Mind mapping skills research project

Bachelor of Business_Ab Initio

Title

ATHLONE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Mind mapping Skills Group Research Project

This project / assignment is submitted in part fulfilment of the Bachelor Business Ab Initio part, part of the Learning and Development in Higher subject in First year, at the Athlone Institute of Technology

Bachelor of Business_Ab Initio

Executive Summary

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In this project you will find in depth information on Mind mapping skills and Mind maps.

The aim of this project is to make people aware of Mind mapping technique and to help them to understand its advantages. Included also in this research topic is information on topics connected to Mind mapping such as, memory, our brain, concentration and learning difficulties.

We used both primary research and secondary research to conduct this project. In regard to our Primary research, information was gathered from a live Tony Buzan seminar on which he talked about Mind mapping and the benefits of Mind mapping. Our secondary information was conducted from various sources such as the internet, questionnaires and interviews.

During this project we as team were continuously learning and improving our knowledge on Mind mapping and how to make Mind maps on various software’s. We learned the principals involved in creating Mind maps and effective uses of Mind maps in education, Business and personal lives. We believe that Mind maps are a great way of learning and that they should be introduced in early school years to enhance and improve education and learning.

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Declaration of Authenticity

DECLARATION OF AUTHENTICITY We hereby declare that this submission is our own work and to the best of our knowledge it contains no plagiarised material. We declare that all material presented are our own work, or fully and specifically acknowledged wherever adapted from other sources.

This work contains no materials previously published or written by another person, nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other master’s degree, degree, diploma or certificate at any other educational institution, except where the acknowledgement is made in the work by means of the Harvard referencing system.

Any contribution made to this work by others, with whom we have worked with, is explicitly acknowledged in the acknowledgements page.

We understand that if at any time it is shown that we have significantly misrepresented material presented; any award to us on the basis of that material may be revoked.

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Dedication

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank

Lecturer of Learning and Development in Higher Education Typist, Proof Reader, Participants in Interviews Participants who completed questionnaires, The Librarian,

Our families for putting up with us

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Dedication

DEDICATION Dedicate to all students who have difficulties to learn new things and who wants to improve their memory.

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Glossary

GLOSSARY Encoding: Encoding is the reforming and rearranging of information in a way in which an individual is able to remember the information for themselves.

Radiant thinking The brain works in a non-linear way, often making connections to a central concept of idea seemingly at random. These thoughts “radiates” out from central concept in dozens of directions.

Methods to describe this kind of thinking can be grouped under the term “radiant thinking”.

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Abbreviations

ABBREVIATIONS BOA Basic Order of Ideas BAM Branching Association Machine LDHE Learning and Development in Higher Education

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Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................Page TITLE…………………….. ................................................................................................ i

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................ ii DECLARATION OF AUTHENTICITY .......................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv DEDICATION .................................................................................................................... v GLOSSARY ...................................................................................................................... vi ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................................................... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................. viii TABLE OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... xi

1

INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1

How our brain works? .......................................................................................... 1

1.2

What is memory? ................................................................................................. 2

1.2.1 1.3

Three different types of memory .................................................................. 1

Learning Difficulties ............................................................................................ 2

1.3.1

Signs and Symptoms ..................................................................................... 2

1.3.2

Causes ........................................................................................................... 3

1.3.3

Types of Learning Disorders ........................................................................ 3

1.3.4

Dyslexia ........................................................................................................ 4

1.3.5

How to improve Dyslexia ............................................................................. 4

1.3.6

Mind mapping improves concentration ........................................................ 5

1.4

What is a Concentration? ..................................................................................... 6

1.4.1 1.5

Types of Concentration ................................................................................. 6

What is a Mind map? .......................................................................................... 7

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Table of Contents

1.5.1

Why the colours are so important? ............................................................... 8

1.5.2

Mind mapping Principles .............................................................................. 9

2

LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................... 10

3

METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................... 11 3.1

Meetings ............................................................................................................. 11

3.2

Group Contact .................................................................................................... 11

3.3

Research topics ................................................................................................... 12

3.4

Interviews/Questionnaire ................................................................................... 12

3.5

Data analysis ...................................................................................................... 13

3.6

Software/Apps .................................................................................................... 13

4

DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................................................... 14

5

DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................... 16

6

CONCLUSIONS....................................................................................................... 18

7

RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................................................................... 19

