Learning, Creating, and Using Knowledge: Concept Maps(tm) As Facilitative Tools in Schools and Corporations

This fully revised and updated edition of Learning, Creating, and Using Knowledge recognizes that the future of economic well being in today's knowledge and information society rests upon the effectiveness of schools and corporations to empower their people to be more effective learners and knowledge creators. Novak’s pioneering theory of education presented in the first edition remains viable and useful. This new edition updates his theory for meaningful learning and autonomous knowledge building along with tools to make it operational - that is, concept maps, created with the use of CMapTools and the V diagram. The theory is easy to put into practice, since it includes resources to facilitate the process, especially concept maps, now optimised by CMapTools software. CMapTools software is highly intuitive and easy to use. People who have until now been reluctant to use the new technologies in their professional lives are will find this book particularly helpful. Learning, Creating, and Using Knowledge is essential reading for educators at all levels and corporate managers who seek to enhance worker productivity.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments An Overview of the Book The Need for a Theory of Education Meaningful Learning for Empowerment The Construction of New Meanings Ausubel’s Assimilation Learning Theory The Nature of Knowledge and How Humans Create Knowledge The Effective Teacher/Manager The Context for Education/Management Evaluation and Rewards Improving Education in Schools and Corporations References

About the Author :
Joseph D. Novak, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University, Education and Biology, is Senior Research Scientist, Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition.

Review :
"Educational research would be greatly strengthened if more researchers based sustained programmes of research on well developed and coherent theoretical perspectives, as Novak has done." —The British Journal of Educational Psychology "Novak's contributions could facilitate systemic reform in education, corporations, and beyond." —Contemporary Psychology "Dr. Joseph D. Novak has spent a lifetime constructing a theory of education aimed at making formal and informal learning more meaningful, knowledge more conceptually transparent, and schooling more educative than maleducative....[In this book]...he elevates concept mapping from just another way of representing ideas graphically to a theory-driven tool that is consistent with what we currently know from various disciplines about the brain, learning, and memory." —James H. Wandersee Louisiana State University "Dr. Novak's work on the development of a comprehensive theory of education, along with a set of practical tools for implementing his ideas, constitute a major contribution to the field....There is no question in my mind that this book will offer teachers, students, and managers a unique and helpful guide to creating knowledge!" —Joel J. Mintzes University of North Carolina, Wilmington "This book shows the range of fields in which his ideas have been helpful, yet it takes new strides with application to corporate R & D....Concept-mapping can be a more useful alternative to traditinal planning and evaluation. These tools are especially needed at a time when we are overloaded with information, and people need better ways to organize it into knowledge." —Laureen Lopez, PhD CPE Consulting, Chapel Hill, NC