Thinking maps for developing student understanding: a teacher's guide to adopting visual tools in the classroom.
Main, P (2021, August 31). Thinking Maps for Deeper Learning. Retrieved from https://www.structural-learning.com/post/thinking-maps-for-deeper-learning
Thinking maps are visual representations of knowledge. They enable students to think their way through new information and process ideas. They use enables students to engage in the complex thinking required for academic tasks. Creative and critical thinking can be scaffolded by utilising these learning tools. Often called graphic organisers, they promote student achievement by guiding thinking processes in different ways.
Their adoption enables students to tackle the abstract ideas they encounter in the curriculum. Thinking Maps can be used across each grade and content area to construct the problem-solving, comprehension, critical thinking, and communication skills needed for success in every academic domain. This article provides an overview of thinking maps, including how they work, what they look like, and why they should be adopted into your teaching practice. It also outlines some examples of how you could use them in your classroom.
As well as being useful for developing higher-order thinking skills, visual tools offer classrooms an engaging knowledge-acquisition tool. The spatial organisation enable students to engage in fluid reasoning as they explain their thinking.
This pedagogy becomes a gateway for enabling students to understand abstract concepts. The implications for this in education are far and wide, they offer us an approach that makes learning inclusive but also enables us to stretch the more able.
Thinking maps provide a framework of creative thinking to explore topics. They allow for higher-order thinking, critical and creative. Thinking maps help students to make connections between concepts, ideas, values and understandings. These tools offer the opportunity for students to learn through exploration, collaboration and create original solutions to multifaceted questions.
Thinking maps can also be used to teach advanced science concepts such as scientific reasoning. Scientific reasoning involves the use of data, observations, hypotheses and experiments to explain how certain ideas are connected. Thinking maps can help students identify patterns and relationships between data points, providing a visual tool to understand the scientific process. With thinking maps, students can quickly recognize connections between ideas and support their hypotheses with evidence.
Thinking maps can also be used to teach abstract concepts such as ethics, philosophy and morality. With the use of thinking maps, students are able to better understand why certain decision are made and can learn to think critically about situations. Thinking maps allow students to look beyond surface-level observations and see patterns in underlying principles. This helps them not only in understanding complex topics but also in discovering their own perspectives on them.
Thinking Maps are described and illustrated by maps and taught as a common visual language for learning and thinking across entire learning communities. Their adoption is associated with promoting critical thinking skills among students. When used systematically, they promote the cognitive thinking processes needed for unpicking abstract ideas. By correctly using and identifying Thinking Maps, educators can construct consistent, concise, and clear higher-order- thinking patterns for their classrooms. Thinking Maps are used as a visual tools language that demonstrates equity in terms of accessibility to higher-order thinking tools for each learner in their journey of lifelong learning.
Thinking Maps are visual representations of ideas. They're used to understand complex concepts and relationships between ideas.They're great at helping us learn because they allow us to explore our thoughts and feelings through pictures instead of words. Think of them as a map that shows where we've been and where we're going.
When we use Thinking Maps, we become aware of our own assumptions and biases. We notice patterns and connections that may not be obvious otherwise. We're able to identify blind spots and areas in need of improvement. And most importantly, when we use Thinking Maps, it helps us better understand ourselves and others.
And the best part is, there's no right or wrong answer. Think of it this way -- if you were asked to draw a picture of yourself, would you show everything about you, or just some things? The same goes for Thinking Maps.
If you're interested in learning more about the different types of thinking processes and how these can be scaffolded into every day classroom practice then the resources outlined below will help your students turn abstract concepts into concrete ideas.
Thinking maps are classified into eight different types. Each type of thinking map relates a fundamental cognitive skill with the visual representation.
Our school members have been successfully implementing the language of thinking over the last 12 months. Our growing repository of common thinking models enables classroom teachers to scaffold all types of thinking processes. We believe that many students' successes are down to how well a particular individual has organised their thoughts. Developing a concrete idea requires a lot of focus, and thinking maps enable students to zero in on important ideas and connections. Abstract concepts can sometimes act as a barrier to developing background knowledge. Using a visual depiction of a body of knowledge can help develop the conceptual understanding needed for deeper learning.
The thinking map acts as a common language for learning which means students don't need to be too dependent on oral skills. Our repository of visual tools provides classrooms with a spectrum of resources that can be used to tackle the most complex ideas. Taking the thinking process outside the child's head and into a cooperative learning dynamic enables the educator to get the inside picture of the student's mind.
When working in pairs, we bring the social learning theory into action as well. The concept map can now act as a prompt for discussion. The central ideas can be talked through and expanded upon through rich classroom discussions.
Choosing an appropriate graphic organiser has now become even easier. Within our library of visual tools, educators need to decide what type of knowledge they are trying to build. The search functionality is built around key questions, for example, 'what happened?'. A 'what happened' question corresponds to building a visual representation of a chronological event(s). If a question starts with 'why did...?', this corresponds to causal analysis, i.e. what was the effect and the overall cause. Adopting a consistent language about using thinking maps enables children to make decisions about their learning.
