An Investigation of Concept Mapping to Improve the Reading Comprehension of Science

Texts
Author(s): Kevin Oliver
Source: Journal of Science Education and Technology , Oct., 2009, Vol. 18, No. 5 (Oct.,
2009), pp. 402-414
Published by: Springer

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20627720

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J Sei Educ Technol (2009) 18:402-414
DOI 10.1007/s 10956-009-9157-3
An Investigation of Concept Mapping to Improve the Reading
Comprehension of Science Texts
Kevin Oliver
Published online: 4 March 2009
? Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009
Abstract This study investigated how well 74 6th-grade
science students represented text structures from a 900
word textbook chapter on soil conservation, given a con
cept map template with four superordinate terms and 24
unsorted concepts. Findings suggest students were more
successful at classifying pre-selected terms under given
superordinate categories than they were at fully identifying
relevant concept sets and articulating three different rela
tionship types between terms. No significant differences
were noted in the mapping performance of students at
different reading levels. About two-third of students indi
cated they enjoyed concept mapping and would prefer to
both read and map rather than just read without mapping.
Students also expressed a strong preference for mapping in
pairs or small groups compared to mapping alone. Multiple
recommendations are provided for improving the relational
thinking of students tasked with concept mapping exposi
tory science texts, including bridging to more open-ended
maps, embedding mapping in longer-term inquiry projects,
and leveraging collaborative and tool-based scaffolds.
Keywords Concept mapping Reading comprehension
Literacy Science education
Introduction
Reading comprehension strategies are recommended for
students struggling to construct meaning from unfamiliar
K. Oliver (El)
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
e-mail: kevin_oliver@ncsu.edu
_} Springer
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expository textbooks. Graphic organizers are recom
mended because they provide visual scaffolds that
encourage students to extract and represent key details in
their texts (e.g., sequences, causes and effects, problems
and solutions, points of view). While several types of
graphic organizers exist, the concept map is a particularly
useful graphic because it requires students to express in
writing how two linked concepts are related. This relating
of concepts may aid in reading comprehension, since
expository texts are often embedded with relational struc
tures, including comparative (X is different from Y),
causative (X results in F), explanatory (X is also known as
y), and sequential (X precedes Y). For example, a student
may be more likely to comprehend the embedded causative
relationship between low potassium and high blood pres
sure, if they are encouraged by the graphic organizer to
read for how these concepts might be related and write
"results in" between them. More simplistic graphic orga
nizers might only require students to connect these
concepts or group them in a visual display, with the precise
nature of the relationship remaining undefined or implicit
at best. The purpose of this preliminary study is to inves
tigate the effectiveness of concept mapping on student
comprehension of specific text structures from a repre
sentative chapter of a sixth grade science text. Research
questions include:
1. Is a computer-based concept map template with given
superordinate terms and underlying concepts effective
at helping students reconstruct different text structures
from their science textbook?
2. Does student mapping performance vary by reading
ability?
3. What are student and teacher reactions to the concept
mapping task?
J Sei Educ Technol (2009) 18:402^14 403

