Mind Mapping is the most researched cognitive tool for graphically organizing information into conceptual frameworks which lead to deep learning, critical thinking, and application. Conceptual Framework and Text Clues Authors provide lots of clues for finding the conceptual framework in texts and articles - all of which should be used but not taught as discrete skills. The main learning efforts should be directed toward the thinking involved within the context of authentic texts within the larger conceptual framework, not on discrete skills. We will look at reading to learn and writing to learn strategies later. Each text clue is very important; however, from an adaptive reading point of view, the clues would not be taught as discrete skills (exercises that have the reader read a short passage and for example find the main idea and supporting details), but as clues to the conceptual framework of the text and how the clues contribute to the larger understanding and inclusion in the text’s conceptual framework. The shift in adaptive reading from traditional reading instruction (discrete skills) is a focus on constructing meaning and integrating that meaning within a conceptual framework in order to make later learning of related information easier to learn and to make concepts learned more transferable. In textbooks, the clues for the text’s conceptual framework are everywhere. The use of examples, statistics, and other details signals a main idea is being clarified, proved, or developed. The main idea is not an end in itself in adaptive reading, but rather information that helps the reader not only connect with their prior knowledge, but to help the reader figure out how new information is systematically organized within the a conceptual framework. With supporting details, emphasis is not on details, but on the use of details to understand the concept being learned and more importantly to understand the facts and ideas within a conceptual framework. Clues to the text’s conceptual framework can be found in titles, heads, subheads purpose sentences, preoutline, objectives, topic sentence, italics repletion, questions, numbering, visuals, details, organizational patterns, and summary.
College Textbooks are Organized Around Conceptual Frameworks College textbooks are organized around conceptual frameworks within which writers select topics (subject(s) they want to write about) and support them with details. Finding the main idea by reading a paragraph and identifying the topic and supporting details alone is not sufficient for understanding the topics and supporting details within the context of a conceptual framework. In fact, it can isolate topics and details and fail to make connections within a conceptual framework. Textbooks are organized within a conceptual framework - group of concepts that are defined and systematically organized to provide a focus, a rationale, and a tool for integrating and interpreting information. See conceptual framework for The Family (pp. 267-271 in College Reading). A concept is an idea of something formed by mentally combining all its characteristics or particulars; a construct. A learner can think about the author’s topic, the subject the author wrote about, and their main idea, the main point they want to make about the subject as a concept, and the authors can support the main point they want to make with examples, illustrations, evidence, logic, and reasoning, etc. as the particulars that make up that concept. However, these concepts always need to be understood as part of a group of concepts that are defined and systematically organized to provide focus for interpretation and integrations within a conceptual framework. That is what a conceptual framework is. That learning process is what is essential for transfer to occur. Conceptual Framework and Prior Knowledge Among the more solid research on learning is the fact that to learn, the learner must connect what they are learning to what they already know.
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