AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
SEX-BASED DIFFERENTIATION OF MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS OF STUDENTS’
a
NINA KOZÁROVÁ,
b
DENISA GUNIŠOVÁ
Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Department of
Pedagogy, Drážovská cesta 4, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia
email:
a
nkozarova@ukf.sk,
b
dgunisova@ukf.sk
The paper was developed with support under APVV project no. C-15-0368 called
"Practice in the Centre of the Subject Field Didactics, Subject Field Didactics in the
Centre of Practical Training”.
Abstract: Every individual’s knowledge is based on a semantic network that connects
individual concepts into branching mental concepts. The submitted study deals with
mental representation of curriculum content in students through conceptual mapping in
teaching. Visualisation of students’ internal systems of knowledge supports learning
with comprehension and prevents mechanical teaching. The variable researched here
was how students’ sex influenced the resulting mental representation illustrated
through their conceptual map...
Keywords: conceptual map, mental representation of curriculum content, semantic
network, operationalization parameter.
1 Introduction
There is still only an insufficient number of experts examining
the mental representations of students. This area either is subject
to rather sporadic research or is analysed as part of other
research activities. We believe that the current didactics and its
specialised areas must be enriched using psycho-didactic,
constructivist, cognitive, neurocognitive and neuropsychological
disciplines. Such approaches allow us, as students create their
mental maps and their interpretations, to observe not only how
they structure acquired knowledge but also what their processes
are for understanding curriculum content. In the current
constantly changing world students must be able to individually
construct and modify their knowledge structure.
1.1 Learning
Learning consists of creating knowledge structures capable of
receiving and storing new information. This process is activated
when potentially meaningful material enters the field of
cognition. It is then incorporated through a subsequent
interaction into a higher-level conceptual system. When
knowledge is placed into suitable cognitive structures at an
adequate level, it is stored and usable in the future. If its
placement is not suitable, new knowledge will be forgotten.
Individuals with well-organized cognitive structures tend to store
the information for long periods of time.
Every teacher should primarily focus on identifying how his/her
students learn, remember information, plan their learning and
retrieve information from their memory, make decisions, think
and use individual cognitive processes. Leslie O. Wilson (2005)
recommends considering several principles if we want to
increase the effectiveness of students’ learning. In particular,
learning requires sufficient time, involvement of both cerebral
hemispheres, suitable environment, adequate structure of
information, respecting students’ different learning styles, group
work and practical activities in class.
Teachers cannot understand how students think, learn, and
remember things if they merely stand in front of the class and
explain the teaching material for 45 minutes. If we teach students
how to understand information, think critically, contemplate and
analyse subjects in broader contexts, we can help them
throughout their lives.
1.2 Preconcepts
Each student seeks meaning in things or facts through
understanding. Gavora (2012) claims that understanding is based
on knowledge about the world, skills and cognitive
competencies. Reading with comprehension has gradually
become one of the main means of collecting information since
students, consciously or often even unconsciously, interrelate
different materials.
Comprehension stems from the knowledge acquired by a child
throughout his/her life about the world, based on his/her
previous experience. Knowledge represents a certain semantic
network, where every piece of information has its own place and
system. If learning is not based merely on repetition but is
meaningful, then each new piece of knowledge will be
incorporated into a child’s existing knowledge structure. A piece
of information is incorporated into the system once it is received.
However, in many cases it is adopted inaccurately.
Hejný and Kuřina (2015) point to the fact that often information
is only received but not grasped and included into one’s
knowledge structure. It is not easy to differentiate between these
terms since there is a very thin line between storing and
grasping. The structure of mental imaginations has been studied
by Kosslyn (1994), Glasgow and Papadias (1992) Wong, Lu and
Rioux (1989) and others.
Thagard (2001) offers an explanation of how we learn and
understand concepts. He holds that concepts are a type of mental
representation; however they cannot be seen as sets of typical
features, but rather as an attempt at finding coherence between
them and the world. This may, potentially, explain why certain
students are not able to recall the logical sequence of the
material. What if in their thinking they find a different coherence
between concepts and the world? In such cases students’
concepts will not overlap with the teacher’s, and the material
may not be understood, or potentially there may be
misconceptions.
1.3 Mental maps
Visual systems have been used in learning processes to capture
and display knowledge from ancient times. Since 1972, one such
system has been used as an instrument for examining significant
changes. In the European geopolitical space, mental maps were
first mentioned in 1965 by the German educator Richter, who
examined structuring of teaching material.
Recently, experts have attempted to find a common term for the
diverse approaches to structuring curriculum material. Terms
such as cognitive maps, semantic maps, spiderwebs, and mind
maps have been gradually replaced by the term of concept map
for the output and concept mapping for the activity. Some
authors, including Fisher (2004), Buzan (2011), Veteška (2009),
prefer the term mental map.
The most significant contribution of social constructivism, as
represented by L.S. Vygotsky, was to explain the relationship
between mental structure and the socio-cultural environment. In
didactics, cognitivism gave rise to concepts of developmental
learning and scaffolding (Zankova, L.V., Eľkonina, D. B. and
Davydova, V.V.), concepts of meaningful learning (Ausubel, D.
P., 1967), inquiry-based instruction and discovery learning
(Bruner, J., 1965), and prior knowledge assessment theory
(Dochy, F. J., 1992, 1996).
Concept mapping was presented by Novak and Gowin in 1980.
It is based on a theory of propositions that posits that all teaching
material is constructed of hierarchically ordered propositions. A
proposition is a knowledge unit presenting a connection between
two concepts. Additionally, the text in the curriculum material is
structured in a unified hierarchical scheme, where the most
general concepts are in the upper part of the map and those at
lower levels have a more specific character. Newer and
increasingly elaborated concepts of mapping continue to be
developed.
Teachers in a modern school should present their students the
broadest array of possibilities that can assist them in their
learning. For example, they can use concept mapping in
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