The Origins of the Concept Mapping Tool and the Continuing Evolution of the Tool

TLDR

A Cornell research program on children’s science concept acquisition highlighted the need for a new tool, grounded in cognitive psychology and constructivist epistemology. Collaboration between Novak, Cañas, and others at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition led to software that integrated concept mapping with the Web, evolving into CmapTools, and preliminary studies are assessing its educational model. Concept mapping, invented in 1972, differs from other knowledge representation tools and, when integrated with Web technologies, supports a new learning environment that, combined with other practices, offers a New Model for Education.

Abstract

A research program at Cornell University that sought to study the ability of children to acquire science concepts and the effect of this learning on later schooling led to the need for a new tool to describe explicit changes in children's conceptual understanding. Concept mapping was invented in 1972 to meet this need, and subsequently numerous other uses have been found for this tool. Underlying the research program and the development of the concept mapping tool was an explicit cognitive psychology of learning and an explicit constructivist epistemology. In 1987, collaboration began between Novak and Cañas and others at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, then part of the University of West Florida. Extending the use of concept mapping to other applications such as the integration of concept mapping with the World Wide Web (WWW) led to the development of software that enhanced the potential of concept mapping, evolving into the current version of CmapTools now used worldwide in schools, universities, corporations, and governmental and non-governmental agencies. Differences between concept maps and other knowledge representation tools are described. The integration of concept mapping software programs with the WWW and other new technologies permits a new kind of concept map-centred learning environment wherein learners build their own knowledge models, individually or collaboratively, and these can serve as a basis for life-long meaningful learning. Combined with other educational practices, use of CmapTools permits a New Model for Education. Preliminary studies are underway to assess the possibilities of this New Model.