Plotting Your Knowledge
Structures
How do you show what you know?
Introduction to plotting knowledge structures
• There is no one “right” way to plot your knowledge structure as long
as it makes some kind of sense to you and you can explain it to
others. The following presentation demonstrates some ways you
could plot knowledge structures to show someone what you know or
how you think about a topic.
• Note: this is also sometimes referred to as “mind mapping.”
Cars as a knowledge structure
Music as a knowledge structure
In this image we see a bubble diagram
of music as a knowledge structure. The
person who created this started with a
circle near the middle and simply labeled
it “music.” Then, six more circles were
drawn around it. Each of them are connected
to the central music circle by a line. Each of
them has a different label. The one at the top
is labeled Jazz. The next clockwise from the
top is labeled Classical. The next is Rock and
Roll. The next is Soul. The next is Rap, and
finally, the last one is Country. Four lines then
branch out from the circle labeled Rock and Roll
and each end in another circle. The first of these
is labeled Classic Rock. The next is New Wave Rock.
Below this is Alternative Rock, and finally, the last
of the four circles connected to Rock & Roll is 50s
Do-wop. Clearly this person knows more about rock
than the other forms of music they are at least aware
of. How might they have branched these out still further?
By artists? By songs? It is really up to the individual and
how they structure this knowledge in their own mind!
