A high school sophomore and a graduate student completed the Occu-U-Sort. Cognitive mapping with concurrent verbalizations showed how the task elicits different cognitive structures in novices and experts. Uses of the card sort for diagnosing career problems and prescribing interventions were identified. (SK)

Although exploring students' thought processes can be rewarding, most teachers rely heavily on reponses to tests and assignments that fail to disclose learners' thinking patterns. Concept maps grouping interrelated ideas can encourage students to demonstrate effective and meaningful assimilation of organized study areas. Includes five footnotes.…

A model of mental representations is developed and shown to provide a framework for interpreting research. The content of awareness is characterized as a model of the world capable of simulating future events, anticipating present events, and thereby formulating appropriate actions. Properties of awareness and of underlying processes are…

Based on the hypothesis that teachers possessing extensive and coherent knowledge structures are the most effective teachers, this paper explores the use of a modified ordered tree (OT) technique for measuring teachers' knowledge structures. Two questions are posed: (1) Can a modified OT technique be used to measure teachers' knowledge structures?…

This paper presents two general approaches to the assessment of knowledge structures, the first of which entails the building of empirical evidence to support cognitive theory. This type of assessment is concerned with attempting to prove the existence of various knowledge structures; that is, evidence that leads to the construct validity of these…

Reports on two studies on the dynamic relationships among parts of a thought system. The first study examines the effects of changes in the desirability or likelihood of a core event on thoughts about antecedents and consequences; the second examines the effects of changes in the antecedents and consequences on the core thought. (FMW)

The purpose of this study is to examine readers' comprehension as they develop their mental representation of reference in four sequential online texts. A total of 92 college students from three reading classes were recruited to complete the following steps in each text: (1) identify references, (2) draw the relationships between references, and…

This article explored the way people and connectionist models could apply knowledge of the structure of one domain to another. The process of the Simple Recurrent Network in modelling these data illustrates how abstract knowledge of artificial grammars can be understood in terms of statistical structure. (nine references) (CK)

Examines bioregional mapping as an example of how a different system (educational or otherwise) could be designed through shifting the focus of figure-ground gestalts and revisioning core metaphors. Discusses the notions of community and place, the potential for cognitive restructuring, literal and conceptual maps, and the potential of solving…

As faculty, our goals for students are often tacit, hidden not only from students but from ourselves as well. We present a conceptual framework for considering teaching goals--what we want our students to achieve--that encourages us to think more broadly about what we mean by achieving in our knowledge domains. This framework includes declarative…

Discusses cognitive mapping as a way of finding out how a teacher perceives software and describes a study in which student teachers constructed cognitive maps of software to help determine teaching and learning strategies. Implications of teachers' perceptions of software content of courses using computer-assisted learning are discussed.…

Because knowledge is constantly in flux, it is important for individuals to accurately incorporate new information into previously developed knowledge structures. Some of the issues surrounding this development of thought are explored in this paper. Although the phenomenon of knowledge integration is relatively common, very little empirical…

The learning process may be described as personal maps of reality--the way in which individuals construct knowledge and how new experiences change the maps. When new material is encountered, learners place it somewhere on their maps; the teacher's role is to relocate it closer to the learner. (SK)

Over the past few years evidence-based practice has become of central concern to health and social services in this country. The fundamental tenant is that there must be a clear link between professional practice and its research base. This paper outlines the concept of evidence-based practice and how it rests on the concept of good quality…

Describes a computer-based methodology for representing mental models as maps, extracting these maps from written and spoken texts, and analyzing and comparing concepts and structures of information within maps. Illustrates the model using data on students and teacher in an undergraduate writing class. Contains about 80 references. (Author/SV)