Concept‐maps are widely used to assess students' conceptual understanding in different subject areas. Conventionally, it is mostly built maps which are assessed. In this study, we explore if “concept‐mapping” could be used as a case for constructive alignment of both the process and the outcome of learning. Specifically, we have studied how a simple measure of looking at the order in which concept map elements‐concepts (cards, C), links (arrows, A), and linking phrases (phrases, P)‐ are placed on the working space reveals information about the quality of the final generated map. We report findings from analysis of the concept‐mapping process in two separate groups of university students (N = 38 (18 + 20)) who were asked, individually, to build concept maps related to two separate concepts in biology and chemistry respectively. We found that, across both groups, students consistently followed the same order of element placement that they began with and found significant differences in the quality of eventual maps resulting from students' map building strategies. Our results suggest that the quality of students' concept maps depends considerably on the strategy used to build it, and point to the supplementary role that the physical working space of the concept‐mapping exercise offers to students' own working memory as a possible explanation for these quality differences.

中文翻译：

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概念图的质量受地图构建策略的影响

概念图被广泛用于评估学生对不同学科领域的概念理解。传统上，它主要是评估构建的地图。在这项研究中，我们探讨了“概念映射”是否可以用作学习过程和结果的建设性调整的案例。具体来说，我们研究了如何通过查看概念图元素——概念（卡片，C）、链接（箭头，A）和链接短语（短语，P）——放置在工作空间中的顺序的简单措施来揭示有关最终生成的地图的质量的信息。我们报告了对两个不同的大学生组（N = 38 (18 + 20)）的概念映射过程的分析结果，他们被要求分别构建与生物学和化学中两个独立概念相关的概念图。我们发现，在两组中，学生始终遵循与开始时相同的元素放置顺序，并发现由于学生的地图构建策略导致最终地图的质量存在显着差异。我们的结果表明，学生概念图的质量在很大程度上取决于构建它的策略，并指出概念图练习的物理工作空间为学生自己的工作记忆提供的补充作用，作为可能解释这些质量差异。