Strategies for Eliciting Student Ideas: Concept Mapping
TE 401, Fall 2007
Teachers use a variety of strategies to elicit students’ conceptions and funds of knowledge. Below
I describe a set of strategies that are particularly useful in elementary science class:
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Science Talks
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Think alouds, KWLs, and structured talks/writes
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Concept Mapping and other forms of mapping
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Writing activities
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Performance Assessment
Science Talks :
A science talk is when you get your students to talk about a big idea or question in science to get at what experiences they have had and what they know. These talks are very open ended, and guided by the teacher only in so far as the teacher keeps the conversation flowing smoothly. The teacher does not interrupt or correct students’ ideas. The purpose is to have students talk as freely and as openly as they can about what they know and what they have experienced. Good science talk questions are those questions that lend themselves to students telling stories about their experiences with the phenomenon you are interested. I like to write the focus question for the science talk on the board so that the students can keep it in mind, and if need be I can re-direct the students to have their talk focus on the question. Here are some examples of good science talk questions: Why do we sometimes hear echoes? Why do leaves fall off of the trees in the fall here in Michigan? Why does the moon change?
Setting the ground rules. To get students to TALK WITH each other and just not give their stories to the teacher, it is important to establish ground rules for science talks. Some strategies that you can post on the board are having students learn to ask questions of each other and to learn to value the content of what they are saying:
 I don’t understand what you are saying. Can you say it another way?
 I agree with your idea because…
 I disagree with your ideas because…
Think alouds, KWLs and Structured Talks/writes:
This category covers a range of activities that you can do to help students to present their thinking on a specific idea in a written or oral fashion.
KWLs:
An instructional technique known as K-W-L, created by Ogle (1986),allows teachers to activate students' prior knowledge by asking them what they already Know; then students (collaborating as a classroom unit or within small groups) set goals specifying what they Want to learn; and after reading students discuss what they have Learned. Students apply higher-order thinking strategies which help them construct meaning from what they read and help them monitor their progress toward their goals. A worksheet is given to every student that includes columns for each of these activities.
K (What do I know?) L (What have I learned?) W (What do I want to learn?)

Think alouds are when you give students an open ended problems to solve, usually in groups, where they have to reason through ideas using what they already know and have experienced.
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Good think aloud questions draw from experiences that you anticipate students might have had but push them to reason beyond what you think they might know.
 Good think aloud questions are usually broken into “steps” to help students engage in complex reasoning with some scaffolding.
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Good think aloud questions are questions that you can ask again at the end of the unit to see how student thinking has changed.
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Example:
1. Present the student with a selection of foods, from fresh to preserved, simple packaging to elaborate packaging.
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Food
Strawberries
Strawberry jam
Strawberry pop tart
Strawberry ice cream
Large pack of cookies
Large pack of cookies with individually wrapped portions
Individually wrapped sweets/ chocolates in a box
Treatment
Fresh and frozen
In a jar, sweetened, jellied, cooked
Sugared, cooked, preserved, cardboard packaging
Frozen, cardboard carton, preserved
Single packaging
Maybe 10 mini packs in a large pack
Many individually wrapped items in a pack
Ask the student to do the following and justify her choice:
1. arrange the items in order of nutritional benefits (explain after each)
2. arrange the items in order of the most perishable to the least.
3. arrange the items in terms of most friendly to the environment to least friendly.
4. which would they be most likely to buy and why?
5. If they were to try to convince a friend or their parent to buy “strawberries of a certain treatment”, then what treatment would they pick and how would they go about convincing them (ok not worded well… do you get the point?)
What is Concept Mapping?
Concept maps are one of a range of tools which teachers can use to gather information about children's ideas. Concept maps can be used as a tool for learning as well as a tool for assessment.
They provide children and teachers with a method of recording and discussing children's ideas about different scientific concepts.
Concept maps are schematic representations of relationships between concepts. Usually the starting point for drawing a concept map is a list of concept words which are known to the children and which can be linked together. It is best to draw up the list with the children and it should only include words thoroughly familiar to them. They can then be asked to draw lines and write joining words on the lines. For children in infant and junior classes concept-mapping cards with pictures can be used. The results can be analyzed to give insight into the relationships which the children see between things. The value of concept maps is enhanced if they form the basis for discussion and questioning between the individual child and the teacher.
Concept maps compiled at the start of the topic may indicate the level of understanding of the children and the misconceptions and gaps in their knowledge. Concept maps show a large body of

information and can help to inform future teaching strategies. They are particularly useful in evaluating the learning that has occurred during a teaching program. Children can complete concept maps at the end of the topic and these can give an indication of whether or not they have altered or changed their ideas and whether anything has been learnt or understood.

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Writing activities. [see handouts 11/24]
Writing activities provide teachers with a variety of information to guide their instruction.

Students can express their attitudes and feelings, as well as identify areas they are having difficulty with or particularly enjoy. Teachers can use writing assignments to examine their students’ thinking processes and conceptual understanding.
Writing about science requires students to focus on and internalize important ideas. Writing tasks are a way to determine when students have understood a concept. In addition, the process of writing may help students come to a better understanding of a topic or idea. Teachers may want to extend these activities by having students read and respond to each other’s writing.
Writing activities give students who are shy about speaking in class an opportunity to communicate that is more comfortable for them and therefore more effective (Miller, 1991).
Journal writing allows students to express their anxieties about a topic and explain problems they are having.
Ways to incorporate writing
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Journals and notebooks can be a daily or weekly part of class or can be assigned as homework.
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Individual writing assignments can be used as follow-ups to an activity or a cooperative learning experience.
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Various forms of writing – like expository and narrative – can be used in these writing tasks.
Performance Assessment
Performance assessments focus on the process of solving problems or completing complex tasks .
Performance assessments allow students to show how they reach their solutions, explain their answers, and demonstrate their ability to synthesize.
Why use performance assessment?
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The emphasis is on what students can do , not just what they know .
 This assessment strategy provides teachers with information about students’ thinking and reasoning.
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Performance assessments can provide information that is more instructionally relevant than paper-and-pencil tests. Teachers gain a more complete picture of students’ understandings and abilities. This in turn leads to better decisions about student misconceptions and errors, and provides better assessment of the instructional process.
Examples of performance assessments in science
For a set of performance assessments (k-4, 5-8) go to SRI’s website: http://pals.sri.com/