Recommended Books

Learning, Creating, and Using Knowledge: Concept Maps as Facilitative Tools in Schools and Corporations Joseph Donald Novak Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1998. Since we could not have said it better ourselves, we borrowed the following review: Reviewer: Joel J. Mintzes from Madison, Wisconsin (National Institute for Science Education) as posted at Amazon dated January 17, 1999.

Marking the culmination of Novak's 40-year career in science education, learning theory and epistemology, this book offers a remarkably insightful, theoretically powerful, and eminently readable volume on knowledge making in schools, corporations and healthcare agencies. The focus of Novak's work is on ways of empowering people to take charge of their own learning and knowledge creation. In this effort he succeeds most powerfully in integrating current ideas from the cognitive sciences, philosophy, psychology, neurophysiology, and educational practice.

But this book is not simply for professors and other members of the intellectual elite. It is first and foremost a helpful guide to teachers, students, business managers and healthcare workers who want to succeed in the competitive arena of the "knowledge age."

Perhaps the most important contribution Novak makes is his careful description [and multiple examples] of concept mapping and V diagramming as tools for facilitating learning, understanding and knowledge creation. Unlike many recipes and panaceas offered by others, Novak cites numerous studies that provide very strong support for the use of these powerful metacognitive tools.

This book is an extraordinarily important contribution to efforts that seek to empower people to become meaningful learners and knowledge makers. It should be read by every college student, every teacher, and by all those charged with managing knowledge professionals.

To order:
Amazon: Hardcover - Paperback
Barnes and Noble: Hardcover - Paperback

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