What the Research Says About Concept Mapping:

College

• Holly, Dansereau, McDonald, Garland , & Collins, 1979.
• Substantial training (more than six hours and with relevant practice) on concept mapping improves recall of main ideas in text-based content.
• Most effective for low or average achievers (high achievers have own strategies).
• Stewart (1980, 1982); Stewart, Van Kirk, & Rowell (1979).
• Effective for development of curricula, instructional planning, and evaluation.

High School

• Alvermann (1981).
• Effective for non-ordered text descriptions of main ideas but NOT for descriptions organized in comparison/contrast format.
• Bean, Singer, Sorter, & Frazee (1986).
• Effective for predicting outcomes of historical events when trained in use of cause and effect relationship mapping.

Middle School

• Hawk (1986).
• Improves learning from text books (life science).
• Novak, Gowan, & Johnson (1983).
• Improve learning and problem solving (science).

Elementary School

• Boothby & Alvermann (1984).
• Concept mapping improved recall on immediate and 48-hour delay test, but no long term benefits.