Colleagues are invited to the Centre for the Study of Higher Education seminar taking place on Thursday 25 October, from 13.00 to 14.00 in the UELT Seminar Room, Canterbury.

The seminar, on ‘Applications of Concept Mapping to Higher Education Research’, will be presented by Professor Ian Kinchin, Department of Higher Education, University of Surrey.

Concept mapping (as developed by Joe Novak) has been used as a student study aid since the 1970s. Applications of concept maps have been shown to help students to understand complex ideas and integrate their learning to build a coherent knowledge structure. Concept mapping has also been used as a research tool as it provides a method to collect and present rich data.

Its origins in science education have resulted in a bias towards quantitative analysis of maps and has resulted in various ways of scoring maps. This seems to mask much of the benefit of producing a map in the first place. Qualitative analysis of maps can reveal unique perspectives that might be lost by other data collection techniques. Whilst the qualitative analysis of maps can be messy, it can be a more effective way of eliciting personal views of research participants.

he application of concept map-mediated interviews can facilitate the visualisation of these personal views. This seminar will introduce participants to the pros and cons of this approach, and initiate discussion about the appropriateness of the tool for academic professional development.

Please confirm your attendance by completing the online booking form.