Joseph D. Novak

Joseph Donald Novak (December 2, 1930 – September 22, 2023) was an American educator, and professor emeritus at the Cornell University, and senior research scientist at the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition.

Present work includes the development of "expert" concept maps to "scaffold" learning, using CMapping with Internet and other resources, providing A New Model for Education.

[1] Beginning in the 1970s, Novak and his research team at Cornell developed the technique of concept mapping as a means of representing the emerging science knowledge of students.

[4] It has subsequently been used as a tool to increase meaningful learning in the sciences and other subjects as well as to represent the expert knowledge of individuals and teams in education, government and business.

In his research, Novak taught students as young as six years old to make concept maps to represent their response to focus questions such as "What is water?"