Freedom vs. Restriction of Content and Structure during Concept Mapping - Possibilities and Limitations for Construction and Assessment

Concept maps consist of both content and structure. When working with concept maps, educators give instructions for the students to follow while working on concept mapping. These instructions are usually provided in terms of conditions on the structure and the content of the maps. While educators have expectations in terms of the result of the concept mapping activity, often they are not aware of how the conditions on content and structure that are given to the students often has strong effects on the type and quality of concept maps the students construct. In this paper we analyze how different conditions affect the concept maps constructed and discuss how educators must be aware of these possibilities and limitations when working with students and in particular during the assessment of their concept maps.