Les cartes conceptuelles dans les formations en santé

Abstract

A research program at Cornell University that sought to study the ability of children to acquire science concepts and the effect of this learning on later schooling led to the need for a newtool to describe explicit changes in chil-dren's conceptual understanding. Concept mapping was invented in 1972 to meet this need, and subsequently numerous other uses have been found for this tool. Underlying the research program and the development of the con-cept mapping tool was an explicit cognitive psychology of learning and an ex-plicit constructivist epistemology. In 1987, collaboration began between Novak and Cañas and others at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cogni-tion, then part of the University of West Florida. Extending the use of concept mapping to other applications such as the integration of concept mapping with theWorldWideWeb (WWW) led to the development of software that en-hanced the potential of concept mapping, evolving into the current version of CmapTools nowused worldwide in schools, universities, corporations, and governmental and non-governmental agencies. Differences between concept maps and other knowledge representation tools are described. The integra-tion of concept mapping software programs with the WWW and other new technologies permits a newkind of concept map-centred learning environ-ment wherein learners build their own knowledge models, individually or col-laboratively, and these can serve as a basis for life-long meaningful learning. Combined with other educational practices, use of CmapTools permits a New Model for Education. Preliminary studies are underway to assess the possibili-ties of this NewModel.