Making Concept Maps (Novak) - 0 views
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Lottie Peppers on 13 Nov 15Concept maps are tools for organizing and representing knowledge. They include concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, and relationships between concepts or propositions, (indicated by a connecting line and linking word) between two concepts. Linking words on the line specify the relationship between the two concepts. Joe Novak defines "concept" as a perceived regularity in events or objects, or records of events or objects, designated by a label. Think of the concept "Dog" in your mind, what do you see? You might see a prototype shape (head, four legs etc) and typical examples (terrier, collie, sheepdog) and even be able to explain it (give a definition) in words. The label for most concepts is a word, although sometimes we use symbols such as + or %. Propositions are statements about some object or event in the universe, either naturally occurring or constructed. Propositions contain two or more concepts connected with other words to form a meaningful statement. Sometimes these are called semantic units,or units of meaning. Figure 1 shows an example of a concept map that describes the structure of concept maps and illustrates the above characteristics.