Concept mapping: a strategy for meaningful learning in medical microbiology

Abstract. Concept mapping is a tool for meaningful learning. In concept mapping, one identifies the important concepts from a subject and describes the relationship between those concepts with linking words. In this work we discuss strategies to help medical students to organize, integrate concepts presented in a traditional third-year Medical Microbiology course and to acquire concept-mapping skill. This activity had three goals: 1) to give firsthand experience with mapping; 2) to illustrate the idiosyncratic nature of concept mapping, as each map is different because it reflects the thinking and experiences of the author. 3) to be able to evaluate the maps as students are acquiring skill in concept mapping. Practical lectures were organized by the teacher by making a concept map to use as a teaching guide. The map was given as a guide to help students see the organization and integration of the important concepts. This give a conceptual flow to the lecture and helped the teacher pinpoint what he felt was important for students to understand. Such maps were shared with students. Students were introduced to meaningful learning and concept mapping, shown examples of concept maps and given a guide on how to construct a concept map. Maps were also used to obtain feedback, having student’s concept map a lecture that was given. Each student did a research work related to parasitology, and presented to the others in the form of a concept map. In order to evaluate concept-mapping skills an exam evaluation was done involving diagnostic microbiology. Practical lectures given with the help of a concept map where very helpful for both teacher and students. Lectures without using at first concept mapping and asking students to do after lecture the corresponding concept map revealed to be an eye opening experience about what students think are the important concepts in a lecture are and how they are related. Evaluation of concept mapping skills revealed to be very useful as the grades were higher comparing to traditional questions, although students complained that they are often tested on minute detail, not on their understanding of the concepts or the relationships between concepts. Students believe that making a good concept map requires a thorough understanding of the material and that the maps are useful in helping to learn and understand the course material. Most students uses concept maps to reinforce and understand the significance of what they are studying. Maps are also used to see how broad concepts are integrated, and as a guide for deciding what is important to understand. For traditional students, the biggest obstacle in using concept mapping is deciding what level of detail is appropriate (i.e., what are the essential concepts).