What's the difference between a concept and a proposition?

[interdependnet]

Hello,
i've got a further question.

Is it possible to connect two propositions together? and
What's the difference between a concept and a proposition, except the appearance?

[jarkko]

"Linking phrase" is the label (typed into the "box" on the line/arrow) for the relation of two concepts. A proposition consists of at least two concepts and their labeled relation.

You can't connect two linking phrases.

-Jarkko

[rcarvajal]

@interdependnet:

What's the difference between a concept and a proposition, except the appearance?

1) What is a Concept? ... from a Concept Mapping Perspective: "Novak (1984), based on Ausubel's (1968; 2000) and Toulmin's (1972) work, defines "concept" as a perceived regularity or pattern in events or objects, or records of events or objects, designated by a label."

2) What are Linking Words? ... from a Concept Mapping Perspective: "The linking words are used to join two or more concepts therebyforming propositions."

3) The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them: "Propositions are statements about some object or event in the universe, either naturally occurring or constructed. Propositions contain two or more concepts connected using linking words or phrases to form a meaningful statement."

[interdependnet]

thanks for quick answering.

[acanas]

CmapTools was designed as a tool to build concept maps, and concept maps are built as a network of propositions.

I add a new document which I just finished writing to the list Rodrigo posted,:

What are Propositions? ... from a Concept Mapping Perspective

Hope between the document on concept, linking words, and propositions, you'll understand that building concept maps without linking words is making diagrams that are not concept maps.

Regards,

Alberto

[dgroos]

Why call what goes in the bubble a 'concept' when it is just a concept label? This is misleading about the nature of a concept which, at a minimum, requires 2 concept labels connected w/a propositional phrase. Also, to help my middle school and high school students, I tell my students that a concept label is, in general, a noun.

Thanks to all at the IHMC organization for your gracious and educational-oriented perspectives.

David

[tifialf]

Hi David
I've experimented too the misconception about what is a concept everytime I have asked fresh students in training concept mapping courses to select the main concepts out of a text. Their common pre-conception is that a concept is somewhat like a "conception" or an "idea". This is not true. Differently from an idea, a single concept cannot be true or false, nor meaningful by itself, whereas it can be well often labeled by a single word.

Novak's definition could be misunderstood mis-thinking that the "perceived regularity" is the true concept that needs two or more connected words, including separately objects or events, to be properly represented, being the label only a sort of ambiguous shortcut. But this is not the wanted definition.

I see that in the cmap community the label have not only a symbolic role, but it is claimed to be exhaustive in permitting to recognize a node by describing a concept for itself as an irreducible unit (even if the disambiguation is strongly affected by the contest and not only by the label). This unit or node shouldn't be viewed as a nested synthesis or inclusion of inner - related sub-concepts while reading the main cmap around it, even if that concept include a lot of objects.

If you want create units of meaning, as ideas, statements, claims or conceptions (as the one that you see as emerging from the text), you have to connect two previousy defined or chosen concepts by means of a linking phrase. This only give you something true or false and potentially meaningful.

Thank to you all for having triggered in me the reflection that the theme of how to make out concepts from a text and of the relevance of this skill in meaningful learning has not enough undisclosed.

Alfredo

[dgroos]

Hi Alfredo,
Thanks for your extended thoughts on concepts. Here is a way that I introduce conceptual relationships (as opposed to causual relationships, for example) is that the relationship between the 2 nodes is either part/whole (eg is a part of), classification (eg is a kind of, flavor of, type of, example of, etc) and corelation (that is, using a verb, where one noun does something to the other.) Once learned by students, then they can use this as a heuristic and ask themselves, "Is ____ a kind of ____ or is ______ a part of ____ etc". This seems to really help students tease apart the relationship between 2 words where they know there is some kind of relationship but don't know explicitly what it is.

[acanas]

Documents that may help:

What is a Concept?: http://cmap.ihmc.us/docs/Concept.html

What are Linking Words?: http://cmap.ihmc.us/Docs/linkingwords.html

What is a Proposition?: http://cmap.ihmc.us/docs/Proposition.html

[dgroos]

Thanks so much acanas for these references. Over my many years of concept mapping I've occasionally looked on the web for useful definitions of what a concept is and had no luck. Apparently I use (and was taught at Teachers College) the word 'concept label' for what the linked page describes as a 'concept'. I wonder what the various advantages and disadvantages are for each--apparently history is on the 'concept' side

Also, I believe that it is important to teach kids to use precise language for the links, I would not say 'birds have hollow bones', I'd say, 'hollow bones are a part of birds'. I require this of my students as I feel that explicit use of 'part of' helps the metacognitive learning of this type of relationship. To me, 'have' means 'to poses', a different meaning. I notice that the concept maps on your site do read much more naturally than mine. You can imagine that I use more of a web construction than a hierarchical structure, they both have their advantages and disadvantages for sure. I've wanted to discuss these things for years but I don't find much of a space to do this. Nice to have this forum here.

David