Visual mapping or mind mapping was first developed by Tony Buzan in the 1970s and is an effective strategy to refine thinking, and to visually organise ideas and concepts. Mapping ideas works because we are constantly forced to consider the structure and value of our ideas. It’s a metacognitively charged process in which students repeatedly consider how and where to place their ideas, reflections and concepts, and make connections between them.
By visually representing thinking patterns, students not only learn how to accommodate and work with knowledge, but they better understand how new knowledge is created – it also helps them identify and address gaps in knowledge. Connections between ideas are not only more readily recognised but are often more easily conveyed and consolidated.
Unproductive study and reflection are a significant impediment to student progress. The beauty of mapping with students is that they see the detail and the steps involved and they understand the scope of their efforts. Students are encouraged through visual mapping to better consider hierarchies of knowledge.
Mapping ideas allows students to learn from their peers. They can ‘see’ the thinking more readily of their classmates, making connections that they would otherwise have been challenged to reach. Everyone can be an effective learner, and mapping ideas is a strategy that allows teachers to more easily differentiate and to democratise access to knowledge in their classrooms.
Mapping can enable students to move outside the linear path of the learning sequence and stray into more free form thinking approaches. In a learning sequence, it’s where you are best able to make connections and arrive at new understandings based on a spread of sometimes diverse ideas. It’s those connections, supported by visual cues, that make mapping a powerful resource, and can lead you towards embedding new understandings.
Prompts that link a transition to a mapping space might include:
⦁ ‘Now that we’ve had a chance to discuss what we know about X, let’s explore the links between these ideas using our mapping tool. We’ll take the key ideas we’ve identified in our chat room and use the mapping tool to help us explore relationships between these ideas.’
⦁ ‘Consider the three most important ideas you’ve developed with your partner, let’s now place them in a mind map together.’
⦁ ‘Can I have some suggestions from the class of what the number one influence might be from each team? Let’s discuss how to place them on a class mind map together. The map will help us better understand what is common amongst those ideas.’