Can concept mapping be used to promote meaningful learning in nurse education?

Recent changes in nurse education have led to a desire in nurse educators to promote meaningful learning rather than rote learning of facts. A major metacognitive learning strategy that appears to promote this is concept mapping. However, many nurse educators appear to be unaware of this strategy's existence, or of the research evidence available that supports the claim of promoting meaningful learning. This paper sets out to address these issues. It explores the nature of a concept map, the research on concept mapping and meaningful learning and possible reasons why its use has not been noticeable in nurse education. By addressing these issues it is hoped that more nurse educators will attempt to use concept mapping in the promotion of meaningful learning.