Narrowing the Gap with Concept Maps: From Documents to Doing

This paper presents an overview of some teacher professional development in mathematics and science. Primary, secondary and learning support teachers worked collaboratively using concept maps to present: sections of syllabuses; their own pedagogical content knowledge; and learning material to be used in the classroom. As part of the planning activity, teachers identified: appropriate teaching and learning sequences; essential background information for units of work; and potential problem areas that students might encounter. In addition, the use of concept maps as advance organisers provided a means for tracking student learning in the classroom. This paper therefore, picks up on the 'Narrowing the Gap' conference theme of collaboration between researchers and teachers in professional learning activities aimed at expanding the repertoire of strategies that can be used to address educational disadvantage. The 'gap' referred to relates to the separation that can exist between the intent of syllabus documents and classroom practice with its many (student) conceptions about the interpretation of learning tasks. 'Narrowing' the separation was undertaken by teachers as they managed, interpreted and planned material for classroom use. In this article, this 'narrowing' process is represented in three stages, each based on the preparation of concept maps.