8

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 20

9

APPENDICES .......................................................................................................... 22

10 QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN ................................................................................... 34 11 QUESTIONNAIRE RATIONALE .......................................................................... 35

12 SAMPLING/RE-CODING/VALIDITY ................................................................... 37 12.1 Sampling............................................................................................................. 37 12.2 Re-Coding .......................................................................................................... 38 12.3 Validity ............................................................................................................... 38

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Table of Contents

13 PILOT TESTING...................................................................................................... 39 14 INTERVIEWS .......................................................................................................... 34 15 FOCUS GROUPS RESEARCH ............................................................................... 35 16 OBSERVATION RESEARCH ................................................................................ 36 17 THINK OUTSIDE BOX........................................................................................... 37 18 EXTRA ..................................................................................................................... 42

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Table of Contents

TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 9 Figure 10 Figure 11

Mid Map ....................................................................................................... 2 Neuron .......................................................................................................... 2 Wordle of memory ....................................................................................... 2 Learning Disorders ...................................................................................... 3 Dyslexia Difficulties ..................................................................................... 5 Video ............................................................................................................. 7 Tony Buzan .................................................................................................. 7 Mind map of cortical skills ......................................................................... 8 Mind mapping Principles............................................................................ 9 MAPyourMINDway application ............................................................. 13 Sampling .................................................................................................... 37

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Learning and Development in Higher Education

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 HOW OUR BRAIN WORKS? As so many of you are already aware of, every animal imaginable from

Please note:

mammals, birds and reptiles to fish and amphibians have a brain. As the

The use of colours throughout this project is relative to the project topic.

Further explained in chapter 1.5.1

amazing organ it is, it gives us power to speak, imagine and problem solve.

The brain is constantly operating and performs an incredible amount of tasks in everyday life that include the following: 

The brain controls body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and breathing.



It accepts a huge amount of information about the world around us from our various senses such as seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching.



It handles your physical movement when doing various activities such as walking, running, jumping, standing, talking or sitting.



The busy organ also allows you to think, dream and experience emotions.

The brain coordinates, controls and regulates all of the mentioned tasks above. Our brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves make up a highly complex, integrated information processing and control system that is called the Central Nervous System or CNS. All of the body's conscious and unconscious facets of life are regulated by the CNS. We are known to learn in three different ways: Visual , Auditory and Kinaesthetic which is by means of physically doing. People's brains learn in different ways however from our study we obtained that by using a various amount of colours in your writing it increases the amount of information retained and people associate different information with different colours.

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Learning and Development in Higher Education

Within the brain consists of many neurons that transfer messages around the body. A neuron can be closely compared to a mind map as both start with a main subject and branch out into less important sub headings as can be seen in the diagram below. This further heightens that how the brain operates is linked to the effective study technique Mind mapping Skills.

FIGURE 2

NEURON

FIGURE 1

MID MAP

The Mind Maps are the same shape as a neuron.

This is a neuron or in other words nerve cell.

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Source: Created by author using Connected Mind application.

1.2 WHAT IS MEMORY? FIGURE 3 WORDLE OF MEMORY

A memory is something we remember from a specific time in our life but our memory itself is a This is a word cloud of memory

human filing system of information which stores images, information, ideas and anything we want or need to remember and then allows us to restore or retain that information whenever we need it. Memory is an ability to do remember.

Source: Created by author using Toxedo website.

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Processes involved in the memory and remembering, Memory is a process, there are 3 processes involved in the memory and remembering.

Encoding Encoding involves changing and reforming information to a way in which each individual can remember the information for themselves. For example a large paragraph or article of information may be hard to read let alone remember. A Person may summarize the information, highlight the important bits and then place that information into a mind map or table format to remember it.

Storage When the information is successfully encoded and a person remembers it, it is stored in our memory for later use.

Retrieval Most of the time , information we are required to remember for later use lies outside our awareness , therefore the retrieval process allows the brain and memory to retain the information to our conscious awareness.

1.2.1 Three different types of memory There are three different types of memory: Sensory Memory The first type of memory involved in our memory process which is only a brief snapshot of our surroundings. Each memory only lasts about ½ - 1 second long for visual information and about 3 seconds long for auditory information. Some of the information from this sensory memory is passed into the next stage of our memory known as Shortterm memory.

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Short-term memory Short term memory is also known as active memory as it provides the information we are currently thinking about. Short term memory id generated from sensory memories. It can also be referred to as conscious memory. Most Memories last only about 20-30 seconds. Although short term memories don't last that long, by continuously attending to them will help progress short term memories into the next stage known as long term memories.

