Concept Maps and the Systematization of Knowledge

The act of doing research, reviewing recent literature, checking data, and articulating results and meanings are important but not enough when working with scientific publications in graduate schools. A vital part of the work is authoring an informative text that can be clear enough as to communicate findings of the study and, at the same time, reinforce chosen arguments. This chapter focuses on an experiment at a renowned Brazilian graduate school of education, which uses concept mapping and collective assessment of such maps as fundamental pre-writing stages to guide the authorship of well-thought, well-knit scientific/argumentative texts. Results indicate that the experiment was successful in making students negotiate meanings, clarify ideas and purposes, and write in an academically acceptable style. All this was conducted from a methodological standpoint that makes meaningful knowledge, collective construction, and the reflective, critical work of the author (from the first draft to the final collectively written version given), the foundations to perform a better job at communicating the processes and results of the investigative work.