Book Review: Concept Mapping for Planning and Evaluation
| Author | Rick Cummings |
| Published date | 01 March 2007 |
| Date | 01 March 2007 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X0700700115 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK REVIEWS
Book reviews 63
Title: Concept Mapping for Planning and Evaluation
Authors: Mary Kane and William MK Trochim
Publisher: Sage, Thousand Oaks, California
Publication date: 2007
Extent/type: 200 pages, paperback
Price: A$55.95 from Footprint Books which offers a 15% discount to AES members, phone (02) 9997 3973
ISBN: 1-4129-4028-1
At last, an up-to-date, how-to
text on concept mapping in
evaluation! Concept mapping
has been around for over 20
years and a range of software
packages are available to assist
with it. In spite of this, its use in
evaluation has been limited, at
least in part due to the lack of
a comprehensive text outlining
its applicability and potential
usefulness. Mary Kane and
William Trochim, instrumental in
the development and promotion
of concept mapping, have
fi nally produced such a book,
which will enable experienced
evaluators and program planners
to add concept mapping to their
suite of methods.
This book is described by
the authors as ‘an authoritative
guide to the methodology and
strategies behind using concept
mapping’. The comprehensive
acknowledgements section of
the text outlines the history of
concept-mapping methodology,
but readers will need to look
elsewhere for its theoretical
explanation. James Novack
based concept mapping in
learning theory, developing it in
the early 1980s as a technique
for representing the structure
of information visually, based
on the perspective that learning
new knowledge is dependent on
what one already knows (see The
Concept Mapping Homepage:
<http://users.edte.utwente.nl/
lanzing/cm_home.htm> for
information on Novack and a
list of useful sites and references
on the broader use of concept
mapping). Kane and Trochim
argue that their approach to
concept mapping is based in
structured conceptualisation,
but more might have been made
about the obvious lessons for
evaluators and the participation
of stakeholders in evaluation
studies which arise from
Reviewed by:
Lauren Siegmann (left) and Jessica Dart (right)
Clear Horizon, 1/13 Avondale Avenue, Chelsea, Victoria 3196.
Email: <jess@clearhorizon,com.au>,
<laurensiegmann@fastmail.fm>
‘informal knowledge’ provided, such as the importance of
having a beer in the evening with your counterparts (p. 80),
or acknowledging that some bureaucrats will never read more
than one two-side A4 sheet of research (p. 311), is the kind of
knowledge that will prove to be just as benefi cial as the most
rigorous instruction in theoretical research paradigms.
While the book does sincerely address the oft-discussed
cross-cultural and power issues in development work, it does
not seriously challenge the academic orthodoxy of research
methods, nor provide alternatives. The book is more of an
overview of the research canon. It is perhaps not the role of a
book of this nature to rise to this challenge, and certainly, the
inexperienced researcher needs to know the current research
archetypes before they can deliver a challenge to existing
conventions. It would, however, have been very welcome to
see included in some way the voices of the ‘researched’, in
order to provide a point of contrast to the academic voice,
strengthen the informal knowledge and deliver another
perspective on research.
Novack’s emphasis on concept
mapping as a learning process.
For a more detailed analysis of
the underpinnings of Kane and
Trochim’s approach, see Trochim
and Linton’s 1986 article
‘Conceptualisation for planning
and evaluation’, Evaluation and
Program Planning, vol. 9, no.
4, pp. 289–308 and the special
edition of this journal edited by
Trochim in 1989.
This book is a very readable
manual on concept mapping.
Its nine chapters comprise an
overview introduction, chapters
on the steps in concept mapping
(preparation, generating ideas,
structuring the statements,
concept-mapping analysis,
interpreting the maps and
utilisation), a chapter each on its
use in planning and evaluation,
and a fi nal chapter on potential
use in the future. Most chapters
include useful examples of
planning documents, fl ow charts,
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