Using concept maps as a cognitive tool in a teacher education program

• Autor(es): Coutinho, Clara Pereira ; Bottentuit Junior, João Batista
• Data: 2008
• Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/8461
• Origem: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
• Assunto(s): Concept maps; Internet
• Tipo de Documento: Documento de conferência
• Idioma: Inglês

Descrição

In this paper we report how 26 teachers enrolled in a post graduate teacher education program used Cmaptools software for class work and assessment. For one smester teacher build eletronic concept maps as a constructivist learning strategy to organize and reflect on the course readings, to plan course projects and to compare and contrast information from course discurssions. Concept maps were posted in the course website for the instructor and colleagues to visualize and comment. At the end of the semester the learning strategy was assessed thru survey techniques. Results show that teachers considered that the process os using this constructivist strategy was important to enhance their learning skills in studying the contents and also grew to understand their own thinking process. The findings also suggest that the use of CM within a b-learning enviromen made it easier for teachers to constantly increase performance at representing knowledge and creating meaning of the course core.