Literature Review cutting?causes?erosion). This combination of concepts

Teachers and researchers have observed for decades that
students lack strategies to effectively read and comprehend
textbooks (Berkowitz 1986; Carnine and Carnine 2004;
Rivard and Yore 1992). To improve reading comprehension,
the National Reading Panel (2000) recommends teaching
comprehension strategies in the content areas and conduct
ing additional research on the effectiveness of strategies for
comprehending texts, including expository or fact-based specific text structures to organize material, and concept
texts. Expository texts are considered more difficult for maps may assist readers in recognizing and understanding
learners to comprehend than familiar narrative material, and these structures (Burdumy et al. 2006; Harniss et al. 1994;
science teachers in particular whose expository texts contain
unfamiliar facts, processes, and vocabulary, should be
cognizant of strategies to support student reading compre
hension (Burdumy et al. 2006; Miller 2006; Rivard and Yore
1992).
Reading comprehension is defined as the active process of
"simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning
through interaction and involvement with written language"
(Snow 2002, p. 11). It is recommended that students be
taught multiple strategies to improve their reading compre
hension, including predicting and summarizing, questioning,
and using graphic organizers (Burdumy et al. 2006; Zmach
et al. 2007). Research indicates seven categories of text
comprehension instruction are effective, including the "use
of graphic and semantic organizers... where readers make
graphic representations of the material to assist compre
hension" (National Reading Panel 2000, p. 15).
Graphic Organizers and Reading Comprehension
The Institute for the Advancement of Research in Educa
tion (2003) reviewed nine scientifically based research
studies conducted in grades K-12 since 1984 on the use of
graphic organizers to improve reading comprehension.
Results affirm graphic organizers can be a useful aid to
improve reading comprehension. It should be noted, how
ever, the term "graphic organizer" is used loosely to
describe semantic maps, story maps, Venn diagrams,
occasionally concept maps, and more.
The concept map is a specific type of graphic organizer
students can use to understand text structures and improve
reading comprehension. In a typical concept mapping
activity, the instructor selects a limited domain of knowl
edge to be mapped (Novak and Gowin 1984). This domain
is tied to course material such as a required reading, a lab
experiment, or an applied problem. The student is given or
identifies their own key concepts in the domain and
arranges them from general to specific and by type. The
student draws lines between concepts to illustrate rela
tionships and writes linking words on these connecting
lines to describe the nature of the relationship (e.g., clear
and linking words creates a "proposition" that may be
evaluated for accuracy (Cardellini 2004).
Written propositions are the key to distinguishing a
concept map from other graphic organizers. This is an
important distinction in studies of reading comprehension,
given the extra step of articulating relationships between
concepts may impact on the comprehension and recall of
embedded text structures. Authors of expository texts use
Meyer et al. 1980). Compare-contrast, cause-effect,
explanation, and sequencing are four commonly used
structures to organize text (Burdumy et al. 2006). By
examining student use of relational language in a concept
map, one can infer how well a student comprehends spe
cific structures in a text (e.g., a student may use the
relational words "is different from" when conveying a
compare-contrast text structure, or "results in" when
conveying a cause-effect text structure).
The concept map is not the only map type that can teach
students about relationships, but it has its advantages.
Using diagrams such as "double bubble maps" where
students compare and contrast two key concepts such as
mammals and amphibians by filling-in "bubbles" or empty
circles clustered around those concepts, students can infer
concepts on one side of the map are different from concepts
on the other side of the map without actually writing the
relational words "is different from" (Piercy and Hyerle
2004, p. 68). Likewise, with "multi-flow maps" where
students write causes such as plate tectonics on the left side
of a map and effects such as earthquakes and volcanoes on
the right side of a map, students can infer certain concepts
lead to or result in other concepts/effects without actually
writing the relational word "causes." These maps, how
ever, tend to emphasize one relationship type while the
concept map is more flexible for representing multiple
relationship types a student would likely encounter in texts
(i.e., comparative, causative, explanatory, sequential).
Other common maps include tree maps, mind maps, and
semantic maps, but these associate concepts in "like"
categories without requiring the learner to articulate precise
relationships between pairs of terms. Concept mapping has
additional value as one of few approaches that can be
applied to pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading
phases (Chang et al. 2002).
Studies of Concept Mapping and Reading
Comprehension
Concept mapping is generally thought to hold diagnostic
value for reading comprehension. For example, Anderson

