Information stored by managed organizations in free text documents, databases, and engineered knowledge repositories can often be processed as networks of conceptual nodes and relational links (concept graphs). However, these models tend to be informal as related to new or multi-source tasks. This work contributes to the understanding of techniques for matching knowledge elements: in informal node-link knowledge representations, drawn from existing data resources, to support user-guided analysis. Its guiding focus is the creation of tools that compare, retrieve, and merge existing information resources.Three essays explore important algorithmic and heuristic elements needed to leverage concept graphs in real-world applications. Section 2 documents an algorithm which identifies likely matches between student and instructor concept maps aiming to support semi-automatic matching and scoring for both classroom and unsupervised environments. The knowledge-anchoring, similarity flooding algorithm significantly improves on term-based matching by leveraging map structure and also has potential as a methodology for combining other informal, human-created knowledge representations. Section 3 describes a decompositional tagging approach to organizing (aggregating) automatically extracted biomedical pathway relations. We propose a five-level aggregation strategy for extracted relations and measure the effectiveness of the BioAggregate tagger in preparing extracted information for analysis and visualization. Section 4 evaluates an importance flooding algorithm designed to assist law enforcement investigators in identifying useful investigational leads. While association networks have a long history as an investigational tool, more systematic processes are needed to guide development of high volume cross-jurisdictional data sharing initiatives. We test path-based selection heuristics and importance flooding to improve on traditional association-closeness methodologies.Together, these essays demonstrate how structural and semantic information can be processed in parallel to effectively leverage ambiguous network representations of data. Also, they show that real applications can be addressed by processing available data using an informal concept graph paradigm. This approach and these techniques are potentially useful for workflow systems, business intelligence analysis, and other knowledge management applications where information can be represented in an informal conceptual network and that information needs to be analyzed and converted into actionable, communicable human knowledge.

The value of hierarchy as an essential trait of concept maps and a way to enhance recall is explored in this thesis. Undergraduate students (N = 40) were randomly assigned to one of two groups and completed an 18-question multiple-choice pre-test about the concept of animal physiology. Then each group studied one of two visual organizers that varied in the level of hierarchy used and finally both groups completed the same multiple-choice test. This research was guided by the following two research questions: Do undergraduate science students using expert-created concept maps differ in their ability to enhance their recall of information about animal physiology when compared to students using visual organizers with limited hierarchy? How does prior knowledge affect the recall of students using concept maps and other visual organizers with limited hierarchy? The data collected from the two groups was analyzed using regression analyses, ANOVA, and repeated-measures ANOVA. It was found that the hierarchical concept-mapping group grew more in their recall of information about animal physiology than the visual-organizer group [F(1,38) = 7.70, p = .009]. The results of these analyses were interpreted using the conceptual framework of cognitive load theory. This theory deals with the encumbrance on working memory that subsequently affects how one recalls information. The findings support the contention that hierarchical concept maps confer an advantage in the recall of science concepts when compared to visual organizers with limited hierarchy. This study lays the ground work for a doctoral study with 200 participants separated into four experimental groups (n = 50), with participants separated by high and low prior knowledge and the aforementioned visual organizers. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2012-06-02 18:28:40.415

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According to recent assessment data, there is an urgent need to improve students' knowledge of science. It has been suggested that the infusion of reading activities including concept mapping, questioning and interactive read-alouds can help students in learning science concepts. Little or no research has combined these methods to examine its effect on learning. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare concept mapping and questioning on students' organization and retention of science knowledge when used with interactive informational read-alouds of science trade books. This study included 58 third grade students from four homogenous classes who were assigned to either a concept mapping group (experimental group) or a questioning with writing group (comparison group). With the same teacher, the school science specialist, the students completed an eight day unit regarding "soil formation" comprised of read-alouds, discussions and reading comprehension activities. (There were no hands-on, laboratory experiments.) Students were assessed on different types of knowledge. Data were analyzed using a mixed model ANOVA design to determine both within-factors (repeated measure), to show growth, and between-factors, to determine the difference between the two groups. The concept mapping group (experimental group) performed significantly higher than the questioning with writing group (comparison) on (a) relational vocabulary assessment (measuring relational knowledge); (b) multiple-choice assessment (measuring students' ability to identify key ideas); and (c) writing assessment (measuring students' relational thinking, students' ability to retain and recall key information and students' ability to use domain knowledge). The concept mapping group maintained these gains in a delayed assessment. The groups did not differ on individual word knowledge as measured by a matching assessment. Recommendations are provided for teachers and researchers including using concept mapping in teaching science concepts to elementary students in conjunction with science text reading, as well as incorporating technology with computer-generated concept maps using Inspiration software.

