Concept Mapping for Sustainable Development

Concept mapping has been used as a tool to monitor and promote meaningful learning, thinking, and acting in courses taught by Professor Mauri Åhlberg since 1989 at the University of Joensuu, Finland. In this paper the use of concept mapping is described in an advanced course that focused on teacher as researcher and developer of her/his own work and its preconditions. During the course university students completing their field practice made observations and collected data. They researched their chosen field school, its curriculum, their own teaching, and their pupils’ learning. In this paper we describe one aspect of the data in depth. That is, how sustainable development is promoted in the students’ field practice schools according to university students’ observations, interviews, and other data they collected. The main points were condensed into concept maps, which comprise the data presented in this report. Students have also performed Vee heuristics on each aspect of their study, but we do not present results of those analyses in this paper. The results seem clear that, at least according to university students’ observations, schools in rural Finland use more time and energy to promote sustainable development now than they did previously. This is a good sign for the upcoming United Nation’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (EfS). The issue is important and there is empirical evidence from concept maps that sustainable development is more important than once thought in rural schools of Finland. We suggest the broader use of concept mapping to promote Education for Sustainable Development. Theoretical reasons based partly on empirical research are provided for this suggestion