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Mind mapping

Eileen Lian

'It helped me to remember more.'

'If you put stuff in the wrong place you can easily rub it out.'

'You get to see all the stuff you did.'

'It was fun and not like real work.'

These are primary schoolchildren at Newchurch Community Primary School in Warrington, Britain, relating their experiences with mind maps.

They were taking part in a 2000-2001 research study programme which revealed that their preferred learning styles were visual and kinesthetic, meaning that they learn better when they can see and do.

The study also found that using mind maps and then discussing these in class fulfilled both these criteria. As a result, pupils improved in their concentration, perseverance, participation and independence.

We think and remember primarily through images and their associations. We think in multiple thoughts and multiple directions at any one time, with our thoughts starting from image centres and radiating outward.

Most children are trained in school to think in a linear fashion with one thought after another, in a series of singular associations in one direction.

A mind map is a thinking tool that mirrors the way our mind works. Children need these tools to encourage creativity and ease of learning.

'If we don't, it is like putting heavy boots on a young child and allowing him to walk in only one direction,' says Tony Buzan, popularly acknowledged as the inventor of mind maps and author of more than 80 books on mind mapping.

Mind maps make use of both sides of the brain, tapping the right side for images, associations, size and colour and the left side for words, numbers, analysis and logic.

So how do we make a mind map? Get a big piece of paper and three coloured pencils. Keep it playful. Start in the centre of the paper, in landscape orientation, with the central topic. Have related ideas radiate outwards from the centre; with main branches for main topics and sub-branches for sub-topics. Use pictures, symbols, colours or keywords - whatever works best.

Don't judge or evaluate ideas that pop up - just note them down and keep moving. Think fast and associate freely. When you've written as much as you can, go back and reorganise.

Children who mind map are in good company. Mind mapping reflects the note-taking techniques of such brilliant luminaries as Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Beethoven and Pablo Picasso.

Many Fortune 500 companies including HSBC, IBM, Microsoft, General Motors, General Electric and Oracle use mind mapping.

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