Multimedia content, e.g., sound files, interactive demos, and video files, has been widely used in digital courses to provide an easy to use format and to emphasize the ideas. In this work, we address aspects of generating multimedia contents automatically in digital courses. In particular, we focus on two types of automatically generated multimedia: interactive glossaries and sound files. Glossaries play a major role in enhancing students' comprehension of the course core concepts. Glossary terms have complex interrelationship that cannot be fully illustrated by standard approaches, e.g., including all the terms as a linear, alphabetized list. To overcome this limitation, we introduce an interactive design for the glossary terms using concept maps. Glossary terms are visualized as nodes in graphs and their relationships are included on the edges. We implement these concept maps within the OpenDSA e-textbook system. A concept map associated with the selected term is generated on demand. We evaluate the effectiveness of our design by comparing student use of our concept-map based glossary to the traditional alphabetized list. We have designed new exercises that target the comprehension of the glossary terms to make students familiar with the concept maps. Our other work generates sound files automatically to supplement text narration in slide shows. This is made feasible by the widespread availability of text-to-speech generators in web browsers. To this end, we designed an interactive narration tool and integrated it into the OpenDSA library. In this way, all slide shows automatically have their text augmented with narration. / Master of Science / Recently, there has been an increase in the use of multimedia contents in digital courses. Multimedia files, e.g., sound files, interactive demos, and video files, are used in digital courses to provide an easy to use format and to emphasize the ideas. In this work, we address aspects of generating multimedia contents in digital courses. In particular, we focus on two types of automatically generated multimedia: interactive glossaries and sound files. Glossaries play a major role in enhancing students’ comprehension of the core concepts in the courses. In general, glossary terms have complex interrelationship that cannot be fully illustrated by standard approaches, such as the alphabetized list. To overcome this limitation, we introduce an interactive design for the glossary terms using concept maps. In this design, glossary terms are visualized as nodes in graphs and their relationships are included on the edges. We implement these concept maps within the OpenDSA e-textbook system to be generated on demand. We evaluate the effectiveness of our design by comparing student use of our concept-map based glossary to the traditional alphabetized list. We have designed new exercises to make students familiar with the concept maps. Our other work generates sound files automatically to supplement text narration in slide shows. This was motivated by the widespread use of text-to-speech generators in web browsers. To this end, we designed an interactive narration tool and integrated it into the OpenDSA library so that all OpenDSA slide shows can benefit from the narration tool.

Atmospheric Flight Mechanics (AFM) is one of the cornerstones of aeronautical engineering and includes subjects like aerodynamic prediction, stability and control, dynamics, and vehicle design. These topics are critical to the success of aircraft development, so AFM is considered one of the most important foundational knowledge areas for aerospace engineering. Unfortunately, students graduating from aerospace engineering programs are often underprepared to perform in AFM jobs. This ongoing research focuses on developing a blueprint for assessing conceptual understanding of AFM concepts. Since existing literature suggests that novices and experts organize knowledge differently, comparing students' and experts' mental models can shine a light on the alternative conceptions that students retain post-instruction. As such, framing the study around synthetic mental models can be advantageous. To explore these mental models, three types of data have been collected and analyzed. Document analysis was done on course documents to identify what concept relationships were being presented to the students. Class observations were conducted to analyze how concepts are introduced to students and what relationships are highlighted by the instructor. Finally, a concept mapping activity was facilitated to study the mental models that the students built after instruction. The results show a lack of synthetization between the knowledge introduced in the classroom and students' prior knowledge which translated into student mental models that do not meet some of the expectations of the course. Moreover, this study highlights the importance of the instructor's awareness of their own expectations for learning and knowledge synthetization in the design of an AFM course. / Doctor of Philosophy / Conceptual understanding research has often focused on how students develop their understanding of scientific concepts that are difficult to grasp. Through this research, many assessment techniques have been developed and implemented in the design of STEM courses. However, many of these techniques and implementations have been limited to K-12 or introductory engineering courses. Atmospheric Flight Mechanics (AFM) is an important part of the aerospace curriculum that has yet to be studied under the conceptual understanding lens. The goal of this study was to investigate how students develop AFM conceptual understanding using a synthetic mental model framework. This study focused on answering three questions, how are students being introduced to AFM concepts?, how do students' mental models develop throughout the semester?, and how do the students' and instructor's mental models compare?. Through the exploration of class documents, class observations, and concept mapping activities, this research found that students are having a hard time making sense of new knowledge based on their previous understanding of similar topics. By trying to integrate this new knowledge with their previous mental models, students are developing synthetic mental models that do not align with the scientific explanations of the topic. This study also found that instructors are often unaware of their own knowledge and expectations for learning which makes knowledge synthetization harder for the students. Therefore, addressing these issues during course design could make an AFM course easier to understand for students.

This study investigated the impact of an online concept mapping website (Concept Maps for Learning, or CMfL) designed to provide targeted formative feedback to students. The aims of this study were to determine the usefulness of CMfL for both teachers and students, as a tool for instruction and self-regulated learning. Additionally, the impacts of CMfL on supporting student learning were observed. This research site of this study was a Montessori high school, and the participating students were enrolled in the Ontario Grade 9 Academic Mathematics course. The educational philosophies deployed at the research site offered independence and flexibility to students with respect to how the Ontario Grade 9 Academic Mathematics course was approached, and therefore matched the self-regulated learning components of the study. This study measured student achievement across three milestones over the data collection period to analyse any cognitive impact that CMfL had on the participating students. Metacognitive impacts, as well as the students’ perception of usefulness of CMfL, were measured through surveys that were administered at the milestone points. Usefulness of CMfL from the teacher’s perspective was determined through interviews with the teacher. The participating students and teacher were also provided with the opportunity to provide feedback on how CMfL could be improved through the aforementioned surveys and interviews, respectively. The evidence collected over the study suggests that CMfL can be a useful tool for teaching and learning in a self-regulated environment, and that frequent engagement with CMfL may can support student learning. However, there is room for improvement that may increase student adoption and aid teaching strategy.