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and Huang (1989) found 131 eighth grade students' scores
on a concept mapping test that followed a 500-word
reading on leaf processes and functions correlated better
with standardized vocabulary and reading comprehension
tests, as well as reading and science grades in school, than
did a more traditional short answer test that was also
administered following the reading. Other studies have
demonstrated how concept mapping in specific forms may
support aspects of reading comprehension.
Schmid and Telaro (1990) compared a group of high
school biology students that created multiple concept maps
across a 4-week unit of instruction against a comparison
group that did not. No significant differences were noted
between groups on test items that measured knowledge and
comprehension. However, significant differences were
noted on items that measured relational thinking for stu
dents of low reading ability who outperformed their low
ability counterparts and performed as well as their high
ability counterparts in the comparison group. The authors
suggest it may be important to test for higher-ability rela
tional thinking to observe the potential effects of mapping.
To foster relational thinking, researchers suggest it may
help to give students a specific learning goal as they engage
their reading. In a study with 50 university students, Curry
et al. (1999) presented learners with a 60-page hypertext
program on Lyme disease structured in six sections (e.g.,
history, transmission). Students in a general condition were
asked to read the hypertext and later represent the infor
mation they had accessed as an open-ended concept map.
Students in a learning goal condition were asked to read a
scenario about a man with Lyme disease, access the
hypertext to determine how accurately the scenario
depicted the disease, then create a concept map. While
there were no significant differences in the details recalled
in students' maps, findings suggest the readers given a
learning goal were significantly more likely to generate
relational maps with unique cross links that informed the
goal, compared to students in the general condition who
tended to create hierarchical maps similar to the original
hypertext. This finding suggests a goal paired with text may
help readers focus on important text and provide "a
framework on which to make new connections in their
reading that may not have been apparent had the text been
presented without goals and objectives" (p. 50).
Stice and Alvarez (1987) investigated concept mapping
with nine elementary school teachers and their students.
Teachers discovered that mapping helped students better
understand relationships between concepts such as com
pare-contrast and cause-effect. Further, students who had
difficulty reading incomplete texts were able to identify
gaps in these selections through concept mapping.
In a study with 250 urban high school students studying
biology texts and laboratory exercises, concept mapping
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404 J Sei Educ Technol (2009) 18:402-414
and Vee diagramming were study strategies given to a
treatment group compared to a more typical outlining
method applied by a control group (Lehman et al. 1985). A
test of students' understanding of 32 key relationships in
the material approached significance favoring a better
understanding of relationships by the treatment group. No
significant differences in content understanding were noted
between the two groups.
Chang et al. (2002) compared three methods of concept
mapping on the text comprehension and summarization
abilities of 125 fifth grade students across seven science
readings. A scaffold fading group studied or completed a
sequence of maps beginning with expert maps containing
all concepts and links, moving to skeletal maps containing
partial structure, and finishing with more complex open
ended maps that required the student to provide all struc
ture. A map correction group was given a complete
structure, but one that was partially incorrect requiring
them to process and correct the map. Finally, a map gen
eration group was required to provide the structure for all
of their open-ended maps. Text comprehension and sum
marization ability scores were significantly higher for the
map correction group. The strategy was suggested to pro
vide the scaffolding benefits of a partially correct map,
while incorrect elements encouraged students to actively
process text to identify errors. The text comprehension
scores of scaffold fading and map generation groups were
not significantly different from those of a control group,
suggesting how a concept map task is structured may
influence the degree to which reading comprehension can
be influenced. The summarization ability of the scaffold
fading group was greater than the control group, though,
suggesting some benefits for this approach, if somewhat
less than the map correction approach. It should be noted
this study also employed a unique computer-based map
ping system that provided learners with a limited amount of
system feedback on the correctness of a map (e.g., per
centage of right corrections).
Concept maps are a promising strategy for improving
reading comprehension, particularly for helping learners
understand relationships used by the authors of expository
texts. As noted by Chang et al. (2002), p. 6, however,
concept mapping has been successfully applied to the
learning of science, but only "a limited amount of research
has been conducted on its application to linguistic con
tent." A recent review of graphic organizer studies to
improve reading comprehension listed semantic matrices
and hierarchies as the intervention of choice without a
single concept map study reviewed (Kim et al. 2004). Even
when "concept mapping" is cited as a treatment to improve
reading comprehension, researchers haven't always
required subjects to supply relational language between
concepts?an important step suggested to assist students in
J Sei Educ Technol (2009) 18:402-414 405
comprehending specific text structures (see, for example,
Berkowitz 1986; Boyle and Weishaar 1997; Brookbank
et al. 1999; Guastello et al. 2000; Prater and Terry 1988).
One possible explanation for the limited number of
concept mapping studies for improved reading compre
hension may be the tendency for concept maps to be
employed more frequently as instructional tools than as
assessment tools (Ruiz-Primo and Shavelson 1996), with
few teachers able to invest the significant time that is
required to score student maps as a form of alternative
assessment. With new computer tools that scaffold both
efficient student generation of maps and in some cases
teacher scoring of the map as it relates to an expert crite
rion, the strategy is becoming more approachable to
educators and worthy of continued study.
Given the great variability in concept mapping methods
that employ multiple task structures and scoring systems
(Ruiz-Primo and Shavelson 1996), it is important to
bracket the mapping conditions that are unique to this
particular study in helping students reconstruct different
text structures from science texts. Since providing students
with some scaffolds rather than completely open-ended
map tasks may lead to better reading comprehension The researcher received human subjects approval from the
(Chang et al. 2002), the conditions in this study include a
concept map template given to students with both super
ordinate terms and a list of underlying concepts to arrange
and relate. Results are specific to these conditions.
Method
This study of concept mapping for reading comprehension
is based on a mixed methods concurrent nested design with
a quantitative strand (research question two) embedded in a
predominantly qualitative case study. The researcher's role
was that of participant-observer, on-site at the school and
assisting teacher and students in the computer lab
throughout the study period.
Participants and Setting
This study took place in a suburban public middle school in
the southern United States in 2007. Specifically, students
completed their concept maps in the 6th grade computer
lab with 30 Internet-connected iMacs. The school serves
~650 students in grades 6-8 with 34% of students on free/
reduced lunch. This school was chosen for research based
on interest expressed in concept mapping by the partici
pating teacher. The teacher had applied and attended a 2
day concept-mapping seminar led by the researcher the
summer prior to the study.
Student participants included three 6th grade earth sci
ence classes with 74 students, all taught by the same
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participating teacher. Student participants were 57% male,
43% female, 74% Caucasian, 14% African-American, and
11% Hispanic. Eight English as a Second Language (ESL)
students and four Exceptional Children (EC) with behav
ioral or social disabilities were included in the population
consistent with county immersion policies.
The average student percentile score on the state's end
of fifth grade reading comprehension test was low at 40
(n = 60 available scores), suggesting this was a group that
could benefit from reading comprehension intervention
strategies such as concept mapping. The distribution of test
scores placed 18 students in the lowest quartile, 23 in the
second quartile, 13 in the third quartile, and 5 in the highest
quartile.
Regarding prior experience with concept maps, 60% of
participants indicated they had previously created concept
maps with relational language, 90% indicated they had
created maps on computers, but no student indicated they
had ever used Cmap software.
Procedures
university Institutional Review Board (IRB). Students were
trained to use Cmap Tools (IHMC 2007) concept mapping
software during two 45-min class periods. Training con
sisted of a brief demonstration of the software where the
researcher constructed a concept map about birds using
input from students in a whole-class discussion format,
followed by students individually creating a biographical
concept map about themselves on day one. On day two,
students individually completed a training map similar to
the map task they would encounter in the actual study by
mapping 14 pre-selected terms from a short reading on the
game of basketball.
To begin the actual study, students read a 900-word
textbook chapter on soil conservation in their regular
classroom. Students then spent an additional two 45-min
class periods individually mapping 24 pre-selected terms
from the textbook chapter in the computer lab. The training
and mapping period lasted 1 week, with data from a tea
cher interview and student survey collected the following
week.
Materials
Students utilized Cmap Tools software (IHMC 2007) to
edit concept maps. This freeware product was selected
from among other network-enabled and web-based map
ping tools because it prompts students to input a
relationship statement between every pair of linked con
cepts. Finding a tool that required relationship writing was
key, since scientific reading material emphasizes cause
_} Springer
 406 J Sei Educ Technol (2009) 18:402-414

