This paper explores whether and how concept maps can capture changes in the ways that preservice mathematics teachers' represent their understanding of algebra when taking a course on high school algebra. The preservice teachers in this study created concept maps representing their understanding of high school algebra on the first and last day of the course. We describe the initial results of an analysis of these concept maps which showed that concept maps created at the end of the course were larger and more complex, on average, including more nodes and links compared to the concepts maps created at the beginning of the course. Additionally, we describe how these analyses can be used by instructors to make formative decisions in their own courses.

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