The Moray House School of Education
Research - Themes & Projects

Researchers

Dr Tom Conlon (Curriculum Research & Development, School of Education) University of Edinburgh with collaborators from the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh.

Keywords

Concept maps, information maps, knowledge representation, knowledge-based modelling, information technology

Abstract

Building an external representation of one's personal understanding is an important way to learn, communicate, and solve problems. Whereas many forms of representation are idiosyncratically tied to particular areas of the curriculum, concept maps along with argument maps and other variants of information map have multidisciplinary scope and very broad utility for teaching and learning. This project investigates the potential of such forms of representation to boost critical thinking skills, problem-solving power and learning capacity. The project draws heavily on the methods of collaborative and design-based research (Conlon & Pain, 1997; Barab & Squire, 2004) to develop and evaluate technologies that can enhance the benefits of information mapping for selected purposes and contexts, including formative assessment and text comprehension.

Publications

2006 - 'Formative Assessment of Classroom Concept Maps: the Reasonable Fallible Analyser'. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, Conlon, T. Vol 17 No 1, pp.15-36.
2004 - '"Please argue, I could be wrong": a Reasonable Fallible Analyser for Concept Maps'.   Proceedings of Ed-Media 2004, Lugano, Switzerland, World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications, Conlon, T., Vol. 2004, Issue. 1, 2004, pp. 1299-1306.
2004 - '"But is Our Concept Map any Good?": Classroom Experiences with the Reasonable Fallible Analyser'.   Conlon, T. In: A. J. Cañas, J. D. Novak, F. M. González, Eds. Concept Maps: Theory, Methodology, Technology. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Concept Mapping, Pamplona, Spain 2004. Vol 1 pp 159-166.
2004 - 'Formative Assessment through Semi-Automated Concept Map Analysis'. Conference Paper presented to SERA2004, Scottish Education Research Association, Perth. Conlon, T. 26th November 2004.
2004 - 'Not Yet Within The Mainstream: Concept Mapping In A Scottish High School' . Conlon, T. and Bird, D.   In: A. J. Cañas, J. D. Novak, F. M. González, Eds. Concept Maps: Theory, Methodology, Technology. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Concept Mapping, Pamplona, Spain 2004. Vol 2, pp 143-146.
2003 - 'Why Conception is better than Inspiration'.   Proceedings of PEG2003, the Eleventh International PEG Conference on Powerful ICT Tools for Learning   and Teaching, St Petersburg, Russia. Conlon, T. July 2003.
2002 - 'The Role Of Representation In Teaching And Learning Critical Thinking'.    Educational Review, Vol 54 No 1 57-67.   McKendree, J., Conlon, T. Small, C. and Stenning, K.
2002 - 'Information Mapping as Support for Learning and Teaching'.   Computer Education, issue 106, Conlon, T. November 2002. Italian translation' Information mapping come supporto all' apprendimento e all'insegnamento' by Paola Mattioda. See http://www.dschola.it/confortic/979/ Information%20mapping.pdf.
2001 - 'Supporting Mrs Jones, the Concept Mapper'. Conlon, T. Proceedings of PEG2001, the 10 th International PEG Conference. Tempere, Finland.
2001 - 'Features of Confusion: classroom language and students' learning of classification skills'. Presented at European Association of Educational Research, University of Edinburgh, September. McKendree, J., Monaghan, P., Conlon, T., Lee, J. and Small, C.
1999 - 'Investigating representational competence in secondary school students'.   In: Lajoie, J. & Vivet, M. (Eds) Proceedings of the 1999 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, Le Mans. Conlon, T. Cox, R., Lee, J., McKendree, J. & Stenning, K.
1997 - 'Persistent Collaboration: a Methodology for Applied AIED'. Conlon, T. &   Pain, H. Journal of Artificial   Intelligence and Education. Vol 7 No 3/4 219-252.

Start /end date

1999 - 2008

Funder /amount

£355,000. Integrating social and representational aspects of problem solving across the high school curriculum. Principal Investigators: Keith Stenning, Jean Mckendree, Tom Conlon, John Lee, Richard Cox, Jon Oberlander. Funder: Cognitive Studies for Educational Practice (CSEP) Program, McDonnell Foundation, USA. 1997-2001.