using refined concept maps

I just completed a pilot study to check the feasibility of refined concept mapping technique with std. VIII students of Mumbai in the domain of cell biology.

A group of 10 students were involved in the study. Initially the students were familiarized with the traditional concept mapping technique and were asked to draw some concept maps on the topic of “food”. The next task was to ask the students to draw the concept maps on the topic of “cell” with seed concepts provided. The last task involved to ask the students to draw refined concept maps on the same topic with seed concepts and seed relations provided.

The study focussed on using the refined or the constrained method of drawing concept maps, and whether students can map the same domain of the knowledge with the given constraints at the same time without any loss of knowledge/information of the domain.

At present, I am into data analysis of this study. Shall post the results soon.

Here are some pics of students involved in the pilot study at HBCSE.