This study focused on the extent to which professional development can bring about changes in ministerial leaders' thinking and practice, and was based on a constructivist approach to learning. The study adopted a qualitative methodology to answer the three research questions: 1. To what extent can professional development assist ministerial leaders to change their thinking about themselves as leaders and their actual leadership practices? 2.What changes (if any) occurred in each of the participants' conceptions of ministerial leadership during a Ministerial Leadership Development Program (MLDP)? 3. To what extent did changes in participants' thinking about ministerial leadership affect their actual practice? There were nineteen participants in a Ministerial Leadership Development Program which was conducted between March and October 2000 by the Uniting Church in Australia (Queensland Synod). Data were gathered at the beginning and end of the MLDP and one year after its completion. The methods used to collect data were concept maps of 'effective leaders', repertory grids based on participants' views of 'effective' and 'ineffective' leaders, interviews and a survey. The concept maps and repertory grids were completed at the beginning and end of the MLDP. The interviews and survey were conducted one year after the program was completed. The interviews were conducted with a small group of the participants (five) and the survey was completed by lay leaders from the congregations where the nineteen participants were ministering. For each of the five interviewees a case was constructed using methodological triangulation and an interpretive approach. Triangulation of the three types of data (concept maps, repertory grids and interviews) enabled identification of important components of individuals' thinking and practice. The survey produced data on the perspectives of lay leaders, thus enabling comparison between the perspectives of the ministerial leaders and their lay leaders. The study found a variety of initial conceptions of effective ministerial leadership amongst the participants. Most of these conceptions were related to leadership skills and qualities. Very few participants demonstrated an understanding of the nature of effective ministerial leadership at the beginning of the program. However, during the MLDP, the conceptions of participants developed and by the end of the program most of them demonstrated a more holistic understanding of the nature of leadership, and particularly, the nature of Christian leadership. In relation to changes in leaders' practice, the study found that significant changes were reported as taking place in leaders' practice and most of this was linked to their thinking changing first. Many of these changes in practice were attributed to the encouragement leaders received in mentor groups. These reported changes in practice were also supported by data from the lay leaders' survey. Thus there was consistency in data from ministerial leaders' perspectives and from lay leaders' perspectives. Apparent trends across the cases included links between the leaders' feelings of self confidence and their capacity to lead effectively; the difficulties associated with following a minister who had a very different conception of effective leadership from his/her own; the unrealistic expectations some congregational members have of their ministers; and the difficulty of moving a congregation from one understanding of ministry to another. The results of this study have implications for pre-service education, continuing education, and the policy-making committees of the Synod, and suggest fruitful areas for further research. The results of the research are discussed in relation to relevant literature. Implications of the findings for the appropriate stakeholders are highlighted, and some ongoing issues for ministerial leadership are raised.

The goal of this master's theses is to make a theoretical analysis related to creation of concept maps and its use in elementary school, as well as creativity and other aspects of the creative process. Another part is the didactic analysis which includes a comprehensive analysis of the chosen physical thematic unit. This is followed by the verification of the created concept maps in the real teaching that was realized within the pedagogical probe.

The purpose of this study was to examine the content knowledge of 64 elementary preservice teachers for the concepts of dissolving and density. Vygotsky’s (1987) theory of concept development was used as a framework to categorize concepts and misconceptions resulting from evidences of preservice teacher knowledge including pre/post concept maps, writing artifacts, pre/post face-to-face interviews, examination results, and drawings. Statistical significances were found for pre- and post-concept map scores for dissolving (t = -5.773, p < 0.001) and density (t = -2.948, p = 0.005). As measured using Cohen’s d values, increases in mean scores showed a medium-large effect size for (dissolving) and a small effect size for density. The triangulated results using all data types revealed that preservice teachers held several robust misconceptions about dissolving including the explanation that dissolving is a breakdown of substances, a formation of mixtures, and/or involves chemical change. Most preservice teachers relied on concrete concepts (such as rate or solubility) to explain dissolving. With regard to density, preservice teachers held two robust misconceptions including confusing density with buoyancy to explain the phenomena of floating and sinking, and confusing density with heaviness, mass, and weight. Most preservice teachers gained one concept for density, the density algorithm. Most preservice teachers who participated in this study demonstrated Vygotsky’s notion of complex thinking and were unable to transform their thinking to the scientific conceptual level. That is, they were unable to articulate an understanding of either the process of dissolving or density that included a unified system of knowledge characterized as abstract, generalizable, and hierarchical. Results suggest the need to instruct preservice elementary science teachers about the particulate nature of matter, intermolecular forces, and the Archimedes' principle.