Concept Mapping in a Pharmacy Communications Course to Encourage Meaningful Student Learning

Encouraging students to achieve long-term integration of knowledge is a challenge to all faculty members teaching in higher education. Many students have learned to rely on rote memorization in their early college years to obtain the “right” answers. This method may be successful for completing prerequisite courses, but in a healthcare profession such as pharmacy, knowledge must be retained for application in complex practice settings. Professionals must therefore achieve a sophisticated understanding of the conceptual tools within their discipline. Novak commented that students can be tenacious in their preference for rote memorization because of previous success with the method and because memorization requires a smaller investment of mental energy than learning to fully understand course material.1 Over-reliance on rote memorization is counter-productive to retention of meaningful knowledge, and knowledge gained this way requires intense effort and frequent reinforcement to maintain.2-5 Concept mapping was selected as an active learning process that involves students in meaningful learning because the process engages complex cognitive structures within the brain. The learning tends to be long lasting because the new knowledge is related to and integrated within a person’s existing knowledge structure.3 Cognitive learning theory indicates that the brain learns most effectively by relating new experiences and knowledge to prior knowledge, and that meaningful learning requires deliberate effort to link new knowledge with higher-order, more inclusive concepts in a person’s cognitive structure.2,6,7 Instructors are able to influence student choices of how to learn with their decisions regarding how material is presented in class, the creation of exercises that engage students with course material, and how student learning is assessed.5 As a graphic knowledge representation tool, a concept map enables students to diagram their understanding of key ideas in a topic area and to demonstrate their conceptions of the relationships among them.3,8 Students are often able to articulate key concepts within course material, but they may be unclear about the relationships among them and their relative importance.2 A concept map assignment can help students listen for meaning in class, assist students in taking more effective notes, and promote conceptual learning. The use of concept maps has spread since it was first described in the 1960s and later documented by Joseph Novak and Bob Gowin.8 An article in the Teaching Professor Newsletter9 indicates that concept maps are being used for educating students in different disciplines including sociology,2 physics,7 chemistry,10 organizaAmerican Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 2004; 68 (5) Article 109.