5:15 PM - 7:15 PM
[MIS10-P02] A Study on Concept Maps for Fostering Conceptual Understanding in Geopark Learning
Keywords:Geopark, Conceptual Understanding, Concept Map, Geoscience Education
In geoparks, visitors can learn knowledge about geological phenomena with a reality of the knowledge, through viewing geosites and exhibitions in the museums. Although a student can achieve deeper understanding about geological contents by observing and touching actual rocks and geological formations, in the actual geoscience education, experimental learning in the outdoors is limited due to the lack of teachers with expertise in geoscience, and the difficulty of implementing out-of-school learning for schools. Thus, the Japanese Course of Study states that it is important to make use of geoparks for the geoscience education, in order to enhance students’ understanding with the reality of knowledge.
On the other hand, in geopark learning, it is considered difficult for visitors to achieve conceptual understanding on their own due to factors such as the abundance of technical terms. Therefore, learning support for conceptual understanding is considered to be necessary. However, in the context on geopark learning, methods for appropriately supporting visitors in achieving conceptual understanding, as well as for measuring, analyzing, and evaluating the diverse conceptual understandings of individual visitors, had not been previously established. In this study, we propose a design research framework for developing such learning support methods. Based on this framework, we designed, implemented, analyzed, and evaluated a concept map that is a method for externalizing a person’s internal knowledge by him/herself.
An experiment was conducted with visitors to Mt. Unzen Disaster Memorial Hall (commonly known as Gamadasu dome), located in Unzen Volcanic Area UNESCO Global Geopark, Nagasaki, Japan. In this experiment, visitors were asked to externalize their conceptual understanding using the concept maps we had designed. The results of our experiment suggested that the concept maps and analysis methods developed in this study were effective in helping visitors to overview their conceptual understanding and in fostering their metacognition about the areas of their insufficient understanding. In addition, we found that our analysis methods could identify various patterns in visitors’ conceptual understanding, such as single-perspective view in which visitors oversimplify multiple concepts, and multi-perspective view in which visitors connect a single concept to diverse concepts. These results suggested that our concept map and analysis methods have the potential to foster learners' conceptual understanding in geopark learning.
As a further development of this study, we expect that by using our designed concept map and analysis methods, collaborative learning where visitors can share different perspectives with other visitors can be implemented. In addition, by incorporating this collaborative learning into existing geopark learning, we expect that geopark learning that enables visitors to achieve conceptual understanding by themselves can be implemented.
On the other hand, in geopark learning, it is considered difficult for visitors to achieve conceptual understanding on their own due to factors such as the abundance of technical terms. Therefore, learning support for conceptual understanding is considered to be necessary. However, in the context on geopark learning, methods for appropriately supporting visitors in achieving conceptual understanding, as well as for measuring, analyzing, and evaluating the diverse conceptual understandings of individual visitors, had not been previously established. In this study, we propose a design research framework for developing such learning support methods. Based on this framework, we designed, implemented, analyzed, and evaluated a concept map that is a method for externalizing a person’s internal knowledge by him/herself.
An experiment was conducted with visitors to Mt. Unzen Disaster Memorial Hall (commonly known as Gamadasu dome), located in Unzen Volcanic Area UNESCO Global Geopark, Nagasaki, Japan. In this experiment, visitors were asked to externalize their conceptual understanding using the concept maps we had designed. The results of our experiment suggested that the concept maps and analysis methods developed in this study were effective in helping visitors to overview their conceptual understanding and in fostering their metacognition about the areas of their insufficient understanding. In addition, we found that our analysis methods could identify various patterns in visitors’ conceptual understanding, such as single-perspective view in which visitors oversimplify multiple concepts, and multi-perspective view in which visitors connect a single concept to diverse concepts. These results suggested that our concept map and analysis methods have the potential to foster learners' conceptual understanding in geopark learning.
As a further development of this study, we expect that by using our designed concept map and analysis methods, collaborative learning where visitors can share different perspectives with other visitors can be implemented. In addition, by incorporating this collaborative learning into existing geopark learning, we expect that geopark learning that enables visitors to achieve conceptual understanding by themselves can be implemented.