Long term memory Refers to the information in which we have learned previously, no matter how long ago, that we can retain and remember when needed. Long term memory allows us to access information which we are not consciously aware of at the time. These type of memories can be either hard or easy to access depending on how well you remember and how long ago that memory is.

1.3 LEARNING DIFFICULTIES Learning difficulties is defined as difficulty experienced in reaching the average standard of people of the same age group as regards intellectual and cognitive skills, and performance.

A learning difficulty is not a problem regarding a person's motivation to learn or their intelligence, the majority of people with learning disabilities are just as smart as everyone else. Their brains are the same, just wired differently.

1.3.1 Signs and Symptoms



Problems Reading/Pronouncing words



Difficulty Spelling



Difficulty handwriting or putting ideas on paper.



Difficulty note-taking



Issues finding the right words to use in a sentence.

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1.3.2

Learning and Development in Higher Education

Causes

Heredity - Learning difficulties often run in families and inherited from parents or relatives with similar difficulties.

Problems during Pregnancy - Oxygen deprivation, also known as asphyxia, can have serious consequences regarding a baby's development in the womb and outside the womb causing infant brain damage. Illness, injury or exposures to drugs/alcohol are other issues affecting a baby's developing brain.

Other causes - Head injuries, Malnutrition at a young age, toxic exposure to chemicals such as pesticides or heavy metals.

1.3.3 Types of Learning Disorders FIGURE 4

LEARNING DISORDERS

Reading

Dyslexia Mathematics

Dyscalculia

Types of the learning disorders

Writing

Dysgraphia Source: Created by author using Microsoft Word Smart Art

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1.3.4

Learning and Development in Higher Education

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is associated with trouble reading. Some doctors, specialists and may refer to it as a “reading disorder” or a “reading disability.” But it can also affect people's writing, spelling and even when speaking. These signs of the difficulty tend to be first noticed by teachers in their schools. Dyslexia is diagnosed through a number of tests of spelling, visual, memory and reading skills. Dyslexia is the most common learning disorder in the world affecting 3-7% of the population.

1.3.5

How to improve Dyslexia

Adjusting the way people are taught to meet their needs can be effective, while not curing the issue the symptoms will decrease over time.

For many years, people who have dyslexia have found Mind mapping to be a simple and highly effective way to help improve aspects of their everyday lives. In this article we will look at the reasons behind this and how you can use Mind mapping to help with dyslexia – how you learn, view and organise information.

Mind maps are visual maps of connecting thoughts, which span out in a radial way from one central idea. A Mind map uses only keywords to prompt memory and association, and encourages the use of colour and imagery. They can provide dyslexic people with a better way to organise and assimilate information. People all around the world use Mind maps for: 

Planning – From projects to essays



Organising – From shopping lists to daily to-do plans



Note Taking – From lecture notes to just capturing the next big idea you have



Studying – Mind maps can be reviewed as a way to prepare for exams

Mind mapping helps with dyslexia as it makes use of images, colour, shape, size and symbols to map out information in a way that is easier to comprehend.

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In the image below we show a comparison between plain text and a Mind map, and it’s clear to any learner that a Mind map is far easier to read and understand.

1.3.6

Mind mapping improves concentration

Many dyslexic people can become distracted when trying to get ideas down on the page.

However, when you draw a Mind map you are constantly seeing what you have already done, whilst working on a new idea. This decreases the possibility of losing your train of thought as you are automatically reviewing the rest of your Map.

FIGURE 5

DYSLEXIA DIFFICULTIES

The Mind Map explains learning difficulties

Source: Created by author using Mind Mup application

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1.4 WHAT IS A CONCENTRATION? Concentration is the act of focusing all one's attention with one's will. It is the ability to focus one’s mind on a particular view or subject without becoming distracted.

During concentration the mind becomes totally focused on one piece of information in order to process it better. Concentration is a skill that can be improved with regular practice.

Concentration is important for a number of reasons. It is crucial in improving memory and one's ability to study as well as making it easier to multitask.

1.4.1

Types of Concentration

There are four types of concentration, these are: Scanning, Zooming, Thoughts and Feeling 

Scanning - Is a visual type of concentration in which one becomes aware of their entire surroundings.



Zooming - Is also a visual type of concentration which focuses more on smaller details.



Thoughts - An inner type of concentration which we use every day. e.g.

