This article aims at reporting on the process of tutors training for the planning of distance education at the undergraduate Administration course at the Federal University of Uberlandia-Brazil. It describes a participatory research training of tutors in the use of concept mapping (CM) and concept mapping software to encourage individual contribution and cooperation in the context staff development for distance education. The results are presented of collectively constructed conceptual curricular network maps that demonstrate the cooperation and metacognitive thought of the instructors in creating these maps. The maps represents, topologically, a general and integrated vision of the Declarative Knowledge (What), Procedimental (How) and (Why)--a Structural Knowledge in accordance with the constructivist epistemology of the human brain. The cooperative elaboration of the curricular maps shows the understanding of the importance of this aid in the process of metacognition, and some of the resulting applications in the planning of Distance Learning. It illustrates CM that represents A) Metacognitive exercises of the instructors, B) General and integrated vision of curricular, C) Alignment between CM and revised educational taxonomies.