effect and explanatory relationships, and it was desirous to on site, a semi-structured teacher interview recorded at the
know how well students comprehended those relationships. end of the study period, and an 18-item student survey.
Other tools allow students to cluster hierarchies and flow Researcher field notes served to document study proce
charts, or brainstorm mind maps, without explicitly stating dures, student behaviors, and personal assumptions that
how term sets are related. were challenged by emerging data. The semi-structured
All students read a 900-word chapter from their state interview documented the teacher's opinions on how well
science textbook on soil conservation. Students were given concept mapping aided student comprehension, how
a concept map template to sort and relate 24 pre-selected interested she thought her students were in the activity, and
terms drawn from the chapter under four superordinate changes to the procedure she would implement on future
headers that were also provided. The student template was activities. The 18-item survey served to document such
based on an expert map the researcher and teacher created factors as students' prior exposure to mapping, enjoyment
in advance of the study (see Fig. 1). In the student tem of mapping, difficulty of mapping, the estimated value of
plate, concept groupings and relationships were removed mapping for understanding readings, preference for map
which the students would need to provide to complete the ping alone or collaboratively, and preference for reading
map task (see Fig. 2). with or without Cmap.
The students' concept map template was specifically
designed to include a range of text structures present in the Data Analysis
reading selection, including sequential (e.g., humans?
depend on?plants), explanatory (e.g., conservation plow To determine how well students developed individual
ing?is also known as?no till) and cause-effect (e.g., concept maps, a "combination" scoring protocol was
plowing grass in the Great Plains?led to?the Dust Bowl). applied comparing the student-created map to an expert
The expert map shown in Fig. 1 includes five sequential, map and computing a score based on similar map elements
seven explanatory, and nine cause-effect relationships (Ruiz-Primo and Shavelson 1996). As an example of
from the reading selection. scoring, Fig. 3 illustrates an excerpt from one student's
map contrasted with the same portion of the expert's map.
Data Sources In this excerpt, the student received six out of nine possible
points for classifying terms under the correct header
Aside from student concept map artifacts, other data "conserved" in any way, and another two out of three
sources included researcher field notes recorded each day points for identifying correct sets (i.e., one point for

v_J
damaged
and lost
through

/
such as/for example
[ humans J
? S I contour
plowing
ffo^d>?for<?{
^-r-^ plants
u. )<?-depend
A onj_
!
depend on loss of soil
depend on soil to fertility which is plowing
t along the curves of a

occurred in
f live and grow j the south with
^ slope j
for<4 -[ animalsj A_
soils for cotton
in late 1800s

Fig. 1 Expert map on soil conservation with concepts and relationships from reading

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J Sei Educ Technol (2009) 18:402-414
407

Fig. 2 Unsorted map template

provided to students
can be

[ conserved^)

plowing grass soils for cotton

crop in Great Plains in late 1800s low-till or nutrient
live and grow
rotation no-till supply

conservation contour
topsoil
plowing [food] [plants] [bacteria] erosion [ Dust Bowl ] plowing

soil is peanut different

plants nitrogen nutrients amounts of
I exposed [ s?ope ] [ animals ] for plants nutrients

loss of soil previous different crops

year's crops each year
fertility [plant cover] [humans)

Fig. 3 Comparison of excerpts

from student map (left) with
expert map (right)

is leaving plow their fields needs which is plowing which is leaving which is
behind along the
4 along the curves of a
_*
in the ground the planting
t
different crops
previous
each year slope previous different crops
year's crops ^ slope ] year's crops each year

also known as that absorb that restore

i different
low-till or nutrient
no-till amounts of
nutrients supply

correctly associating contour plowing with slope, and a
half-point each for the remaining two incomplete sets).
Four points were assigned for writing correctly stated
propositions when linking concepts together.
Since student understanding of specific text structures
was also of interest, the number of correctly written rela
tionships of each type were also noted on each student map
(i.e., sequential, explanatory, cause-effect). Researchers
have argued a closer analysis of the types of relationships
written is a more precise measure of conceptual under
standing than a traditional computed score based on all map
components combined (Kharatmal and Nararjuna 2006).
Across all student maps, Cronbach's alpha indicated the
overall student proposition score with the three subtype
proposition scores were reliable (a = .79). Cronbach's
alpha also indicated the scores for classifying and grouping
concepts were reliable (a = .68). Multiple raters were not
utilized in scoring maps, given the expert map was used as
an objective standard or criterion to which all student maps
were held.
To determine if student mapping performance varied by
reading ability, students were divided into quartiles based
on their performance on the state's end of fifth grade test of
reading comprehension. A multiple analysis of variance
(MANOVA) was employed to show any differences
between students at different reading levels on the three
concept map variables?number of general concepts clas
sified, concept sets identified, and correctly written
relationships. Further MANOVAs were run to determine
any differences in survey results between students at dif
ferent reading levels (e.g., perceived difficulty of task). It
was hypothesized that students in better reading groups