Motives, Memories and Actions



Feeling - Also known as emotions, it is the way people feel. e.g. Happiness, Sadness, Anger

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1.5

WHAT IS A MIND MAP?

FIGURE 6 VIDEO

Video introduction to Mind Mapping technique.

Source: Created by author using Powtoon software.

A Mind map is a note-taking tool or thinking and intelligence tool. The tool works in the same principal as countries’ map-represents the area, showing physical features such as cities, roads, or buildings. In the other words, mind map represents the main human FIGURE 7

TONY BUZAN

ideas, showing the connections and associations between.

Inventor of Mind

Mind mapping is based on radiant

Mapping

thinking which reflects the internal

technique

structure and process of the human. T. Buzan describes radiant thinking as a Branching Association Machine, (BAM), Source: Twitter.com

(Tony Buzan, 1993). This machine describes the mind as always radiating

from a central image. Every image has a never ending chain of branching patterns or images away from this central image. As a result, “the Mind map is your external mirror of your own Radiant thinking and allows you access into this vast thinking powerhouse”, (Tony Buzan, 1993).

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FIGURE 8

MIND MAP OF CORTICAL SKILLS

This is a Mind Map of Cortical Skills

Source: Created by author using Connected Mind Application.

The Mind mapping use a full range of the cortical skills: words, numbers, lines, lists, logic, analysis, rhythm, colour, shapes, maps, imagination, daydreaming in a uniquely powerful manner. By using all the cortical skills, the Mind maps represent the external mirror of the human ideas.

1.5.1 Why the colours are so important?

Colours help to 

prioritise (make to stand out the most important)



associate (makes connections, no connections-no understanding, if you make a wrong connections you might get the wrong association)



discriminate (separate things out)



recognize (identifies)



stimulate (bright colors such as red, orange and yellow spark energy and creativity)



reduce stress (when you use colours it reduces stress level, green colour is known as calming colour))



enjoy (makes your boring notes amazing)

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1.5.2 Mind mapping Principles T. Buzan notes that “the more personal your Mind maps are, the easier you will remember them” (Buzan, 2006) , however, while making the personal Mind maps, the Mind map Law should be followed to maximise the Mind map efficiency. The Mind maps should be started with the central or main idea. The image must be used in the central idea as the images encourage the imagination. According T. Buzan, the branches have to be curved as it doesn’t allow your brain to be bored. It is also very important to place the key words on the branches. The power of the single words allows you to continue to branch out and connect to the other important ideas. The different colours should be used for the each branch going away from the central idea. When making a mind map, it is recommended to use not only colours but also the images which represent your topic or ideas. It will add the extra power to the mind map and will improve creative though process.

FIGURE 9

MIND MAPPING PRINCIPLES

Principles of creating a Mind Map

Source: Created by author using Connected Mind Application.

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2 LITERATURE REVIEW The aim of the literature review is to find the Mind mapping benefits and analyse the factors which are being influenced by the Mind mapping. T. Buzan states that the Mind mapping technique uses both, left and right, sides of brain. What is actually meant by saying both sides of brain?

In the 1950s and 1960 Professor Roger Sperry (Sperry, 1981)and his team performed some experiments on the cerebral cortex. As a result of experiment, “the right hemisphere appeared to be dominant in the following intellectual areas: rhythm, spatial awareness, gestalt (wholeness), imagination, daydreaming, colour and dimension. The Left hemisphere appeared to be dominant in a different, but equally powerful range of mental skills: words, logic, numbers, sequence, linearity, analysis and lists”, (Tony Buzan, 1993). The Mind mapping technique uses all of these cortical skills and allows the human to “unleash the mind.”(T. Buzan).

The influence of creativity and innovation research was carried out by the professors in the Rochester Institute of Technology, NY. The study took 2 years and up to 160 students were targeted for this research. As a result, the research showed the Mind mapping is highly effective learning tool.

The survey’s results have shown: “A clearer understanding of relationships and facts.

Better notes.

Easier studying.

Ability to reach across varying cultures and learning abilities.

Beneficial to all students regardless of their academic standing or year.

May result in increased retention of first year students by providing students with organizational and classroom skills that promote academic success. “ (Betsy Dell, n.d.)

