Using C-Map Tools To Develop Higher Order Thinking Skills In Undergraduate Science Communication Students

This paper reports on the use of c-map tools, which is a free web-based collaborative concept mapping application. It was used by 93 undergraduate students undertaking a Science Communication unit at an Australian university during 2011. These first year students worked together in small groups of three or four to construct an electronic knowledge map on a topic of their choice (i.e. Biotechnology, Genetics, Virology, Ecology). In doing so, they were interpreting, developing, sharing and reinterpreting science issues collaboratively through visual representations while developing their higher order thinking skills (i.e. identifying and using information, critical analysis, problems solving). The use and cultivation of these skills was evident in the student generated knowledge maps, which showed increasing sophistication over the course of the unit. An eight question survey and semi-structured interviews of students showed that they viewed knowledge mapping mostly positive and believed that it had helped them develop a range of higher order thinking skills.