Joined up thinking? Evaluating the use of concept-mapping to develop complex system learning

concepts that will lie outside learners’ prior experience. Whilst science teaching involves substantial active learning in laboratory classes, the traditional ‘passive’ lecture remains common and the place where students will likely develop understanding of the subject’s conceptual structure. The influence of presentation software such as PowerPoint in potentially guiding knowledge representations has been recognised. Beyond accusations that it can amplify an information-transmission style of teaching for some tutors (Jones 2003; Tufte 2003; Ward 2003), more significant are concerns about the influence that the software templates can exert on how a teacher develops representations of the discipline knowledge structure (Adams 2006; Kinchin 2006; Tufte 2006). The presentation template defaults to a format of subheadings and bullet points which can draw lecturers down a strongly linear, sequential teaching pathway that supports a cognitive style inconsistent with higher-thinking skills (Tufte 2003). In the traditional lecture format, the process of selecting and sequencing material means that the lecturer can impart a linearity to knowledge structure that may inhibit student learning, which can become amplified by use of PowerPoint template designs (Kinchin, Chadha, and Kokotailo 2008). The lecturer selects many dimensions of the subject and discards many other branches and linkages, in effect choosing an 351