Concept Mapping as a Form of Student Assessment and Instruction in the Domain of Bioengineering

This paper describes two pilot studies investigating the use of concept mapping for assessing students' conceptual knowledge at a given point and over time. In Study 1, three groups constructed concept maps in response to the question, “What are the 10–20 most important concepts in biomedical engineering and how are they related?” Group differences were consistent with expert‐novice distinctions in structural knowledge: faculty generated dense networks of higher‐order principles and their applications while students generated fewer connections among concepts pertaining largely to domain content. Study 2 assessed students' conceptual understanding of the biomedical engineering design process in a yearlong design course at three different time points. Later maps contained a greater number of concepts, more precise vocabulary, and were more valid. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for theories about the structure of knowledge and identification of the skills associated with a culture of practice.