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would perform better on their map task, particularly in
regards to correctly written relationship statements.
Finally, to determine overall student and teacher reac
tions to concept mapping, descriptive statistics were
computed from student survey data, and the teacher's
transcribed interview and researcher field notes were
imported into Nvivo qualitative analysis software and
open-coded. Categories were created from single codes
where relationships were evident.
Results
Is a computer-based concept map template with given
superordinate terms and underlying concepts effective
at helping students reconstruct different text structures
from their science textbook?
Table 1 summarizes overall student performance on the
concept map template. Next to each mean number of
concept classifications, sets, and relationships, is the related
number from the expert's map. For example, the overall
mean number of student concept classifications was 18.9
out of a possible 24 on the expert's map or 79% of the total
possible. While no correct number of relationships was
assumed, since that variable could fluctuate depending on
how students structured terms, a percentage (44%) is given
as an indicator of how many correct relationship statements
students wrote compared to those in the expert map.
Students were generally more successful at classifying
sub-concepts under superordinate headers than they were at
identifying more specific sets of two and three sub-con
cepts within those categories. Identifying concept sets is a
necessary precursor to phrasing specific concept relation
ships beyond more general relationships with superordinate
headers. Thus, it is not surprising an average performance
on identifying concept sets was followed by an average
performance on writing correct relationship statements.
Relationship writing was further broken down into the
specific text structures students identified (see Table 2).
Students identified a similar percentage of sequencing and
explanatory statements, with slightly more difficulty iden
tifying cause-effect statements.
Table 1 Overall mean concept map scores
# of concepts # of concept # of correct
classified sets identified relationships
N 74 74 74
Mean 18.9/24 (79%) 5/10 (50%) 9.7/22
EC students 23.3/24 (97%) (44%)
5.8/10 (58%) 11.3/22 (51%)
SD 5.98 2.08 4.29
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408 J Sei Educ Technol (2009) 18:402-414
Table 2 Overall mean scores for writing d
Sequencing Explanatory
statements statements statements
N 74 74 74
Mean 2.5/5 (50%) 3.4/7 (49%) 4.0/9 (44.4%)
SD 1.35 1.87 2.18
Does student mapping performance vary by reading
ability?
Students were divided into four reading subgroups based
on quartiles from the state's end of 5th grade reading
comprehension test. In order to determine if the reading
subgroups differed significantly with respect to the three
mapping outcomes (i.e., # of concepts classified, sets
identified, relationships written), a multivariate analysis of
variance (MANOVA) was conducted. Results from this
analysis revealed no significant main effect for reading
subgroup, F(3, 56) = .38, p = .94, rj2 = .02. Students of
all reading abilities performed similarly on the assigned
mapping task.
To determine if the reading subgroups differed signifi
cantly with respect to how well they identified and wrote
the three main types of relationships in the map
(sequencing, explanatory, cause-effect), a second MA
NOVA was conducted, again revealing no significant main
effect for reading subgroup, F(3, 56) = .97, p = .47,
n2 = .05. Further, student scores on writing the three types
of relationships had no significant correlations with their
percentile scores on the state reading comprehension test.
Students of all reading abilities articulated the three dif
ferent text structures similarly.
It should be noted that the mapping performance of stu
dents in special populations was comparable to the general
population. While not significantly different, eight English
as a Second Language (ESL) students and four special
education (EC) inclusion students had comparable averages
on all three map outcomes?correctly classified concepts,
grouped sets, and written relationships (see Table 3). This
finding was unexpected given the average percentile score
on the state's end of 5th grade reading comprehension test
Table 3 Mean concept map scores of ESL and EC students
Group # of concepts # of concept sets # of correct
classified identified relationships
ESL students 19.6/24 (82%) 5.6/10 (56%) 10.9/22 (50%)
(? = 8)
(n = 4)
 J Sei Educ Technol (2009) 18:402-414 409

