Concept maps: An automated support for monitoring the learning process

It is vital for a constructivist teacher to monitor the apprenticeship of each student in order to facilitate the definition of the next steps in the development of a discipline. This is a very time consuming and it requires a theoretical framework to support the observations of the teacher. This monitoring would benefit from certain automated tools to expedite parts of the process. Different pedagogical approaches say that the use of concept maps can help students in the processes of signification of new contents or in the resignitication of those already learned. The epistemological position of Piaget states that the development of a student´s logical-mathematical structures is related to the learning of concepts, forming in this way a conceptual system. In the construction of concept maps we create, ultimately, what Piaget calls “significant implications” that evolve according to the semantic nature of the conceptual relations that we create. We propose here an environment for the automatic identification of the significant implications, using a family of software agents guided by an ontology. The analysis of maps will be made based on Piagetian theory. A prototype is under development and will be used to support the analysis of maps produced.