Concepts: Concept Maps
What Is a Concept Map?
A Concept Map is a note-taking tool that gives learners a visual outline of verbal information. It is a picture of words: the important concepts, facts, and data, and their relationship to one another. The position of words on paper, with accompanying shapes, lines, and spaces, creates a mental image of what the topic is all about. A Concept Map is such an important part of learning that no training should be conducted without one.
According to Patricia Wolfe in Brain Matters (2001), “Humans are intensely visual animals. The eyes contain 70 percent of the body’s sensory receptors. . . . It’s not surprising that the visual components of memory are so robust” (p. 152). Put another way, the human brain is hardwired to think in pictures first, and words second. In fact, words are really only representations of mental images (which, in turn, are representations of people, objects, experiences, and ideas). Furthermore, the human brain usually remembers visual images better than printed data. Wolfe elaborates: “The capacity for long-term memory of pictures seems almost unlimited” (2001, p. 153). So Concept Maps are not about art; they are about retention and recall of important information.
Concept Maps are also called graphic organizers, mind maps, mindscapes, cluster or bubble maps, information maps, and the like. But all Concept Maps are based on the same principle: The visual layout of information is vitally important to the learner’s retention of important data. You use Concept Maps every day. The road map you use to find your way around a new area is a Concept Map. So is the diagram of a shopping mall that is located near the mall’s entrance. Your home’s electrical fuse box, with its labeled diagram of switches, is a Concept Map.
In training, examples of Concept Maps are flow charts, Venn diagrams, pie charts, bar graphs, and just about any note-taking method that uses images, lines, and symbols as well as words. On the other hand, most topic outlines and training agendas, written in a linear, bulleted fashion without any images, are not Concept Maps. Neither are the PowerPoint® handout templates that many trainers use.
A Concept Map taps into many different ways of knowing and remembering: visual/spatial (images and symbols), linguistic (words and phrases), logical/ mathematical (patterns and relationships between concepts), and kinesthetic (muscle movement—drawing and writing). Mapping also engages both hemispheres of the neocortex or thinking brain: the left hemisphere, which primarily processes words, and the right hemisphere, which primarily processes images.
Here are the important elements to keep in mind when using Concept Maps in your own training:
• Word and images. Learners use both the written words and visual representations of the words, or use shapes and lines signifying the relationships among ideas, to create Concept Maps. In addition, when learners add color to the images (with colored pens, pencils, crayons, or markers), the maps becomes even more visually interesting and memorable.
• Learner-created. Because each person organizes and remembers information differently, it’s important for learners to create their own Concept Maps. You can help them start by giving them a basic map to use, but essentially learners remember what they draw and write better than what you draw and write for them.
• Timing. Since Concept Maps are note-taking tools, learners should be using them during the lecture or presentation, not afterward. You need to build mapping time into your direct instruction. You should also remind and encourage learners to map what they hear. Don’t expect them to do this without reminders, as this type of note-taking will be new to most training participants.
• Why and how. Along with encouraging learners to take notes in ways that differ from what they are used to, give them the brain-based reasons for using this note-taking method. By your doing this, learners will realize that a Concept Map isn’t about art or being back in grade school; rather, it truly is a tool to aid long-term retention of important data. When you give them an example or two or hand out a basic map to help them start, you ease their way into using this powerful retention tool.
What Does a Concept Map Do?
With a Concept Map, learners will
• Create visual images of important concepts.
• Use a variety of ways of learning: visual/spatial, linguistic, logical/ mathematical, and kinesthetic.
• Engage both hemispheres of their neocortex or thinking brain.
• Lengthen long-term retention of important information.
• Remain involved and engaged throughout the entire direct instruction.
• Leave the training with a visually interesting reminder of what they learned, one that they can use as an information resource later.
Getting Ready
• Materials: For most Concept Maps, you will need standard training materials, as well as extra drawing materials—a variety of colored pens, pencils, markers, and colored paper—on each table. You may also want to include colored stickers, dots, stamps, or craft items, if you want the final maps to have a more creative, three-dimensional appearance.
• Setup: The mapping materials have to be on the tables and accessible to all participants.
• Group Size: Any size group is fine.
• Time: Because Concept Maps are an integral part of the direct instruction, learners should use them during all lecture segments.
Five Concept Maps
1. Basic Map
The Basic Map is also called a Cluster or Bubble Map. With it, learners write the topic, main ideas, and details on paper and then put colored circles, boxes, or other geometric shapes around the words and phrases. Learners use colored lines to link the main ideas to the topic and the details to the main ideas.