was only 18 and 15.5 for the ESL and EC students, respec
tively, compared to 40 for the entire population. These
results further illustrate that mapping performance did not
vary by reading ability with poor readers showing similar
capabilities compared to better readers.
What are student and teacher reactions to the concept
mapping task?
Student reactions to the concept mapping task were received. Students were asked on their survey the extent to
examined with survey data. Questions asked students which they talked with peers around them in the computer lab
to report on the difficulty of concept mapping with Cmap.
Students were mixed in their overall assessment of map
ping difficulty with a majority at 44% finding the task
neither difficult nor easy (see Table 4). About one quarter
of students found it somewhat or very difficult to take the
pre-selected terms from Cmap and find those in their
reading, and a quarter found it somewhat or very difficult
to write relationships between linked concepts. As expec
ted, the procedural aspects of mapping (i.e., making new
concept boxes and drawing lines) were perceived as easier
overall than the more academic task of relating concepts.
To determine if the reading subgroups differed signifi
cantly with respect to perception of mapping difficulty, a
MANOVA was conducted revealing no significant main
effect for reading subgroup, F(3, 49) = .97, p = .49,
r\2 = .08. Students who found mapping to be difficult were
equally likely to be from any reading subgroup, not just
weaker readers as might be expected.
Students worked individually to complete their Cmaps in
this study, but were later asked if they would prefer to work on
Cmaps collaboratively. Students expressed a strong prefer
ence for collaborative work as shown in Table 5. Fifty-nine
percent of students indicated they would like to work on maps
in pairs, and 45.5% believed they would learn more working
in pairs. The notion of mapping in small groups was also well
while working on maps in a typical day?never, one to four
times, five to eight times, or nine or more times. Only 12% of
students indicated they never spoke with others, while a
majority of students at 46% admitted to between five and
eight contacts per day. Thus, despite being an individual
activity, many students did not work entirely alone on the
task. When the teacher was asked if she would replicate
individual mapping on future projects or move toward a more
collaborative structure, she indicated:
I think working in pairs first, and then making them
do individual maps would be a better idea, because
when they are working together two brains are
working together, so they can give ideas to each
other. From there, we can move on to individual
Cmaps.

Table 4 Perceptions of mapping difficulty (n = 66)

Mean SD Very difficult or Neither difficult Somewhat easy

somewhat difficult (%) nor easy (%) or very easy (%)
1. Overall, how difficult or easy was 3.26 19.7 44.0 36.4
Cmapping for you? 93
2. How difficult or easy was it to take 3.33 25.8 21.2 53.0
the terms from your Cmaps and find j j
them in the assigned readings?
3. How difficult or easy was it to write the 3.45 25.8 19.7 54.6
words between two concepts to make a | j
sentence structure?

4. How difficult or easy was it to make new 3.95 12.1 19.7 68.2
concepts and draw arrows between concepts? gQ

Table 5 Collaboration
Alone (%) With one other With a small
preferences (n = 66)
student (%) group (%)
On future projects, would you rather continue to 15.2 59.1 25.8
work on Cmaps alone, or would you rather share a
computer and work collaboratively on a Cmap
with another student or group?
Do you think you would learn more working alone 16.7 45.5 37.9
or working collaboratively?

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410 J Sei Educ Technol (2009) 18:402-414

Table 6 Student reactions to . ^. . _

P Items Disagree or Neutral Strongly agree n
strongly disagree (%) or agree (%)
(%)
I enjoyed working with Cmap 13 25 62 63
If given a choice, I would rather read and 20 11 68 63
use Cmap than just read
Cmap helped me to identify more details in the reading 21 31 48 67
than I would have identified without mapping

Table 6 summarizes student reactions to Cmap They

from haven't gone as far as we hoped they would
have, but at the same time, for many of these students
their post-survey. A majority of students generally liked
working with Cmap, and if given a choice of usingthis
Cmapis probably the first time they have done anything
like this, so I do think they would get better at it over
with their readings, would opt to use the software. About
time.
half of the students surveyed believed Cmap helped them
to identify more details in their assigned reading than if
More frequent application of concept mapping across
they had just read without mapping. To determine if the
grade levels was recommended to avoid retraining students
reading subgroups differed significantly with respect to
and to make the strategy more viable.
their reactions to Cmap, a MANOVA was conducted
revealing no significant main effect for reading subgroup,
F(3, 46) = .76, p = .66, rj2 = .05. Discussion
The participating teacher expressed both positive and
cautious reactions to Cmap during her post-interview. She were moderately successful at classifying terms
Students
found the mapping of reading material to be an effective
under the correct superordinate headers, but struggled to
strategy for improving students' attention: "I like place
the many
idea terms in the correct sets and to articulate key
of them reading the lesson, paying attention, and then
relationships. Several explanations are possible for why
connecting those words together. That was a good thing
students did not excel beyond classifying information to
for me, because usually when you are reading in group
better the and relate information as well.
classroom, they would not be as attentive." When asked
if her students' performance on concept maps wasDesign
on par,
of the Mapping Activity
better, or worse than their typical performance in the
classroom, the teacher noted, "I think better than they students may have generated only partial
One reason
usually perform, because some of them are really trying
relational understanding is the pre-selected term task
hard and trying to get things right, and that was whatemployed in the study. Student results can be
structure
made me happy." influenced by the nature of the concept mapping task.
Regarding sustainability of the approach, theKinchin
teacher et al. (2005) found individual undergraduate stu
noted she would continue to use Cmap to support reading
dents given lectures on taxonomies and tasked with
comprehension: generating unstructured maps with the superordinate term
"microbiology" focused on classes more than processes. In
I will use it. I will be doing it for biomes. We are
comparison, collaborative groups given pre-selected terms
going to move on to that lesson, and I will tell them to
and no superordinates better integrated concepts and
make a concept map about a biome they select, and it
avoided simple concept associations with headers. While
will be through reading from a book and making a
Kinchin et al. (2005), p. 13 recommend "well-defined
concept map based on that.
concepts as starting points" to manage cognitive load and
She expressed concern, however, that it would be dif
challenge on mappers, they suggest the addition of super
ficult to support students in creating complicatedordinate headers to that mix, such as those used in this
hierarchical maps without a second assistant in study,
the commay constrain student thinking about relationships in
puter lab to answer student questions: "It's easierlieu
toofdo
classifications.
a
star map or a string map, but if you're going to do aInnet
this study, both superordinate terms and pre-selected
work map, it's always better to have some help."
conceptsThe
were employed with predictable results. Students
teacher did think students would get better at mapping over
excelled at classifying information, but struggled to detail
time, possibly reducing the need for extra help: more specific relationships among terms. It is unclear

