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Research into benefits of mind mapping for the young

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Research into benefits of mind mapping for the young

24 Jan 2011 11:04:54

Paul Gardner (mind mapping research)

A three-year research project into mind mapping involving lower school pupils has just been completed by the University of Bedfordshire.

The work of Paul Gardner, a Senior Lecturer in Education and Strand Leader (English), was funded by The Bedford Charity (Harpur Trust). He is continuing to analyse the data and is compiling a report which is being published this month.

It was carried out from January 2008 to December 2010 by the senior lecturer in the University’s Department of Primary Education based at the Bedford campus.

His research, based in ten lower schools in Bedford and the surrounding areas, focused on the impact of mind mapping on ‘reluctant writers’, and then if other developmental strategies would benefit these same youngsters.

A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualise, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying and organising information, solving problems, making decisions and writing.

Half a dozen reluctant writers were chosen from one class at each of the ten schools, plus two classes from one school, and there were twice as many boys as girls. The schools, all partner institutions of the University, included two with multi-ethnic intakes and some in rural locations.

Paul said: “I was attempting to find whether this technique actually helps reluctant writers develop their writing skills. We defined being a reluctant writer as any habitual barrier to a pupil either starting writing or developing their writing.

“I acted as lead researcher and the teachers effectively acted as my assistants to gather the information. I devised a pupil survey which proved popular, the research certainly generated interest among a large number of parents, and my feedback sessions with the teachers also proved to be a useful model for their own CPD (Continuing Professional Development).”

His initial key findings are:

  • Mind mapping is a useful technique for organising ideas among more experienced writers. But on children in the younger groups of Years One and Two (five to seven year olds), mind mapping is not a quick and easy panacea. Teachers found it was extremely time consuming for the children to master the technique and even then, it led to only modest improvements in writing for most pupils.
  • Prior to the research, there was no real definition of a reluctant writer. The research found that children exhibit a variety of different behaviours and there is no one single cause of reluctant behaviours in writers.
  • Although these children were reluctant writers, 95 per cent wrote at home, with or without parental support.
  • Pupils made most progress when mind maps were used in conjunction with other visual stimuli such as film and story mapping.
Bedfordshire University

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