Tony Buzan: Mind mapping - mental literacy
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| Tony Buzan, The Times, April 17 2019, p.57 |
There are a great many diagrammatic reasoning and argumentation tools available in various forms, paper concept maps and a variety of software. As noted previously on W2tQ ever since watching Tony Buzan's Use Your Head programmes on BBC TV in the 1970s I have been fascinated by the use of drawings to represent a situation, problem and solutions. I was primed to be hooked by Hodges' model in 1987-1988.
I've been sitting on this obituary for over a year. It was sad to hear of Mr Buzan's death and still quite young by today's standards at 76 years. I never managed to make contact with Mr Buzan, although I'm sure I tried, the inevitable email - undoubtedly well-lost.
Now, letting revisions 'relax' [the draft SDGs, public health and Hodges' model resubmission(?)] I'm looking at Drupal (again) and papers that address fundamental questions about h2cm; the axes, care domains.
As an influence I've an old pb copy of Use Your Head and a recently acquired hb copy of The Mind Map Book published by the BBC.
Some of the points of interest to me include:
BULL, B.L. and WITTROCK, M.C. (1973), IMAGERY IN THE LEARNING OF VERBAL DEFINITIONS. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 43: 289-293. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8279.1973.tb02269.x
Bull and Wittrock's study was on 9-10 year olds (p.84). I've often wondered about the age at which Hodges' model could be taught. I'm sure there are other, 'current' sources but this is a start.
There is a refreshing cultural contrast between the three Eastern basic instructions:
'obey, 'cooperate' and 'diverge'.
While the mind mapping equivalents are the three A's:
'ACCEPT', 'APPLY' and 'ADAPT'. pp.92-93.
If "drawing boundaries on a Mind Map has obvious mnemonic advantages;" is this, to some degree, what the care (knowledge) domains of Hodges' model also achieve? p.103 (and p.149).
Some chapters I can directly 'translate', e.g. -
Chapter 13 - Organising your own ideas -
- similarly Chapter 18 Self-Analysis
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| The Mind Map Book |
Chapter 19 Problem-Solving actually refers to interpersonal problem-solving using Mind Maps.
Chapter 19 might be extended to case formulation and especially so chapter 21 Family study and story-telling. I'm thinking of the way in health, whether physical or mental health context there is a narrative to told and listened to, acknowledged and acted upon.
Chapter 22 Thinking and Chapter 23 on Teaching, perhaps has a current analogue in Threshold Concepts and for the former Conceptual Spaces - both chapters stress learning.
The meaning of 'deep' and 'surface' learning has perhaps changed today, but deep being intrinsically motivated still stands - and could be related to the Socratic form of dialogue for engagement. p.228.
On pages 229-232 Mr Buzan demonstrated how people with special education needs can also utilise Mind Mapping. Hodges' model was created, very much with this population in mind, and in the Political domain.
'Mind Maps' ™ Acknowledged.
orcid.org/0000-0002-0192-8965
