Assessing and extending the scope of children's contexts of meaning: context maps as a methodological perspective

In the present study, a method for uncovering the richness of meanings and understandings that children bring with them to learning situations is examined in terms of its effectiveness to elicit relevant data. Context maps elicit a more holistic view of the connections between various perspectives of understanding rather than a detailed picture of student conceptual knowledge. Two types of context maps were constructed by 24 grade 5 students on the topics of ‘issues facing the world’ and ‘forests’. The results show that the maps do provide useful information on children's semantic knowledge, personal experiences, metaphors, interpretive frameworks and emotions‐values‐aesthetics, as well as on how children organize their understandings. The information gathered from context maps tends to indicate highlights rather than specific details. As such context maps are particularly useful in capturing glimpses of the general areas of children's multiple understandings and associated aspects of contexts of meaning (formal semantic knowledge, personal experiences, metaphors, interpretive frameworks and emotions‐values‐aesthetics).