Concept Mapping Assessment

Concept mapping assessment uses student-generated diagrams of concepts and their relationships to evaluate the structure of knowledge, not just its quantity. A concept map represents ideas as labeled nodes connected by labeled links that form meaningful propositions, often arranged hierarchically with cross-links between branches. Developed from Novak and Gowin's work on meaningful learning and formalized as an assessment tool by Ruiz-Primo and Shavelson, it reveals how well a learner has organized and integrated a domain, exposing connections and misconceptions a multiple-choice test would miss.