Learners’ Perceptions and Use of Differently Designed Schematic Concept Maps on the Formation of Mental Representations for Different Learning Tasks

Research on the effectiveness of concept maps on learning has long being neglecting three critical issues; i.e., the schematically structured maps, learners’ perceptions of the maps, and the various ways of presenting concept structures. When concepts are associated by logical or causal rather than by subsumption relations, variations in selecting concepts and describing their relations may present different perspectives of interpreting knowledge, which may be suitable for different cognitive tasks. This study investigated how three map provision conditions—comprehensive maps, thematic maps, and no maps—influenced learners’ formations of mental representations for two history articles, and how these representations related to coherent comprehension and syntheses of key arguments in the articles. The findings showed that people are active evaluators for the usefulness of the provided concept maps. Because different designs of concept map work better with different cognitive tasks, teachers are advised to progressively present the concept structures from the core themes to details.