Quantifying Learning Through The Use Of Mind Maps And Concept Maps

In this work mind maps and concept maps will be used to facilitate the process of learning by quantifying the ability of students to connect existing memories to new concepts. Research from cognitive and neural science indicates that learning occurs through the repeated process of storing, retrieving, and connecting information. Aligning instruction with the way in which students learn is difficult. Instruction is often delivered using a topic-by-topic presentation of material because the instructor’s expertise in a field, coupled with repeated application of concepts, facilitates this approach. Instructors are able to quickly and easily retrieve information because they have a vast network of neural paths developed through repeated use. Students, on the other hand, are faced with both establishing the connection of stored information to new concepts and strengthening the connection with repeated use. If the connection between retrieved information and the new concept is made, learning will occur—otherwise it will not. This research explores the use of mind maps and concept maps as quantitative tools to measure the learning process of students and to identify important missing connections between concepts.