Over time, pupils can begin to choose the right tool for the job. This enables school communities to build understanding systematically and independently. Creating graphic organisers can be a time-consuming task, and we hope that our pre-built visual tools can increase teacher capacity in the classroom by enabling them to focus on instruction.
If this article has got you thinking about utilising visual tools and higher-order thinking skills across your school, please get in touch. We run a course that enables teachers to utilise thinking maps in a range of different situations. This professional development can also be expanded upon with a guided action research project. These have become very popular for teachers as they allow school communities to assess the impact of their interventions.
Your curriculum content can be brought to life with a straightforward visual tool. We have various different scales and observation frameworks to enable your colleagues to measure the efficacy of these strategies.
Would you please get in touch if you are interested in running a professional learning enquiry project.
After the above discussion, it can be said that Thinking Maps provide a great tool to demonstrate relationships between individual ideas, to show hierarchy, and to see the “big picture” in a flash. These aspects also make thinking maps ideal for presenting information to others, creating knowledge pools and solving complex problems.
As we have seen, Thinking Maps can be used to promote various levels of thinking. They have also become instrumental in supporting literacy development, particularly in primary schools. Here's how they can be integrated across different subject areas to enhance literacy:
Thinking Maps are more than just visual aids; they are catalysts for cognitive processing, fostering higher-level thinking skills that are essential for the synthesis of knowledge and creative solutions.
Key Insights and Facts:
In conclusion, Thinking Maps are not confined to promoting literacy in isolation but can be seamlessly integrated into the curriculum design, fostering a wide range of thinking skills.
They move beyond Benjamin Bloom's Lower-Order Thinking Skills, engaging students in a dynamic learning process that prepares them for an increasingly complex world. Another source further emphasizes the effectiveness of Thinking Maps in enhancing literacy development.
There are many books dedicated to this subject, but we feel the one that does this topic the most justice are the original texts by David Hyerle. In his book 'Visual tools for constructing knowledge', David Hyerle outlines a visual language that has held the test of time. As well as providing a compelling justification for their use, he also expands upon the different types of graphics and how they can be used to enhance conceptual understanding.
My version of the book, which dates back to 1996, is starting to look a little dated, and the colouring has started to fade. However, the content and principles are as sharp as ever. Think maps are particularly helpful when you're trying to understand a complex issue or process. For example, when your class are working on an essay plan, you may use a thinking map to help you organize your thoughts and plan your steps.
Here are five key studies on the efficacy of using graphic organizers and thinking maps to help learning:
Thinking maps are visual representations of knowledge. They enable students to think their way through new information and process ideas. They use enables students to engage in the complex thinking required for academic tasks. Creative and critical thinking can be scaffolded by utilising these learning tools. Often called graphic organisers, they promote student achievement by guiding thinking processes in different ways.
Their adoption enables students to tackle the abstract ideas they encounter in the curriculum. Thinking Maps can be used across each grade and content area to construct the problem-solving, comprehension, critical thinking, and communication skills needed for success in every academic domain. This article provides an overview of thinking maps, including how they work, what they look like, and why they should be adopted into your teaching practice. It also outlines some examples of how you could use them in your classroom.
As well as being useful for developing higher-order thinking skills, visual tools offer classrooms an engaging knowledge-acquisition tool. The spatial organisation enable students to engage in fluid reasoning as they explain their thinking.
This pedagogy becomes a gateway for enabling students to understand abstract concepts. The implications for this in education are far and wide, they offer us an approach that makes learning inclusive but also enables us to stretch the more able.
Thinking maps provide a framework of creative thinking to explore topics. They allow for higher-order thinking, critical and creative. Thinking maps help students to make connections between concepts, ideas, values and understandings. These tools offer the opportunity for students to learn through exploration, collaboration and create original solutions to multifaceted questions.
Thinking maps can also be used to teach advanced science concepts such as scientific reasoning. Scientific reasoning involves the use of data, observations, hypotheses and experiments to explain how certain ideas are connected. Thinking maps can help students identify patterns and relationships between data points, providing a visual tool to understand the scientific process. With thinking maps, students can quickly recognize connections between ideas and support their hypotheses with evidence.
Thinking maps can also be used to teach abstract concepts such as ethics, philosophy and morality. With the use of thinking maps, students are able to better understand why certain decision are made and can learn to think critically about situations. Thinking maps allow students to look beyond surface-level observations and see patterns in underlying principles. This helps them not only in understanding complex topics but also in discovering their own perspectives on them.
Thinking Maps are described and illustrated by maps and taught as a common visual language for learning and thinking across entire learning communities. Their adoption is associated with promoting critical thinking skills among students. When used systematically, they promote the cognitive thinking processes needed for unpicking abstract ideas. By correctly using and identifying Thinking Maps, educators can construct consistent, concise, and clear higher-order- thinking patterns for their classrooms. Thinking Maps are used as a visual tools language that demonstrates equity in terms of accessibility to higher-order thinking tools for each learner in their journey of lifelong learning.
