Mind mapping
Clarity
One of the most frequent reasons behind misbehaviour is
confusion. Some of the slower learners get left behind in the rush to input
content. Then boredom sets in and they find other most 'interesting' things to
do like looking out of the window, imagining themselves a long distance away or
distracting classmates. If lack of
clarity is the cause of this misconduct then teachers have to recognise their
mismanagement and correct it. The question then is : how can we maintain clarity
so as to retain attention?
Mind maps
Visual cues to underscore your oral explanations are an
insightful answer to this problem. Mind maps, in particular, allow teachers to
build up visual overviews of classroom content while they are speaking about
it. The final view clearly defines not only the information but also its
interrelationship: how one idea is connected to another. Use of colour and
internal images in the map also help pupils memorise the information. In the
more usual linear displays of subject matter the connections are not
immediately apparent, there is no colour and the presentations are not visually
attractive. Compare the same content about 'Attention' in mind map and
traditional formats to see which outlay is more
immediately intelligible:
A. Linear format:
|
Attention 1 A new species 1.1 Non-verbal
communication 1.2 Power of
(non-verbal) Influence 1.2.1 Management is
preventive discipline 1.2.1.1 Discipline has
consequences! 1.3 Goal 1.3.1 A Healthy Group 1.3.1.1 everyone is
accepted 1.3.1.1.1 safe 1.3.1.2 individuals are
held accountable 1.3.1.2.1 discipline 1.4 Reference: Are women
better Multi-taskers than men? |
2 Centring 2.1 V(isual) 2.2 A(uditory) 2.3 K(inaesthetic) 2.4 B(reathing) 2.5 Overview 3 Focusing 3.1 Example 3.1.1 Strategy 3.1.1.1 whispering 3.2 Learning 3.2.1 Learning to learn 3.2.2 Calibrating
learning styles 3.2.3 What's your
learning style? 3.3 Refinements 3.4 References 3.4.1 De Bono, E., Six
Thinking hats 3.4.2 Grinder M., Envoy 3.4.3 Grinder M., The Elusive Obvious. |
B. Mind map format:
The
Origins story
Tony Buzan
was going into his second year as an undergraduate at Oxford university. His
first year hadn't gone too well, academically, and he was casting around for
ways of improving his grades. The problem was that he felt overwhelmed by the
quantity of information he was receiving and recognised the need to organise it
if he was going to pass the finals. He asked in the university's Bodleian
library if there were books on how the brain coped with organising information.
The librarian directed him to the neurology section. However he was not
interested in the brain itself, but how it worked. He was convinced that he
needed to do some research on the matter himself.
He decided
to investigate among his own classmates to find out who self-organised best to
get top marks. His conclusion was that those who were best able to pass exams
arranged the content they received in class by noting it down in key words.
Around the
same time Buzan read about a memory experiment in a copy of the publication
'Scientific American'. The researchers had set out to text visual memory and
showed subjects 2,560 photos then later 2,560 more which they were asked to
identify as having already viewed or not. The unexpected result was that the
successful recognition rate was above 85%.This led the researchers to conclude
that the human brain has a high visual memory.
Buzan put the key words concept together with a visual graphic to form what he called a mind map. Based on his investigations he claims that it is a very brain friendly presentation, enabling an immediate grasp of highly memorable content. Just what is needed by students.
The Mind Map Book by Tony Buzan
Brain friendly
The linear approach to presenting information is so prevalent
that if you consult the synonym for “information” the common answer is “in
order”, “in rank” or “in a row”. It would seem that we expect news to be
presented “in formation”, like marshalling an army of recruits. The problem
with this linear approach is that it is not the way our minds work.
The neurologist Antonio Damasio (Self
Comes to Mind. USA: Pantheon Books (2010)) argues that
the brain's structure, if sliced in slivers and put under a microscope, has the
aspect of a two dimensional grid and looks just like the plan of Manhattan.
Briefly put, the brain maps the world around it and its own doings. In fact if
we create an in depth view of the brain itself it looks very much like a 3D
mind map.
Our brains
work like websites: groups of pages,
ideas or concepts are linked together, or even branch off on their own into
other groupings or webs. Learning combines what you already know with what you
want to know and links this new information within our store of knowledge. Our
memories then process these new "links" and associations for later
recall. This makes mind mapping a much more brain friendly way of sorting out
information than processing it sequentially. In fact Buzan claims that the
associative manner in which a mind map presents the structure of ideas is
representative of how ideas are actually stored in the brain.
Mind maps are especially brain friendly in the way that they
encourage use of what is termed the right brain which processes input in a more
holistic manner than the linear left hemisphere. By helping you understand the
overall structure of the information being learned you see the big picture, you
notice how the various ideas relate to each other. On listening to, reading or
reviewing information these connections may link the material to other ideas
you have which were not presented by the author or lecturer, thus giving you a
new insight into the subject.