxes linked with a line and “linking words’ to form a proposition. In keeping with Ausubel’s ideas of hierarchical structure of cognitive structure, concept maps were drawn with the most general, most inclusive concepts at the top and most specific, least inclusive at the bottom. Working from interview transcripts, concept maps were drawn, using pen or pencil and paper, representing the concepts and propositions the child held for a given domain of science. p. 1

Ausubel’s The Psychology of Meaningful Verbal Learning (Ausubel, 1963) and his Educational Psychology, A Cognitive View (Ausubel, 1968) led the way to what became the “cognitive revolution” in the 1980’s. p. 2

It was, however, during the 1990s that concept mapping’s popularity as a knowledge representation tool began spreading into domains beyond education and started making its appearance in organizations and corporations (Novak, 1998). The development of concept mapping software further facilitated the construction of concept maps, but it was the integration of concept mapping with the Internet and the Web that took concept mapping to new levels of applications. p. 3

When Michael Polyani (1958) first introduced the idea of personal knowledge in 1958 he was speaking primarily to how scientists reason, not only using the hard data from their research but also subtle and unarticulated ideas based on their years of experience. In 1966 he expanded on his ideas and labeled this personal knowledge tacit knowledge (Polyani, 1966). The importance of tacit knowledge is now recognized as very important not only in sciences but in every field. Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) argued that tacit knowledge was essential to recognize and capture, if possible, for the successes of any business. p. 3

When Novak and his colleagues observed young children working with science materials in guided instruction, it was evident that they appeared to have more knowledge than they were able to express. This private or tacit knowledge, if it could be captured, would help to explain why some learners appeared to grasp quickly specific scientific ideas, whereas others did not. p. 3

We want to invite the concept mapping community to add resources and create itineraries. For example, a faculty member in nursing could create an itinerary that consists of the resources and activities that he/she considers his/her students should follow. This nursing itinerary could then be made public and could be used by people interested in concept mapping in nursing from other parts of the world. Users will rank itineraries, and thus those that are well received by students will be ranked high and will show as such on the site. p. 6

At IHMC we have created a Website (http://www.cmappers.net) that allows users to “rank” concept maps, in the same way as users rank videos in YouTube or photos in photo sharing websites. We open this Website to the community to collaborate in the sharing and ranking of maps. p. 7

References p. 7

Ausubel, D. P. (1963). The Psychology of Meaningful Verbal Learning. New York: Grune and Stratton. Ausubel, D. P. (1968). Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. p. 7

Polyani, M. (1958). Personal Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago. p. 8