Thinking Maps are visual representations of ideas. They're used to understand complex concepts and relationships between ideas.They're great at helping us learn because they allow us to explore our thoughts and feelings through pictures instead of words. Think of them as a map that shows where we've been and where we're going.
When we use Thinking Maps, we become aware of our own assumptions and biases. We notice patterns and connections that may not be obvious otherwise. We're able to identify blind spots and areas in need of improvement. And most importantly, when we use Thinking Maps, it helps us better understand ourselves and others.
And the best part is, there's no right or wrong answer. Think of it this way -- if you were asked to draw a picture of yourself, would you show everything about you, or just some things? The same goes for Thinking Maps.
If you're interested in learning more about the different types of thinking processes and how these can be scaffolded into every day classroom practice then the resources outlined below will help your students turn abstract concepts into concrete ideas.
Thinking maps are classified into eight different types. Each type of thinking map relates a fundamental cognitive skill with the visual representation.
Our school members have been successfully implementing the language of thinking over the last 12 months. Our growing repository of common thinking models enables classroom teachers to scaffold all types of thinking processes. We believe that many students' successes are down to how well a particular individual has organised their thoughts. Developing a concrete idea requires a lot of focus, and thinking maps enable students to zero in on important ideas and connections. Abstract concepts can sometimes act as a barrier to developing background knowledge. Using a visual depiction of a body of knowledge can help develop the conceptual understanding needed for deeper learning.
The thinking map acts as a common language for learning which means students don't need to be too dependent on oral skills. Our repository of visual tools provides classrooms with a spectrum of resources that can be used to tackle the most complex ideas. Taking the thinking process outside the child's head and into a cooperative learning dynamic enables the educator to get the inside picture of the student's mind.
When working in pairs, we bring the social learning theory into action as well. The concept map can now act as a prompt for discussion. The central ideas can be talked through and expanded upon through rich classroom discussions.
Choosing an appropriate graphic organiser has now become even easier. Within our library of visual tools, educators need to decide what type of knowledge they are trying to build. The search functionality is built around key questions, for example, 'what happened?'. A 'what happened' question corresponds to building a visual representation of a chronological event(s). If a question starts with 'why did...?', this corresponds to causal analysis, i.e. what was the effect and the overall cause. Adopting a consistent language about using thinking maps enables children to make decisions about their learning.
Over time, pupils can begin to choose the right tool for the job. This enables school communities to build understanding systematically and independently. Creating graphic organisers can be a time-consuming task, and we hope that our pre-built visual tools can increase teacher capacity in the classroom by enabling them to focus on instruction.
If this article has got you thinking about utilising visual tools and higher-order thinking skills across your school, please get in touch. We run a course that enables teachers to utilise thinking maps in a range of different situations. This professional development can also be expanded upon with a guided action research project. These have become very popular for teachers as they allow school communities to assess the impact of their interventions.
Your curriculum content can be brought to life with a straightforward visual tool. We have various different scales and observation frameworks to enable your colleagues to measure the efficacy of these strategies.
Would you please get in touch if you are interested in running a professional learning enquiry project.
After the above discussion, it can be said that Thinking Maps provide a great tool to demonstrate relationships between individual ideas, to show hierarchy, and to see the “big picture” in a flash. These aspects also make thinking maps ideal for presenting information to others, creating knowledge pools and solving complex problems.
As we have seen, Thinking Maps can be used to promote various levels of thinking. They have also become instrumental in supporting literacy development, particularly in primary schools. Here's how they can be integrated across different subject areas to enhance literacy:
Thinking Maps are more than just visual aids; they are catalysts for cognitive processing, fostering higher-level thinking skills that are essential for the synthesis of knowledge and creative solutions.
Key Insights and Facts:
In conclusion, Thinking Maps are not confined to promoting literacy in isolation but can be seamlessly integrated into the curriculum design, fostering a wide range of thinking skills.
They move beyond Benjamin Bloom's Lower-Order Thinking Skills, engaging students in a dynamic learning process that prepares them for an increasingly complex world. Another source further emphasizes the effectiveness of Thinking Maps in enhancing literacy development.
There are many books dedicated to this subject, but we feel the one that does this topic the most justice are the original texts by David Hyerle. In his book 'Visual tools for constructing knowledge', David Hyerle outlines a visual language that has held the test of time. As well as providing a compelling justification for their use, he also expands upon the different types of graphics and how they can be used to enhance conceptual understanding.
My version of the book, which dates back to 1996, is starting to look a little dated, and the colouring has started to fade. However, the content and principles are as sharp as ever. Think maps are particularly helpful when you're trying to understand a complex issue or process. For example, when your class are working on an essay plan, you may use a thinking map to help you organize your thoughts and plan your steps.
Here are five key studies on the efficacy of using graphic organizers and thinking maps to help learning:
