The evaluation of concept map recomposition order and its effect on learning outcomes

Abstract

Concept map serves as a visual tool in education, facilitating the organization and representation of knowledge. Concept map recomposition activity, which is a kind of concept map building activity, has been shown to promote meaningful learning and enhance reading comprehension. In this process, the teacher creates an expert map from a text material, decomposes it into individual concepts and links, and the learners then recompose these components. During the recomposition activity, learners connect concepts and links to form propositions, using information acquired from teacher’s explanation and/or by reading the text material. However, since the information in the text is generally presented in a specific sequence, it is important to evaluate whether following this sequence during the recomposition affects their learning outcomes. Understanding this is beneficial for teachers in providing support in concept map recomposition activities. This research evaluated the similarity between the recomposition order and the text’s information order, and how it relates to learning outcomes. The results revealed that various recomposition orders led to equal learning outcomes. However, the recomposition order was related to the aspects of the activity, which are time on task, time required to perform each action and map quality. This finding suggests that teachers should provide support that adapts to differing recomposition order, recognizing that learners may approach the recomposition activity in different ways.