Spontaneous concept maps aiding the understanding of scientific concepts

Abstract This study evaluated concept maps spontaneously constructed by applicants (N = 502) in a medical school entrance examination. In all, 36 maps were produced. Concept maps were evaluated for content of relevant terms and for the number of interrelationships indicated. The aim was to determine whether including relevant ideas on a concept map is related to the learning of those ideas. Because concept maps are effective tools for making the structure of knowledge explicit, it was hypothesized that the quality and content of spontaneously made maps would be related to improvement in the comprehension of text material. Understanding was assessed in terms of success in essay-type tasks designed to measure the ability to define, explain, and apply statistical knowledge. The results indicated that merely including the relevant concepts in a map has little effect on the comprehension of those concepts, whereas the extent and complexity of concept maps plays a powerful role in the understanding of scientific texts.