Validation of the Use of Concept Maps as a Tool for the Teaching and Learning of Industrial Drawing

After some years of practice, common misunderstandings and lack of conceptual organization/structure have found from the learning results of Industrial Drawing students. This article presents an experimental work developed in order to measure the learning process through the concept map analysis. The main aspects to investigate are map complexity, the influence of mapping individual or collectively and the perception of the students on the usefulness of the activity. The complexity level of the maps is set extracting qualitative data and evaluating it through a rubric. The data studies the performance of individual or group working dynamics. In order to evaluate the perception of the students about the mapping activity, a survey presents the results obtained. The present work can conclude that: the students are able to identify and organize main and secondary concepts but their ability to represent a complex system is weak. Individually drawn maps show slightly higher average rate than the ones done in groups and parallel to this, the survey shows a higher usefulness appreciation of the tool from the students that have been mapping individually. The purpose with highest rate is the one related to Information Management and Collective Work. Finally, the use of concept maps improved overall from 0,8 to 1 point the tests scores, compared to the students that did not use this tool.