Enhancing Motivation and Acquisition of Coordinate Concepts By Using Concept Trees

This study assessed the effects of providing learners with a graphic illustration of coordinate concept relationships to supplement learning from text-based instruction. Seventy-three undergraduate students were given a passage of approximately 1,300 words in length, describing Ausubel’s Categories of Meaningful Learning. Half of the students also received a graphic concept tree that illustrated the relationship between the concepts presented in the text. Findings from analyses of variance on an instructional motivation measure and the immediate posttest indicated that students who used the concept tree outperformed those learners who did not use the concept tree, and that students who used the concept tree reported significantly higher amounts of attention, confidence, and satisfaction with the instructional materials. No interactions were found between use of the concept tree and vocabulary ability.