Concept Mapping: For Students and Teachers
The article “Mapping Knowledge: Concept Maps in Early Childhood Education” by Maria Birbili discusses not only the advantages of concept maps for students but also for teachers. According to Birbili, such advantages of concept maps for children include their ability to help children “organize and spatially represent both what they know and what they are thinking” as well as “depict relationships amongst concepts”. This in turn enables teachers to discover what it is the student knows and can also be used as an evaluating tool. Teachers can also benefit from using concept maps to help them “to plan, structure, and sequence the content of their teaching”.
I think it is crucial that teachers not only use technology for the children, but take advantage of the benefits they can gain from it too. When I become a primary school teacher, I definitely plan on using on concept mapping not only as an evaluation tool but to also aid my lesson planning.