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J Sei Educ Technol (2009) 18:402-414 411
whether students tasked with selecting and mapping their
own concepts would have developed better relational
understanding or if a more open-ended task structure would
have benefited only the best readers capable of identifying
key terms and relationships. In her interview, the partici
pating teacher was asked if her students could be successful
with open-ended maps instead of pre-selected term maps,
and she indicated their lack of interest and ability in
reading would be barriers to developing open-ended maps:
About 80% of them don't want to read, and that's the
biggest challenge. You have to tell them again and
again that you have to read to make some connec
tions, you have to read to find out what is going to be
related to this term, and if they can read I don't think
it would be hard for them to make that kind of map.
Open-ended or "low-directed" maps have been found to
elicit more explaining and opportunities for students to
externalize their understanding than highly structured maps
(Ruiz-Primo et al. 2001, p. 100), but they likely increase
cognitive load for both learner and scorer as well (Chang
et al. 2002). In one study of 7th grade concept mapping,
students were divided into structured construet-on-scaffold
and unstructured mapping groups (Chang et al. 2001). The
group provided with a partially structured map and terms/
relation statements to fill-in, outperformed the group pro
vided with no structure and terms/relation statements to fill
in. The effect was partially attributed to a reduction in
cognitive load by the scaffold. In another study, Chang et al.
(2002) found a completed map in which students had to
correct errors led to better text comprehension and sum
marization than requiring students to complete open-ended
maps or gradually fading students toward open-ended maps.
Chang et al. (2001) recommend caution in providing overly
structured maps, however, suggesting the scaffold may be
effective in the short-term but a constraint to higher-level
processing that must be faded and removed over time.
The scaffolded task structure in this study likely aided
the low ability readers whose map scores were equivalent
to higher ability readers. Research suggests low ability
students may respond better than high ability students to
strategy instruction, since concept maps "force the gener
ation of a coherent organizational structure, a process
[already] common to more capable students" (Pressley
et al. 1989; Schmid and Telaro 1990, p. 79). When using
scaffolded, pre-selected term maps, the effect on low
ability learners may be amplified since the structure being
"forced" is even more organized than the structure one
would have to induct on an open-ended map.
Since a gradual removal of scaffolds toward a more
open-ended map is desirable, teachers could employ a
hybrid structure where students first place the boldface
headings and subheadings from texts on their maps, then
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extract and relate concepts they find most important under
each header (Education Development Center 1995). Using
this recommended approach, a common set of superordi
nates would provide some structure for the map that the
teacher could readily assess for accuracy, while still
allowing students the flexibility to extract and construct the
subordinate relationships they find most important. The
teacher noted in her interview that students were familiar
with extracting text structures such as subheadings that
provided them with a type of advance organizer to the
material they would be reading:
They are used to looking for subheadings, like I
usually have an activity where I tell them to write the
heading and then what pictures they saw and how that
picture was important for the heading, and that helps
them to understand what we are going to talk about.
Regarding advance organizers, one could also take the
approach of Curry et al. (1999) who found a learning goal
tied to text led students to create more relational under
standing in their maps. The soil conservation text in this
study, for example, could be preceded by a problem stu
dents respond to in their maps, providing them with a
framework for interacting with the text (e.g., Shady Acres
Farm is suffering from soil loss and generating fewer crops
each year; read your text and use your map to explain what
may be causing the farm's soil loss and what solutions can
be implemented to limit this problem.).
Depth of Task
Aside from the influence of task structure on map perfor
mance, other mediating factors may include the
authenticity of the task and the amount of time students
have been mapping.
The mapping task in this study followed one short
reading. It was not part of an inquiry project where students
created and edited a concept map to document cause-effect
findings from one or more experiments or labs (see, for
example, Berionni and Baldon 2006). Science educators
recommend using graphic organizers to analyze textual
material, but they also suggest student prediction, obser
vation, questioning, and interpretation in the process of
inquiry may aid reading comprehension (Miller 2006). One
priority area for reading comprehension research is to
determine how to best embed comprehension instruction in
recommended teaching contexts such as inquiry-based
learning in science (Snow 2002). Relational comprehen
sion might be improved by embedding mapping in longer
term inquiry projects where relationships are not just
interpreted and mapped from readings, but predicted,
observed, and interpreted from experiments and labs with
mapping ongoing throughout the process.
Springer

