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Mind maps automatically inspire interest in the students, thus making them more receptive and co-operative in the classroom.(Tony Buzan, The Mind Map Book)
Mind mapping is a brilliant thinking and learning tool originally developed by Tony Buzan. He believes that, rather than thinking in straight lines, our thoughts take us all over the place, making many varied connections that radiate in all directions. Mind mapping reflects the way we think and learn. The combination of colours, pictures and words is immediately appealing and memorable, and it compliments our brain's natural way of working.
Mind mapping gives us the Big Picture, showing how everything relates to everything else as well as giving the detail. We know that most children need to know the context of learning, and the Big Picture aspect of mind maps addresses this. The process of creating a mind map requires the learner to really engage with the learning on many levels, which appeals to most children.
Mind maps can be used to:
• record a lot of information in a small amount of space
• generate new ideas and organize them at the same time
• plan for other tasks, including writing
• aid memory.
It is important to try to stick to the rules of mind mapping, at least to begin with, in order to exploit the full potential of mind maps as a tool for thinking, learning and memory. The main aim of this workshop is to familiarize the children with these rules.
Six rules of mind mapping:
1 Only use plain paper (lines on the paper distract the eye and do not allow you to read the mind map quickly).
2 Use landscape paper. Our horizontal peripheral vision is greater than our horizontal vision. Using the paper in the landscape format also means writing can be the right way up.
3 Begin with a central image. While you are drawing this, the brain is pre-processing relevant information for the rest of the map.
4 Thick branches radiate from the centre. Use a different colour for each. Each thick branch can represent a main part of the topic. Branches become thinner as they reach the edges, as finer details are added.
5 Single words (or very short phrases) should be printed clearly along the length of the line, not just at the end.
6 Use pictures, symbols, illustrations, and so on. These are used to create memory associations. We remember images far more readily than words - it is said that a picture speaks a thousand words.
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