Mapping for depth and variety: using a “Six W’s” scaffold to facilitate concept mapping for different history concepts with different degrees of freedom

Abstract

This study examines how 98 students in Taiwan taking a typical high-school history class composed concept maps related to both an everyday concept and an academic-oriented unique concept with various degrees of freedom in concept mapping. In order to reveal the multidimensionality of history concepts, this study provided participants a 6W scaffold with which they were to crisscross their understandings in relation to each individual concept node. The scaffold helped the participants’ concept mapping of academic-oriented unique concepts, but not of everyday concepts, and the effects varied among mappings with different degrees of freedom and among students with different learning capacities.

Keywords:

• concept mapping
• scaffolding
• history study

Funding

The author would like to show his appreciation for the financial sponsorship from the National Science Council in Taiwan.

Notes

1. The ten predicates are (1) what, (2) how large, (3) what sort of thing, (4) related to what, (5) where, (6) when, (7) in what attitude, (8) how circumstanced, (9) how active and what doing and (10) how passive and what suffering.