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3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 MEETINGS The first thing we did as a group was organise a group meeting to discuss and plan our research topic “Mind mapping skills” . We gathered in a group study room in the library and took a proper look at the research topic and got to terms with what we exactly had to do and what exactly our topic was about. We felt that to present this to our class and to make them aware of “Mind mapping skills”, that we had to fully understand what it was ourselves. We assigned different tasks to each person in our group and we also created an agenda for each meeting and the Secretary of our team recorded minutes of each meeting also. We had approximately 2 meetings a week to catch up on the team progress and share any problems or ideas that may had arisen.

3.2 GROUP CONTACT To keep in contact with each other on our team, we created a number of communications pages. First of all we created a Facebook group chat to keep in contact about LDHE classes and meetings. We then created a conferencing call group on google hangouts for when we go home at weekends so that we can still work on our project. Just as a back-up we also created a live contact list with our emails and phone numbers on google drive.

We also made numerous Folders on google drive for our project under the heading of LDHE research topics Mind mapping skills in this folder we had various other folders such as research, meetings, to do lists and backups. The purpose of this live drive was so that each team member was able to share their research and progression and be able to receive help from other team member's.

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3.3 RESEARCH TOPICS For our research we used many different methods of research using both primary and secondary sources of information. The most common source of information used was the Internet which was used to research all about Mind mapping skills and also about out memory and how our brain affects our memory. Each member of our team was assigned a different research topic. The topics we researched were: what is Mind mapping? What is memory? , How our brain works? , Concentration skills and finally Learning Difficulties. The most useful source of information that we received was from a Tony Buzan seminar which was attended by one of our team members. His lecture was based all on Mind mapping and it was a great help to our project. We also learned a lot from his books which we got online from the college library and also hard copies in the college library.

3.4 INTERVIEWS/QUESTIONNAIRE In one of our group meetings we discussed possible people to interview. We came up with people who would be some way relevant to our research topic. We suggested maybe someone who works with people who have lost their memory or have difficulty remembering such as a care assistant. We also suggested someone who may have learning difficulties and maybe a lecturer or professional in psychology. We also thought it may be a good idea to interview just a random person or student. We finally decided on two students with a learning difficulties and a lecturer in business.

In regards to the questionnaire, we all sat down together to create it and we all contributed to selecting the appropriate questions for it. We created the questionnaire on google forms and we decided to do something different than the rest of our class. Instead of sharing it through emails to our own class or printing them out to hand them out to random people , we all decided to share it on our own facebook page and kindly asked our friends and family to do the questionnaire.

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3.5 DATA ANALYSIS We analysed the data and information we received from the questionnaire and interviews , and interpreted the results into Mind maps and smart arts.

3.6 SOFTWARE/APPS To get our research and information out there clearly we used a number of different softwares and apps to create colourful Mind maps and charts to present to our class. Also as part of our research project, we created a mobile application. The aim of the application is to give a quick introduction to Mind mapping technique. We will explain further details in a chapter 17.

FIGURE 10

MAPYOURMINDWAY APP

MAPyourMINDway mobile application was created to give a quick introduction to everyone who wants to have a basic knowledge about the Mind Mapping technique.

Source: Mobile app created by author using Snappy.Appy website

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4 DATA ANALYSIS

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Learning and Development in Higher Education

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Learning and Development in Higher Education

5 DISCUSSION Included in our project is both primary and secondary research. Our primary research was conducted from our interviews, questionnaires and a Tony Buzan seminar. Our questionnaire was designed on a study/learning bases. We designed questions which would inform us on how people learn and if colours help them learn and concentrate more easily.

The questionnaire allowed us to identify if Mind maps would be an effective study skill for those who has and hasn’t learning difficulties .The Interview with one of the lectures, also confirmed the fact, that not many individuals are aware about the Mind mapping techniques but that Mind maps would help people with learning difficulties to learn and remember. The Tony Buzan Seminar allowed us to learn exactly what a mind map was and the principals involved in Mind mapping. This allowed us to explain and teach other people and our class about Mind mapping and the benefits of Mind mapping.

Our secondary research was gathered from the internet, T. Buzan books and articles on Mind mapping. This method of research was used to research our individual topics which were connected to Mind maps such as memory and how our brain works.

T. Buzan stated that Mind mapping Technique can be used by everyone, not only by the artists or scientists. At the beginning of the seminar, which took place in Galway on 27

th

September, T. Buzan asked of 150 people who agree that all of us are artists which can create a Mind maps, nobody put their hands up, excluding T. Buzan. When he asked who agrees that all of us are scientist, nobody put their hands up either.

