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This investigation considers the relationship between test scores and a sorting task conceptual macrostructure measure based on topic-level term-term distances as Pathfinder networks. In Study 1 (n = 255), grade 7 Chinese students completed a sorting task 1 month after the traditional in-class lessons and exam. In Study 2 (n = 220), grade 8 students completed the sorting task immediately after self-directed study of a history text. In addition, a month later 68 of the students in Study 2 were further instructed to write a short essay about this content. Study 1 results showed significant correlations between the sorting task macrostructure network measures and both lesson and unit test scores. Study 2 obtained the same significant correlations between sorting task macrostructure network measures and performance on tests. In addition, in Study 2, essay conceptual networks of historical content were better for the high prior knowledge students. Both the sorting task and the essay writing task measures can complement traditional exam measures so that conceptual knowledge structure aspects of students’ learning can be identified for formative and summative purposes. 

This quasi-experimental investigation considers the influence of an instructor-led discussion of structural knowledge on the conceptual structure of summary essays from lesson to posttest. Undergraduate architectural engineering students, after completing the lecture portions on the topic Sustainability and Green Design, during lab time composed a 300-word summary essay using the online tool Graphical Interface of Knowledge Structure (GIKS, Authors, 2024, see Figure 1), then immediately one lab section participated in an instructor-led discussion of their group-average essay structure to note correct conceptions as well as common misconceptions, while the other two sections also wrote but did not have this discussion. Posttest essays were collected the following week. The instructor-led discussion of the networks relative to no discussion did improve posttest essay writing quality (human rater) but NOT content quality. The data indicates that the discussion altered students’ conceptual structures of the central terms in the expert network, but at the expense of peripheral, unmentioned terms. Therefore instructor-led discussion of content conceptual structure likely does influence students’ conceptual knowledge structures, and teachers and instructors must be vigilant in preparing and presenting such a discussion to make sure they appropriately and adequately cover the content. 

This “Listen and Learn” (Research paper) session demos an updated browser-based writing tool and then provides the 1st year data outcomes of a free open education resource (OER) called GIKS to provide STEM students with a teacher-made writing prompt that then scores the essay and displays it as a network to compare to an expert referent network. 

This investigation is the first of four investigations funded by the NSF (DUE award 2215807) to develop and then field test on open educational browser-based writing-to-learn tool called GIKS. The underlying theory is that writing-to-learn with immediate formative feedback presented as concept networks is engaging and effective for learning concepts covered in lectures. This work was studied in a second year architectural engineering course focusing on building materials, processes and modeling. Participants (n=84) completed a lesson (readings, lecture, and labs) then followed by writing prompts centered on the following topics: Building with Concrete and Wood Construction (3 weeks later). Participants were assigned to one of two counterbalanced groups, group A used GIKS software to write a 300-word summary of the first lesson but did not write in the second lesson, while group B did not write in the first lesson but used GIKS in the second lesson, so that each group served as a control treatment for the other group. All students completed a concept structure survey at the end of each lesson that contained 20 key concepts from that lesson, the two concept structure surveys’ data were transformed into concept networks and then these networks were compared to an expert network benchmark referent, as well as to networks of the textbook chapter and the PowerPoint slides of the related lesson. Then a week after the second lesson students completed the standing end-of-module multiple-choice posttest that included items from these lesson as well as from other lessons in the module. Results to date highlight that for both lessons, the group using GIKS scored higher on the concept structure survey (more like the expert network) BUT lower on the multiple-choice test, the difference was significant for the Building with Concrete lesson (p < .05) but not for the Wood Construction lesson. This interaction has been reported before by Ntshalintshali & Clariana (2020), that improving conceptual knowledge sometimes decreases memory of lesson details. Descriptive analysis of the group-average networks derived from the concept structure surveys for Building with Concrete show that the group-averaged network of those using GIKS compared to the control was more like the expert network (54% vs. 36%), the network of the textbook Chapter (32% vs. 29%), the network of the PowerPoint (PP) (46% vs. 41%), and especially like peers in the other group (67%). For Wood Construction the difference between the groups was less, the group-averaged network of those using GIKS compared to the control was more like the expert (40% vs. 39%), like the light-framed construction PP (28% vs. 24%), and especially like peers in the other group (72%). These findings show that writing-to-learn with GIKS with immediate network feedback improves conceptual knowledge as expected but at the cost of details. Peers conceptual structure of the lesson materials were very similar (peer-peer mental model convergence) and were more like others than like the expert, or the book chapters, or the PowerPoint slides; in addition, the PowerPoint slides appear to influence conceptual structure more than the textbook chapters. Investigation 2 will consider writing-to-learn with or without immediate network feedback in order to isolate the effects of immediate network feedback. 

