This is the 3rd post in a series about review strategies that work for both online and in-person learning. This week's post will take a closer look at Concept Mapping. I love concept maps because they require students to engage in effortful processing by requiring them to identify the connections and relationships between concepts. They also require students to "chunk" the information. Chunking is a strategy that breaks up long pieces of information into smaller chunks. These chunks are more easily retained than unrelated pieces of information. I use concept maps when the students are learning new information and when reviewing old information.
I provide the students with the following guidelines when creating a map:
- A concept map usually stems from one main idea.
- The main idea branches into related general concepts.
- General concepts can be subdivided into more specific concepts branching from them in several tiers.
- Specific concepts are elaborated by example.
- Relationships between concepts are shown by linking words
- ALL concepts should be linked – write how the terms are connected on the line between the terms whenever possible.
- DEFINE key terms within the map itself.
The most essential part of this learning strategy is that the students have to write how the terms are connected on the line connecting the shapes. The students do not always organize the information the same way - and that is fine! I am most interested in how they explain their connections. Here's an example of what this assignment looked like in the past.
In lieu of a traditional paper concept map, I will sometimes ask my students to demonstrate their understanding in small groups. I create manipulatives by printing and cutting out a paper list of terms, definitions and examples from Quizlet. I give the students a set amount of time (15-20 minutes) to physically organize their terms on a desk or table based on how the terms connect to each other. When they are done, they share their rationale with me. I usually turn this into a race and award prizes to the groups that finish first. If they cannot explain a relationship - or have it linked incorrectly - they have to reorganize it and can't call me back over again until I check with the other students.
At the beginning of this year, I learned about a new strategy called "Hexagonal Thinking" from the Cult of Pedagogy podcast. I will share a brief explanation of the strategy below but I HIGHLY recommend that you read the blog post and podcast. It will be well worth your time! The post was written by Betsy Potash and she provides a ton of ready to use materials. Here is a brief overview of the strategy:
1. Each topic or concept is placed in a hexagon.
2. Students arrange the hexagons in order to show the relationship between the terms.
3. The relationships between the terms can be documented in a variety of ways such as a video explanation on Flipgrid, Google Doc or even Post-It notes.
4. This could be an individual or group exercise but it is designed to encourage rich discussion in groups.
5. This can be easily adapted for any learning modality. The Hexagons can be generated on paper or digitally. I found these templates to be very helpful!
Once you have identified the terms and concepts that you want to address, Potash recommends kicking off the activity with the following instructions:
Once you have your set of hexagons, it’s time for your group to begin making connections between them.
Your conversations now will be about showing how and why you think the different ideas and options connect. Everyone will see things differently, and that’s OK. Just keep talking until you find the connections that stick. As you discuss your ideas, use the text to find supporting evidence for why you think your connections are strong ones.
Each hexagon can connect to up to six others. Arrange and rearrange until you feel you have the strongest hexagon web in place that you can. Then begin explaining your connections with connection arrows, writing in why you have created intersections between key hexagons.
Everyone in the group will contribute differently, and that’s OK. You need to have people listening and moving pieces to create the web, people debating, people asking questions.
By the end of your discussion, you should have an interconnected web of concepts along with clearly explained connections. If you’re working with paper hexagons, tape or glue them down to another sheet of paper to secure them, or take a photo of your finished web. If you’re working digitally, submit your two slides: the finished hexagon web, followed by the slide with your explanations. Source: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/hexagonal-thinking/
One way that I will use this strategy in AP Psychology is to review people and concepts. For example, my students really struggle with the theorists and theories in the personality unit. Utilizing this strategy will help them identify not only the relationships between the theorists but also to discriminate between them. You can ask the students to explain as many connections as you wish but I like to keep it to around 5. If you would like to make a copy of my assignment click here. This template was taken from the Free Hexagonal Thinking Digital Toolkit. 
In this example I chose to cover only one topic. You could certainly pull topics from many different topics! I like to think of Hexagonal Thinking as a concept map on steroids. It requires the students to explain the concepts in their own terms, discriminate between similar concepts, and requires the students to alternate between units of study. I would love to hear from you about how you could use this strategy in your own classroom!
Last Post: Review Strategies that Work in 2021: Dual Coding with "Draw That!"
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