A concept map is a diagram or graphical tool that visually represents relationships between concepts and ideas. It is a way to organize and structure knowledge, and it can be used by instructional designers, engineers, technical writers, and others. A concept map typically represents ideas and information as boxes or circles, which it connects with labeled arrows, often in a downward-branching hierarchical structure but also in free-form maps. The relationship between concepts can be articulated in linking phrases such as "causes", "requires", "such as" or "contributes to".
Concept maps are highly personalized and provide an opportunity to organize course material in a way that makes the most sense to the learner. They are a powerful study strategy because they help learners see the big picture and chunk information based on meaningful connections. Concept maps can be helpful learning tools in just about any class, including STEM, humanities, social sciences, languages, and even the arts.
There are different types of concept maps, including spider maps, flowcharts, and hierarchical maps. Spider maps work best when exploring various facets of one central concept, while flowcharts are used to create a visual representation of a process or workflow. Hierarchical maps are the most common type of concept map, and they are used to show the relationships between concepts in a hierarchical structure.
Making a concept map is simple, and there is no right or wrong way to make one. The key step is to identify the important ideas from the material being studied and to add linking terms that describe how the ideas are connected to each other.