This quasi-experimental study seeks to improve the conceptual quality of lesson summary essays by comparing two conditions, essay prompts with or without a list of concepts from the lesson. It is assumed that these terms can be used as “anchors” while writing. Participants (n = 90) in an Architectural Engineering undergraduate course over a two week period read the assigned textbook chapter and attended lectures and labs, then in the final lab session were asked to write a 300-word summary of the lesson content. Data for analysis consists of these essays and the end-of-unit multiple choice test. Compared to the expert essay benchmark, the essay networks of those receiving the list of terms in the writing prompt were not significantly different from those who did not receive the terms, but however were significantly more like peers essay networks, the network of the Chapter 11 PowerPoint lecture, and the network of the Chapter 9 PowerPoint lecture. In addition those receiving the list of terms in the writing prompt performed significantly better on the end-of-unit test than those not receiving the terms. Term frequency analysis indicates that only the most network central terms in the terms list showed a greater frequency in essays, the other terms frequencies were remarkably the same for both the Term and No Terms groups, suggesting a similar underlying conceptual mental model of this lesson content. More research is needed to understand how including concept terms in a writing prompt influences essay conceptual structure and test performance. 

Learning from multiple documents is an essential ability in today's society. This experimental study used concept network analysis to consider how reading prompts and post-reading generative learning tasks alter students' document integration performance. Undergraduates (N = 119) read three documents about Alzheimer's disease with one of two reading prompts (integrative purpose vs. detailed purpose) and then after reading completed a generative learning task (concept mapping vs. summary writing). Three days later they completed a delayed writing task and an inference verification test. Participants' written texts were converted to concept networks to evaluate conceptual level integration, including the quantity of integration (measured by the proportion of integrative links), the semantic quality of integration (measured by the similarity of integrative links), and the structural quality of integration (measured by comparing graph centrality). Results showed that the integrative purpose relative to the detailed purpose enhanced the quantity of integration but not the semantic and structural quality. Further, concept mapping relative to summary writing significantly improved the structural quality of integration. In addition, this study provides a new approach for evaluating different aspects of integration and contributes to multiple document comprehension literature from the perspective of concept network analysis. 

This experimental investigation seeks to confirm and extend previous investigations that resource interdependence vs. independence during problem-solving relatively extends the problem representation phase before convergence on a solution. In this current investigation, ninth-grade Korean native language participants (n = 240) worked online to complete either a well-structured or an ill-structured problem in either independent triads where all of the members were provided with all of the information needed to solve the problem, or in interdependent triads where members were each provided with different portions of the information needed. The discussions were analyzed using a content analysis rubric from Engelmann and Hesse (JAMA 5:299–319, 2010), and knowledge structures were elicited as concept maps and essays and then analyzed using a graph-theoretic psychometric network scaling approach. Analysis of transcripts of the triad interactions showed a similar pattern of divergence and then convergence for the well-structured and the ill-structured problems that confirmed the previous investigations. As anticipated, interdependent triads performed relatively better on the ill-structured problem perhaps due to the extended divergence phase, while independent triads were better on the well-structured problem perhaps due to a rapid transition to the convergence phase. Knowledge structure analysis of group maps shows that the interdependent triad maps resembled the fully explicated problem space, while the independent triad maps most resembled the narrow problem solution space. Suggestions for practice include first increasing students’ awareness of divergent and convergent thinking, allowing enough time for the activity, and also requiring teams to submit a problem space artifact before working on a solution. Such skills are a basis for learning in school, but more importantly, will prepare students for a world where change is a constant and learning never stops. 

As an important step in the development of browser-based writing-to-learn software that provides immediate structural feedback, we seek ways to improve the quality of students essays and to optimize the software analysis algorithm. This quasi-experimental investigation compares the quality of students’ summary writing under three writing prompt conditions, otherwise identical prompts add either 0, 14, or 26 key terms. Results show that key terms matters substantially – the summary essays of those given the prompt without key terms had longer essays and the resulting networks of those essays were more like the expert referent and like their peers’ essays. Although tentative, these results indicate that writing prompts should NOT include key terms.