Concept Map Case Study 1

The Concept Maps (Case # 25) Wow! I sure am extremely glad that I was never a student in Mr. Kessinger’s class, regardless, what the subject was, he was teaching. I have had my fair share of tough teachers, but he tops them all. It appears that Robin is a good student who was trying to stay on top of the information that was being discussed in class. The fact that she spent more than an hour of her own time at home to make sure that she was prepared for any question that Mr. Kessinger would throw at her in class is absolutely amazing! I found this case to be extremely frustrating, mainly on Mr. Kessinger’s class management portion. It seemed as though most of his students feared him, which is not the job of an educator. We are there …show more content…
224). It is important that when using a concept map, the information that is illustrated within the concept map is not too in depth which can cause the student to become overwhelmed, which defeats the initial purpose (p. 224). Keeping the information short and precise is often the best route to take. According to Ormrod (2016), instruction tends to be more effective when students are asked to elaborate on what they are learning (p. 224). Robin did just that. She took the class notes and elaborated on them by creating her own concept map. A concept map is a great activity that promotes more in depth learning and elaboration, due to the fact that within a concept map, the student is required to physically do something with this newly learned information. They are illustrating the important information on the topic and showing how these important concepts are …show more content…
226). The interesting thing about concept maps, is that the visual aid works whether the teacher or student create the concept map. At my school, we create a lot of anchor charts, or if we are teaching a lesson to the first graders about writing, I have found that a concept map is a great tool to use for them to see how the main idea of the paper correlates with several other ideas that they are also write about, yet stay on task. In Robin’s case, she realized that concept maps helped her internalize the important information that Mr. Kessinger was discussing in his world history class. I find it impressive that at seventeen, sweet Robin was able to make the connection to what tool she learned the best from. Then to take it to the next step and spend an hour or so of her own time at home prior to class to make sure that she was prepared is something that should have been celebrated, not put down. Ormrod (2016) states that visual aids such as a concept map can actually reduce the strain on working memory, simply because they provide an external, outside of working memory means of storing a portion of the information the learner is trying to process and make sense of (p.