The little experiment was made and the audience had to draw a butterfly in 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes all the individuals showed their butterflies, one was nicer than another one .The audience proved that all of us are scientists and artists because everyone asked a question “Can I draw butterfly?”

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After that, a hypothesis of “I could draw a butterfly” was made. It was tested with an experiment “I will try to draw a butterfly”. Everyone get the final result- a butterfly and the conclusions were made afterwards “I like my butterfly but I need to improve that”. As a result of the experiment, T. Buzan proved that all of us are scientists and artists and that everyone can create a mind map.

Compare to the questionnaire results, the 31% of population disagreed and 30% was neutral when they were asked do they agree that all of us are scientists and artists. At this point, it can be understand that most of the individuals need a help to understand that they are actually scientists and artists from the day they born. It is the same with the Mind mapping technique. The results of the primary research show that the majority of individuals are using colours in their notes and strongly agrees that colourful notes help to concentrate. When the participants were asked who is more creative: Kindergarten or the Higher Education student, 79% believes that the Kindergarten is more creative. The population see the benefits of colours and tries to use them in their notes; however, a wider knowledge about Mind mapping is needed to actually understand how to combine the creativity and the colours together.

The Interview with one of the lectures, also confirmed the fact, that not many individuals are aware about the Mind mapping technique.

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6 CONCLUSIONS From this group assignment Mind Mapping Skills we learnt about: ● How our brain works and how it controls the body's temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and breathing without us even knowing. More detailed explanations can be found in chapter 1.1 

In chapter 1.2, we explained what a memory is and the 3 processes involved in the memory and remembering:

Encoding, Storage, Retrieval

And that there are three different types of memory: 1.

Sensory Memory

2.

Short-term memory

3.

Long term memory

Colour coded with words in chapter 1.2

● in chapter 1.3 we learnt about learning difficulties, signs and symptoms of them, causes of learning difficulties, types of learning disorders and went into further detail about Dyslexia one of the many learning difficulties. ● in chapter 1.4 we explained what a Concentration is and what are the types of concentration:

●

1.

Scanning

2.

Zooming

3.

Thoughts

4.

Feeling

Finally, in the chapter 1.5, we explained what the principles of making mind maps

are and why the colours are so important.

However, the most important thing from this group assignment is that we all know how the mind mapping technique works and how it could benefit us in the future.

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7 RECOMMENDATIONS As a result of researching our project on Mind mapping skills we learned a lot about the benefits of Mind maps and how to make an efficient mind map. Unfortunately we also learned that not many people were aware of Mind maps and the benefits of them. We learned this through our questionnaire and interviews with different people. Mind mapping is an effective note taking tool and we believe that it should be taught to young children in early school years. We would recommend to all our class mates, lectures and any other person who may have learning difficulties to use Mind maps to help them plan and remember their ideas.

From our questionnaire we gathered that 56% of people use 2-3 different colours while taking and recording notes but only 26% find it easier to concentrate while using notes of different colours. We advise people to use Mind maps to summarise notes instead of having big paragraphs of different coloured writing. This way people will be able to distinguish clearly between different sections of their notes while being able to use colours and images to help them remember.

From our research we believe mind maps are a good and effective way to plan ideas. We recommend that Mind maps should be used in everyday life in business, education and personal life. Mind maps are very easy and quick to do and may help you in the long run especially in business as they allow you to plan efficiently. Mind maps are also very effective for people with learning difficulties as they help us to remember which is why we believe Mind mapping skills should be taught at early stages in children’s life to make their learning and education better.

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8 REFERENCES Anon., 2015. http://www.human-memory.net. [Online] Available at: http://www.human-memory.net/intro_what.html [Accessed September 2015].

Anon., 2015. http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk. [Online] Available at: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/WhoAmI/FindOutMore/Yourbrain/Whyisyourmemor ysoimportant.aspx [Accessed September 2015].

Buzan, T., 1976. Use Both Sides of Your Brain. 1st ed. s.l.:E. P. Dutton & Co. New York.

Buzan, T., 2006. Mind mapping. China: BBC Active.

Buzan, T., 2011. www.tonybuzan.com. [Online] Available at: http://www.tonybuzan.com/about/mind-mapping/ [Accessed September 2015].

Cherry, K., 2015. www.psychology.about.com. [Online] Available at: http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/a/memory.htm [Accessed September/October 2015].

Freudenrich, C., 2014. http://science.howstuffworks.com. [Online] Available at: http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/humanbrain/brain.htm [Accessed October 2015].

