Concept Mapping: Evaluating the Language Arts Methods Course
In this inquiry, I examine the evidence of student learning in an elementary education language arts methods course. Students completed concepts maps that represented their understanding of effective writing instruction at the beginning end of the course. Eighty-one pairs of concepts maps were scored according to established methods. Students included 122% more concepts on their post-course concepts maps; links between concepts increased by 134%. I also analyze a typical student's beginning- and end-of-course maps, which shows that the student's knowledge base increased both in terms of number and specificity of concepts.