Sequentially Analyzing and Modeling Causal Mapping Processes that Support Causal Understanding and Systems Thinking

Abstract

This chapter describes four informal case studies in concept mapping with graduate education students and in-service teachers using CmapTools (or simply Cmap), a concept mapping system with a particularly rich set of affordances. Three studies describe actual student applications of concept mapping using Cmap in three different graduate courses in Lehigh University’s College of Education and in Wilkes University’s Graduate School of Education, both in Pennsylvania in the USA. The fourth study describes the author’s experience in introducing Cmap as a concept mapping application for K-12 student use to about 1,000 K-12 teachers through regional hands-on workshops and national conference presentations. The aim was to raise teachers’ awareness of the potential benefits of concept mapping and to introduce them to powerful, free, concept mapping software for their classrooms. Findings indicate that teachers may adopt concept mapping if they recognize a com- pelling need to do so, and they tend not to understand the potential benefit and specific uses without intensive and extended professional development. Keywords