Network, N. L., 2013. http://www.nln.ie. [Online] Available at: http://www.nln.ie/Community-Based-Rehab/Assessment-Service/SpecificLearning-Difficulties.aspx [Accessed September 2015].

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Sasson, R., 2013. http://www.successconsciousness.com. [Online] Available at: http://www.successconsciousness.com/what-is-concentration.html [Accessed September 2015].

Sperry, R. W., 1981. The Split Brain Experiments, s.l.: Roger W. Sperry.

Tony Buzan, B. B., 1993. The Mind map Book. 1st ed. s.l.:Educational Publishers.

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9 APPENDICES Appendix A

.............................................................Prezi

Appendix B

............................................................Facebook Group Chat

Appendix C

............................................................Tony Buzan Seminar

Appendix D

............................................................Interviews

Appendix E

.............................................................Data Analysis

Appendix F

.............................................................Research

Appendix G

.............................................................Questionnaire

Appendix H

.............................................................Data Analysis Charts

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Appendix A Prezi www.prezi.com we have created Prezi presentation which is a brief summary of the points we have been making. It is a fast and straightforward way of getting across what we have been saying for the duration of the project.

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Appendix B

Facebook Group Chat www.messenger.com we also set up a group chat on Facebook messenger which easily allowed us to communicate as a group, share ideas, links and photographs to everyone in the group. Each member installed this application onto their smartphone which ensured we could communicate while on the move.

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Appendix C Tony Buzan Seminar

On September 27th last, one of our group members attended a seminar on Mind mapping in the Harbour Hotel, Galway. Tony Buzan who invented and popularized the learning technique presented this seminar which greatly aided our understanding and knowledge of our project ‘Mind mapping Skills’.

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Appendix D Interviews We interviewed three people in order to gain a better insight to our project and a personal touch. We spoke to one of our lecturers and two individuals who have learning difficulties.

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Appendix E Data Analysis

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B46lqsNSgARnVlRPTkM2ZVBiVVk&usp=sh aring

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Appendix F Research

See full file of Brain Experiment Roger W. Sperry https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B46lqsNSgARnOGY2Slp5VUJSZXc /view?usp=sharing

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Appendix G Questionnaire

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Appendix H Questionnaire Graphs

More charts in chapter 4

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10 QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN

For full questionnaire see the chapter 9.

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11 QUESTIONNAIRE RATIONALE The Purpose of our questionnaire was to find out if people understand their own way of thinking and learning. It was also to find out if Mind maps would help people, especially people with learning difficulties to learn quicker and more easily.

Are you male or female? Please indicate your age of group.

We also asked the gender of each person who took part in the questionnaire to find out and compare the difference between the way in which males and females learn. We also used a demographic question to ask the age of participants by categorising the ages into groups. This was to find out how people of different ages learn and the difference between the methods people of different age groups use to learn.

Most of individuals are the visual learners.

First of all we wanted to know if most people were visual learners because mind maps help create visual images in our mind to help us learn and remember. If people are not visual learners mind maps may not be of any benefit to them as they have a different method of Learning. This question was a multiple choice Likert question with the answers Agree or disagree as we were only concerned about visual learners not any other learning styles.

What time of the day do you prefer to study? What environment do you prefer to study in? Do you prefer group learning or individual learning?

As people like to study at certain times of the day , be it morning noon or night , we wanted to know when the majority of people like to study , where they like to study and how they like to study. We asked this through various different types of questions such as open minded questions, multiple choice questions and categorized questions.

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Colourful notes help individuals to concentrate. What colour(s) are your notes?

We then moved on to design questions about mind maps to find out if many people were aware of mind maps and how much they knew about mind maps. We asked if people used colours when writing notes, if so how many different colours were their notes and if coloured notes helped them to concentrate more easily. Again we asked these questions through various types of questions.

The study process is boring. All individuals are scientists and artists. Everyone needs to exercise their brain. Many individuals have a problem to remember new things.

To find out people's views on different matters we asked them a few different agree and disagree questions as shown below: Technologies have an impact on your learning. Who distracts you the most while studying? What motivate you to study/learn new things? Have you ever heard about learning difficulties? Who is more creative: Kindergarten or Higher Education Students?

Included in our questionnaire was other general but relevant Questions such as what effects our study , what motivates us to study , what has an impact on our study what distracts us from our study and in regards to mind mapping we asked if people had ever heard about learning difficulties and who they taught were the most creative people.

