Concept Mapping as a Tool for Curriculum Quality

Introduction The authors of this paper are applying concept mapping as a tool for understanding, collaborating, validating, and integrating curriculum content that is designed to develop specific competencies in a graduate-level academic program. At the Information Resources Management (IRM) College, National Defense University (NDU), located at Ft McNair in Washington, DC, curriculum development presents unique challenges. Congress established the IRM College in 1988 to provide graduate-level education to Information Resources Management officials and leaders. In addition, the Secretary of Defense designated the IRM College to be the educational institution to implement the Clinger-Cohen Act (Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1995). Since the IRM College is funded by the DoD, the students are military and DoD civilians as well as senior leaders from other government agencies, foreign military officers and civilians, with a few private sector students from businesses who work with the government. Curriculum that has its foundations in congressional mandate and laws is complicated and must be monitored closely to satisfy high-level stakeholders as well as the needs of IRM students. Therefore, curriculum developers at the IRM College turned to curriculum mapping as a way to ensure we were addressing and validating competencies as well as integrating them across the College's four academic departments and five certificate programs. Concept mapping, a tool originally developed to facilitate student learning by organizing key and supporting concepts into visual frameworks, can also facilitate communication among faculty and administrators about curricular structures, complex cognitive frameworks, and competency-based learning outcomes. To validate the relationships among the competencies articulated by specialized accrediting agencies, certification boards, and professional associations, faculty may find the concept mapping tool beneficial in illustrating relationships among, approaches to, and compliance with competencies. The authors describe a specific application of concept mapping to curriculum and how curriculum mapping is useful to faculty and academic administrators charged with maintaining curriculum quality at the IRM College. They further suggest that curriculum mapping may also be useful for curriculum content management, an initiative in its early stages in higher education. Concept Mapping as a Tool for Learning Concept maps are graphical diagrams that can be used to organize knowledge in meaningful ways (Novak & Gowin, 1984) and are generally attributed to Novak's early work examining children's understanding of scientific knowledge (1964) that resulted in the notion of graphical concept mapping. The concepts can be represented as either a circle or a box. The relationship among concepts is displayed using connecting lines. Clarifying words or symbols are typically associated with linking lines to explain the specific relationships among the concepts. Although concept maps are generally represented hierarchically (Novak, 1998), with the most general concepts at the top and more specific concepts arranged below, variations on this theme can take the form of chain, spider, and network formats (Hibberd, Jones, & Morris, 2002; Ruiz-Primo & Shavelson, 1996). Recently, Safayeni, Derbentseva, & Canas (2003) suggested a cyclic structure would illustrate dynamic relationships and stimulate systems thinking more clearly. Researchers agree that the concept map format depends on the content and the individual using the tool. Figure One is a typical example of a concept map. It addresses a simple question, "What is a plant?" and illustrates how cross-links can be made and concepts organized. This is just one way the concepts listed on the left of the figure can be positioned in a hierarchical fashion to show relationships. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] In addition to their role in representing knowledge, concept maps have also been pressed into service in support of initial learning. …