The need to gain expertise with new strategies or tools
before one can focus on higher-level processing of content
may also be a cause for students' average relating of
information on the mapping task. Numerous researchers
have argued the process of acquiring mapping and/or tool
fluency may slow mapping groups at first, but mapping
students eventually show greater gains on outcome mea
sures than comparative non-mapping students (Hsu 2004;
Kimber et al. 2007; Lehman et al. 1985; Schmid and Telaro
1990). In this study, all students were trained to use Cmap
and to develop concept maps based on reading material,
but additional opportunities to use the tool over several
weeks may have helped some students focus more on
relating reading material than on manipulating a new tool
on a time-restricted task. The teacher concurred that stu
dents may get better at mapping over time.
Leveraging Collaborative and Tool-Based Scaffolds
To build toward greater relational thinking in increasingly
unstructured concept maps, teachers may leverage addi
tional collaborative strategies and tool-based scaffolds.
First, collaborative mapping may be more powerful than
individual mapping, since students must converse and
come to some agreement on terms and relationships for
their maps (Freeman and Jessup 2004; Schmid and Telaro
1990). Germann et al. (2001) found mapping helped stu
dents organize and develop ideas, while shared journaling
on a listserv led to the questioning of ideas. DeSimone
et al. (2001) echo the complementary nature of mapping
and collaborating, suggesting mapping can help students
represent ideas while collaborating can help students
elaborate on externalizations.
Students in this study desired collaboration with 85%
indicating they would prefer to map with at least one other
person. Despite mapping individually, students were reg
ularly observed talking with one another about their maps.
Students were observed helping each other find specific
terms in readings, classify terms appropriately on maps,
and write relationships correctly in sentence form. In her
follow-up interview, the teacher recommended starting
with collaborative mapping and building to individual
mapping once students had developed their skills.
Danish and Enyedy (2006), p. 22 discuss potential
benefits associated with such "open interactions" in their
study of a K-l class creating tangible, computer-based, and
drawn representations of pollination. When given access to
peers, a student's knowledge and competencies can be
transformed by others' ideas, social norms for what con
stitutes a good representation, and the teacher's mediation
of those norms. Berionni and Baldon (2006) likewise found
middle grades students working in groups on science labs
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412 J Sei Educ Technol (2009) 18:402-414
not only benefited from constructing individual maps to
express their own understanding of experimental processes
but also from discussing their individual representations as
they created a group map based on the concepts under
study.
Second, system scaffolds may also help learners manage
the increased cognitive load associated with unstructured
maps. Researchers have found scaffolds embedded in
computer mapping systems can help students generate
more complete maps than students not provided with
scaffolds (Chang et al. 2001). Scaffolds may include hints,
evaluation scores that indicate degree of agreement
between student and expert maps, and a copy of the expert
map to compare with one's own map after 30 min of
mapping (Chang et al. 2002). Scaffolds may also include
system affordances to encourage collaboration. Germann
et al. (2001) suggest the degree to which the chosen
medium supports social interaction may play a role in how
far the student can be challenged. Cheung (2006) describes
the MindNet concept mapping tool, for example, that
includes a concept library and map analyzer allowing stu
dents to review relationships and cluster maps from other
teams, promoting reflection and discussion of divergent
perspectives.
Supplementing Concept Maps
Finally, it should be noted that while this study investigated
concept mapping as a singular strategy to improve reading
comprehension, past studies have illustrated a combination
of reading comprehension strategies that pair concept
mapping with other techniques such as group inquiry
approaches to reading and partner retelling may prove
more effective than concept mapping alone (Draheim
1986). To help science students comprehend complex
expository texts, Carnine and Carnine (2004) call for
instructional designs that involve not only graphic orga
nizers such as concept maps, but also the teaching of big
ideas, reuse of concepts across units, mnemonics, and
hands-on activities.
Conclusions
This study is situated in a large body of research suggesting
graphic organizers are useful interventions to improve
student reading comprehension. Since student-generated
relational statements include information about one's
comprehension of different text structures (e.g., cause
effect, explanatory), this study contributes findings to the
field regarding an intervention that is potentially valuable
in promoting reading comprehension of texts, particularly
expository texts in science known to embed multiple
 J Sei Educ Technol (2009) 18:402^14 413
structural forms. Findings suggest pre-selected term con
cept mapping is a promising strategy to help students of all
reading abilities better comprehend reading material in
science texts. The students' map scores depict successful
classification of pre-selected terms under superordinate
headers and modest success with grouping terms into sets
and articulating different types of relationships represented
in the reading.
To encourage better student understanding of the higher
level relationships found in science texts, some modifica
tions to the task and conditions applied in this study may
prove beneficial. For example, researchers may find strate
gies that require students to select their own superordinate
headers from a text, or to create a map in response to some
problem, provide students with a type of conceptual scaffold
that can support more desirable open-ended mapping and
relating. Mapping during longer-term inquiries or labs that
allow students to discover and see relationships in action
may also impact performance. Finally, small group discus
sions, and/or advanced tool affordances may also support
students as they transition to open-ended mapping and face
increased challenges related to selecting the most important
information from readings and inducing key relationships.
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