Effectiveness of concept maps in economics: Evidence from Australia and USA

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of concept maps as a teaching and learning tool in university level Principles of Microeconomics courses in Australia and USA. Concept mapping was incorporated in the teaching material in both courses at different countries and, at the end of the semester, the students completed a survey regarding the use, effectiveness, and accessibility of concept maps. It was revealed that USA students valued concept maps relatively less than Australian students. We provide two explanations: First, there may be differences in prior training in economic and/or concept mapping between Australian and USA students. Second, there were significant differences in class structure, which caused the link between collaborative study-groups and the construction of concept maps to not be maintained in the case of USA students.