TEACHING CONCEPT MAPPING AND KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION TO 100 SCIENTISTS AT THE USGS DRAGON ASIA SUMMIT

We designed and taught two 1.5-hour short courses on using the metacognitive tools of tag cloud diagramming, concept mapping, and knowledge integration linkage to 100 earth and life scientists. All currently study the world's 12 major river deltas, rivers, and their associated great lakes. All were attending the 2009 DRAGON Asia Summit in Siem Reap, Cambodia--organized by the US Geological Survey and the US National Wetland Research Center.

We wanted to to help participants value and differentiate: (a) meaningful and mindful understanding of science; (b) episodic, procedural, and declarative knowledge in science; (c) the types of knowledge claims that scientists employ; and (d) the nature of our construct of biogeocomplexity as a concept mapping lens for this Summit meeting. Next we aimed to help participants learn and practice using these metacognitive knowledge representation tools. There are now more than 1,000 published science education research studies employing Novakian concept mapping protocol and his human constructivism theory. Finally, in order to jump-start their mapping skills, participants each had an opportunity to begin instructor-guided construction of a concept map depicting their own areas of expertise and research.

We also showed them free software that lets users embed video clips, audio clips, papers, and images into their concept maps. It did not escape us that the same maps the Partnership creates can also serve as an online state-of-the-art science education and problem-solving resource. The beauty of concept mapping for all nations is that it can be accomplished with either low or high technology—from paper-and-pencil to computerized, multimedia display.

Via mixed methodologies, our findings emerged from four triangulated data sets. We found that: (a) practicing scientists were quite receptive to learning about and using metacognitive tools; (b) they suggested numerous applications for these tools in their own teaching and research; (c) we found that several iterations and self-edits of their maps were necessary to satisfy their scientific content-display intentions; and (d) they reported an emerging consensus at the Summit’s plenary session that such electronic concept maps become available online for use by DRAGON Partnership participants worldwide.