The present study was an attempt to investigate the comparative effects of individually created and collaboratively created Concept Maps on EFL learners’ essay writing. To fulfill the purpose of this study, 60 male and female learners of a total number of 90 intermediate learners studying at Kishe Mehr Language School in Tehran were chosen based on their performance on a piloted PET. The 60 learners thus were divided into two groups and each of the groups were taught writing through one of the two forms of concept mapping, namely, individually created and collaboratively created. At the end of the study, the participants in both groups were given a writing posttest. The design of this study was quasi-experimental and posttest only and ANCOVA was used which led to the rejection of the null hypothesis. Thus, individually created concept maps proved to be more effective than collaboratively created concept maps on intermediate EFL learners’ essay writing. The finding of this study has implications for EFL teachers, teacher educators, and material developers.

Although constructivism is a concept that has been embraced recently, a great number of sociologists, psychologists, applied linguists, and teachers have provided varied definitions of this concept. Also many philosophers and educationalists such as Piaget, Vygotsky, and Perkins suggest that constructivism and social constructivism try to solve the problems of traditional teaching and learning. This research review represents the meaning and the origin of constructivism, and then discusses the role of leaning, teaching, learner, and teacher in the first part from constructivist perspective. In the second part, the paper discusses the same issues, as presented in the first part, from social constructivist perspective. The purpose of this research review is to make EFL teachers and EFL students more familiar with the importance and guidance of both constructivism and social constructivism perspectives.