Concept Mapping for Planning and Evaluation

Mary Kane is the Chief Executive and Principal Consultant at Concept Systems. Having built the company from a single person "shop" to a well-regarded consulting and methodology company, Ms. Kane has restructured the Concept System project methodology and client processes to ensure that organizations benefit fully from CSI's capabilities. Her consulting experience includes strategic operational planning, product and program development, education and training design, and program needs assessment and evaluation. She supports clients, in addition, with organizational and leadership development consultations. With clients and research colleagues, she has coauthored several articles on the applications of Concept Mapping and Pattern Matching in organizational decision-making and strategic planning. Ms. Kane is co-author of the definitive volume on Concept Mapping: Concept Mapping for Planning and Evaluation (Sage Publications, 2007). For over 15 years, Ms. Kane has planned and conducted process and group consulting for federal, state and county agencies, health and mental health organizations, private corporations, not-for-profit agencies, and school districts. She has provided consulting counsel to groups ranging from small boards of directors to organizations represented by thousands of stakeholders. Ms. Kane co-founded and became the principal executive of CSI in 1993 after a successful career in the management and growth of community-based cultural and learning organizations. Under her leadership, the Company has invested in the redevelopment of the software and process technology, and expanded the scope of CSI methods and services to meet clients' needs even more effectively. Ms. Kane holds a Masters degree in Library and Information Sciences from Columbia University. Prof. Trochim is the Director of Evaluation for the Weill Cornell Clinical and Translational Science Center -- a collaboration of Weill Cornell Medical College, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Hospital for Special Surgery, Hunter College and Cornell Cooperative Extension -- and participates actively in the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards national evaluation. He is developing evaluation systems for the HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Networks of the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). He is actively engaged in research with the National Science Foundation incorporating systems approaches in the evaluation of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education programs. And, as Director of Evaluation for Extension and Outreach, Prof. Trochim works with Cornell University Cooperative Extension programs throughout New York State on planning and implementing evaluation systems for their outreach and education programs.

Preface Acknowledgments 1. An Introduction to Concept Mapping 2. Preparing for Concept Mapping 3. Generating the Ideas 4. Structuring the Statements 5. Concept Mapping Analysis 6. Interpreting the Maps 7. Using Concept Mapping in Planning 8. Using Concept Mapping in Evaluation 9. Mapping the Future Appendix: Concept Mapping Dissertations References Index About the Authors

Mary Kane and Bill Trochim are the public face of "concept mapping" for most us who do planning and evaluation in public health. This volume is an enormously helpful and comprehensive look at concept mapping not only for those unfamiliar with the concept, but for those, like me, who have experienced the approach as a consumer, but have interest in the intricacies of the "hows" and "added value" of concept mapping over other approaches. Best of all, they do an exceptional job of using concept mapping to integrate planning and evaluation, linking the hermetically sealed boxes in which these disciplines often live in large organizations. -- Thomas Chapel "At last, an up-to-date, how-to-text on concept mapping in evaluation!...Mary Kane and William Trochim, instrumental in the development and promotion of concept mapping, have finally produced such book, which will enable experienced evaluators and program planners to add concept mapping to their suite of methods." -- Rick Cummings