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There are many students each year diagnosed with learning disabilities. The disability is seldom the fault of the student, but more so lies within the said student’s method of learning. What are his or her options? Across the country another student has 3 research papers due in 3 months, but isn’t sure how to juggle these assignments with other activities. Mind maps help with both these issues as it is a helpful tool for developing learning and management skills. Below are just a few of the ways students at all levels are taking advantage of mind maps.

Writing. Anyone who has written anything is aware of the brainstorming process. Students are required to complete a variety of writing assignments where concepts, ideas and formatting will all differ. Mind maps encourage the thinking process and helps students to think outside of the box. To top things off, mind mapping organizes these thoughts, clears the mind and allows the writing process to go along more smoothly.

Presentations. Over the years, presentations have become widely used in all educational institutions as a method of learning and communication. Not only is a mind map a presentation within itself, beforehand this tool also helps with preparation such as brainstorming and organization. With recent advances in mind mapping software, users can now embed mind maps and link them to webpages.

Research. Research is the essence of being a student. In other words, students will spend a great deal of time performing research, so it’s only fair these students learn while researching instead of becoming victims of information overload and wasting loads of valuable time. Mind maps provide these students with an alternative to learning, recording and retaining important information from books, journals and other resources.

Reference. Students use mind maps as references and study guides. A mind map organizes important information and presents it to its users in a compact and easy to understand, learn and recall format. To be more specific, users can create mind maps to look exactly as they would like. If more words help the user to comprehend the said subject, then additional words can and should be added. This suggestion remains true with images and other memorization and learning cues. These handouts and notes not only help students with visual learning, but they also serve as a handy study guide.

Learning. Needless to say, some students create mind maps on a daily basis, and because of this these students have increased thinking and memorization skills. If a student must cram before a test, cramming with the use of a mind map can be the best decision.

Mind maps increase brain activity, and provide students with an unlimited canvas for exploring their minds and expanding on learning capabilities. A student who has incorporated mind maps into his or her study regime will find the method extremely rewarding. Students learn, organize themselves and are overall more productive. Refer to the attached mind map to view how mind mapping assisted with this article.

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Since the 1970s mind mapping has been the go to source for planning and brainstorming. Before long mind maps found its way into the education field and has proven to be the next best thing for both students and teachers. Teachers only have a few months during the summer to prepare for the upcoming academic year and those who work all year have less than this. Teachers of all levels use mind maps to help lighten the work load and focus on what’s most important, the students. Mind maps are the perfect solution to help instructors organize and complete these tasks in much less time than it may normally take. Below are top ways mind mapping help teachers to save time and be more productive.

Planning. Lesson plans are the bulk of a teacher’s responsibilities. Mind maps help teachers to brainstorm potential activities, field trips and other classroom projects. Mind maps will also aid in the organization and arrangement of these items.

Presentations. Chalkboards are quickly becoming a thing of the past and teachers of all levels are searching for new innovative methods to communicate and present information to their students. Mind maps with it colors, text and graphics, captures the attention of students and makes learning interesting. Interested students absorb more, learn more and ultimately perform better academically. Using mind maps teachers can easily update information, and more importantly, open and organize these mind maps into a slide show with PowerPoint.

Study Guides. Mind mapping is well known for its learning capabilities, so it should come as no surprise teachers utilize mind maps to help students do their best. Mind maps allows teachers to step away from the traditional list and outline form, and provide students with a learning tool to promote thinking and innovation. Mind maps are in a compact form, and loads of information is easily organized onto one page, making the mind map perfect for printing. Improved study guides result in improved grades.

Research. Information has changed over the years and so has research methods. Mind maps give teachers an open canvas to test and explore subjects and classroom content before presenting them as lesson plans. Mind maps helps to keep all researched information neatly organized, and allows the instructor to easily expand on the said mind map.

Learning Encouragement. The word encouragement is used because although school is a place of learning, it is very rare the instructors actually teach the students how to learn. Presenting mind maps to students will not only open their eyes to a different method of learning, but a more beneficial method as well. With the help of mind maps students have no choice but to be more innovative, organized and a better student overall.

As one can see there are many ways teachers can take advantage of mind maps. The many varied uses range from brainstorming lesson plans to designing study guides. Incorporating mind maps into classroom room activities and other projects encourages group interaction and learning. Take a look at the attached mind map and feel free to print it as a quick guide to how instructors benefit from the use of mind maps.

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One of the greatest challenges teachers face is preparing an enriching and engaging lesson plan for students. There are many tools a teacher can use to make this process easier. However, few of these methods will contain the advantages found in Mind Mapping. Mind Maps are far more intuitively laid out than most traditional lesson plans, because they are presented spatially, rather than linearly, and are “mapped” out across the page. Moreover, because Mind Maps are comprised of colors, visual images, and pictures, instead of just words, they allow the brain to process the information contained in them in a manner more consistent with natural brain functioning. Mind Maps are an effective and creative way to help teachers design lesson plans, and they can make the process of teaching students a lot simpler.

Using Mind Mapping to Construct a Lesson Plan

At minimum, a good lesson plan usually contains six key components. The first component is the key concept of the lesson, namely, what the teacher wants the students to learn about the topic. The key concept should be represented in the center of the Mind Map. The second component of a good lesson plan is the objective, or the skill the teacher intends to teach, and which he or she wants the students to learn as a result of the lesson. For instance, the teacher’s objective may be to teach students the letters of the alphabet, resulting in the students being able to recite the alphabet from memory. The main topic should be connected to the key concept via a “branch”. If the teacher has more than one topic, he or she can list them on multiple “branches”. The third component of the lesson plan is the pre-planning materials. The pre-planning materials are any materials that must be prepared in preparation of teaching the lesson. The pre-planning materials component should be attached to the topic(s) via a “child branch”. The fourth component is the student materials, or the materials the children need to successfully complete the lesson. The student materials component should also be attached to the objective(s) via a “child branch”. Though attached to the same topic(s), the pre-planning materials and student materials components should be shown in separate areas of the Mind Map, on either side of the topic(s), with the specific materials to be used flowing out of them via new “child branches” or “twigs”. Fifthly is the procedure component. The procedure component lists the steps a teacher intends to take when teaching the lesson, including sample questions. As with the previous two components, this component should also be attached to the objective(s) via a “child branch”. The “child branch” should extend below the main topic, off to the side, and have the steps of the procedure attached to it via “child branches” or “twigs”. The last component of a successful lesson plan is the closure, or the summary of the lesson to the students.¹ On the Mind Map, this component should be attached to the key concept via a “branch” located below the key concept. The attached Mind Map diagram shows an example of a teacher lesson plan “mapped out” in the manner described.

Teaching the Lesson From the Mind Map

Once the Mind Map outlining the lesson plan is completed, the teacher can easily see all of the components for his or her lesson “mapped out”, with colors, visuals, and picture associations included. This mentally and visually stimulating representation of his or her lesson plan makes it simple for him or her to interpret, process and internalize the lesson. Therefore, the teacher will have more thoroughly learned the lesson, and can more naturally impart the lesson to the students.

1. Source: www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/fieldexperiences/pdfs/lessonplanhunter.pdf

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