Bridging the Gap, which is dedicated to translating educational research into practical strategies for the classroom, recently published a piece on concept mapping and learning. Drawing on the research of Boxtel, Linden, Roelfs, and Erkens (2002), “Collaborative Concept Mapping: Provoking and Supporting Meaningful Discourse,” Bridging the Gap discusses the value of collaborative concept mapping. It notes that collaborative concept mapping enables students to expand their negotiation and reflection skills, allowing them to “engage in questioning, reasoning, and resolving disagreements.” It goes on to say that concept maps are valuable for pre-post evaluation of students’ understanding of new information and can support “instructional strategies or other types of interventions which assist students directly to clarifying misconceptions.”\n\nThe piece asks the reader to reflect upon the ways in which concept mapping (one of many ways SpicyNodes can be used) can be a teaching-learning activity and a formative and summative assessment tool; can provide insights into student development; can spur creativity and impact domain-specific learning. \n \n