Before you begin your presentation or lecture, say to learners:
• Choose a piece of colored paper and share the colored pens or markers.
• In the center of your paper, write the topic title and draw a colored box around it.
• As I lecture, you will write the main ideas (concepts) around the topic, Put a colored circle around each main idea and attach it to the topic box with a colored line.
• Around each main idea circle, draw spokes and write the concept details on the spokes.
• Add images to your Basic Map (icons, geometric shapes, squiggles, cartoons, stick figures, and so forth) to help you remember these facts.
Concept Map Example: Basic Map (Cluster Map)
• You can make your Basic Map as colorful as you wish. The colors and geometric shapes will help you remember the information you write on it.
Be sure to pause periodically during your lecture to give learners time to draw their maps and write the main ideas and details.
2. Flow Chart Map
Concept Map Example: Flow Chart Map
Most learners are familiar with standard flow charts and find it relatively easy to recreate one. With the Flow Chart Map, learners take notes in a more structured, linear form than with the Basic Map. Instructions to learners:
• Write the topic title at the top of the page. Draw a colorful box around it.
• As I lecture, write each main idea under the topic title, and draw a box around it. Link it to the topic with a line.
• Under each main idea, write the details, put boxes around them, and link them to the main ideas.
• Add colorful images, lines, or shapes that will help you remember the material.
3. Burger Map
Concept Map Example: Burger Map
The whimsical Burger Map has a topic bun and summary bun, with main ideas and details as the “burger” parts in the middle. Learners can create their own Burger Maps or use one you have printed for them. They can spice up (pun intended) their burgers with colorful, doodled additions: pickles, cheese, chips, sodas, and the like. The Burger Map adds a bit of humor to the note-taking process.
Actually, any object’s shape can be used as a note-taking map. Think of household objects (chairs, spoons, phones, dishes), office objects (tablets, pencils, calculators), objects related to the training topic (examples: a computer shape for technical training, a tee-shirt outline for customer service, a ladder outline for procedural steps, and so on), nature shapes (trees, fish, leaves, water drops), body parts (head, hands, feet), and, of course, food. Using a shape that is either metaphorical (the ladder above) or topic-related (the tee-shirt above) will make the map even more memorable.
Your instructions to learners will be similar to the instructions listed for the two previous maps.
4. Free Flow Map
A lot more fun and creative, the Free Flow Map allows for unlimited, artistic variations, while still enhancing long-term memory. With the Free Flow Map, learners begin and end the map anywhere on the page, The information they write meanders along lines that look like a curvy road or river. Learners use an abundance of lines, shapes, images, and color. When finished, the note-taking pages look somewhat like pieces of artwork that are interesting and visually appealing. Learners can post the art-like pages at work and use them as job aids. Examples of Free Flow Maps are collages with both words and images, fireworks-like shapes with lots of flowing lines and spaces, and three-dimensional notes, where learners use craft materials to represent concepts, main ideas, and details.
For three-dimensional Free Flow Maps, have a small bag or box of craft items available at each table: pipe cleaners, small sticks, glitter, stickers, foam shapes, Play-Doh®, tape, glue, and the like. Your instructions to learners will be similar to the instructions for previous maps. In addition, you will remind learners to use the craft materials. Give them time to do this during the lecture segments.
Concept Map Example: Free Flow Map
5. Timeline Map
A Timeline Map represents information that is linear or time-dependent, such as procedural or historical information. A procedural example is the sequence of steps for a specific computer program. Another is the action sequence needed to resolve a particular problem. Historical examples are specific dates related to the stages of a company’s growth or the past, present, or future models of a piece of equipment.
For a Timeline Map, say:
• Turn a blank, note-taking page sideways in front of you, so that the longer side of the page is horizontal, rather than vertical.
• Draw a line along the middle of the paper, from left to right, so you have divided the paper in half. This is your timeline.
• As I lecture, you will be writing notes above and below this line, and then connecting your notes to the timeline with other lines. You will write the notes in a certain order (depending on the topic information), from left to right.
• Draw a colored box around each piece of information attached to the timeline.
Your Turn
In the space below, experiment with your own Concept Maps, or reproduce ones you have seen other trainers use. You might take one or two ideas from this section and combine or change them to apply to the topics you teach. Or jot down other mapping ideas you’ve seen.
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