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12 SAMPLING/RE-CODING/VALIDITY 12.1 SAMPLING The sampling process comprises several stages: 

Defining the population of concern



Specifying a sampling frame, a set of items or events possible to measure



Specifying a sampling method for selecting items or events from the frame



Determining the sample size



Implementing the sampling plan



Sampling and data collecting



Data which can be selected

In order to obtain as random a sample as possible we decided not to restrict ourselves by targeting a specific group of people. As a group we drew up a questionnaire and distributed these for response on the population of the social media network ‘’Facebook‘’ . This proved a successful sampling frame as we received a pleasing feedback of 60 individuals in the space of two days .People who undertook this questionnaire were selected at random ,unbiased and fairly.

FIGURE 11

SAMPLING

Our research sampling

Source: Created by author using Microsoft Word Smart Art.

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12.2 RE-CODING The questionnaire results were recoded using Microsoft Office Excel software. The data was transferred from the Google Docs sheet to the Microsoft Excel software and using the formula the final results was counted. The data was analysed using the Excel table and a charts taking into account only correct values.

12.3 VALIDITY Validity refers to the accuracy of the results of the questionnaire and the extent to which the questions were relevant to our research topic. We carried out our questionnaire on Facebook by sharing it with our friends and asking them to answer it. This way the data received was completely random and valid as it was answered by various different age groups and people with different learning abilities.

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13 PILOT TESTING 1. Are you male and female?

6. Do you prefer group learning or ●

Female

●

Male

individual learning?

2. Most of individuals are the

●

Individual

visual learners.

●

Group learning

7. Do you think your diet has an ●

Agree

●

Disagree

effect on the way you learn?

3. What time of the day do you

●

Yes

prefer to study?

●

No

If you answered yes, please explain ●

6am-9am

●

9am-12pm

●

12pm-3pm

8. Technology have an impact on

●

3pm-6pm

your learning.

●

6pm-9pm

●

9pm-12pm

●

Other (12pm-6am)

4. Please indicate your age group. ●

13-18

●

18-25

●

26-35

●

35-50

●

Over 50

how your diet affects you.

●

Agree

●

Disagree

●

Neutral

If you agree, how do you feel it affects your learning?

9. What motivates you to study/learn new things?

5. What environment do you prefer to study in?

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10. Who distracts you the most

14. All individuals are scientists

while studying?

and artists.

●

Mobile phone

●

Boyfriend/Girlfriend

●

Your pet

●

Other

11. What colour(s) are your notes?

●

Strongly agree

●

Agree

●

Neutral

●

Disagree

●

Strongly disagree

15. Everyone needs to exercise their brain.

●

Black

●

Red

●

Blue

●

Colourful-it has many colours

●

Two-three colours

16. Who is more creative:

●

Other

Kindergarten or Higher Education

12. Colourful notes helps individuals to concentrate.

●

●

Agree

●

Disagree

●

Neutral

Students? ●

Kindergarten

●

Higher Education Students

●

Strongly agree

●

Agree

17. Many individuals have a

●

Neutral

problem to remember new things.

●

Disagree

●

Agree

●

Strongly disagree

●

Disagree

13. Have you ever heard about

●

Neutral

difficulties?

18. The study process is boring.

Yes

●

Strongly agree

No

●

Agree

●

Neutral

●

Disagree

●

Strongly disagree

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14 INTERVIEWS The interviews were organised to support the research. We as a group interviewed 3 people. Two of the interviewees were students with a learning difficulties and one interviewee was a lecture of business studies. During these interviews our aim was to find out how useful Mind mapping is/could be, we got great answers from the interviewee’s in helping us find out what we want to know about the usefulness of Mind mapping as a study tool especially for people with dyslexia.

During the interview with Bernie she explained how she never used Mind mapping before but after seeing how Mind mapping would help her studying in the future. The Mind mapping technique will speed up the time it takes Bernie to study she feels.

The strong feeling coming from the interview with Keith and Bernie was that the Mind mapping learning tool is a great way for people with learning difficulties to effectively and make note taking easier as all you need is the key words to stimulate your mind on the particular information you want to learn.

In our interview with Linda she told us that the hardest thing for her while studying was making a start not knowing where to begin this is where Mind mapping is great as the centre piece of the map lets you know where to start and where to go from there.

Linda also told us that is was hard to remember the vast amount of information they were told every day and this is where Mind mapping breaks it down into more manageable keywords. Linda was not aware about Mind mapping prior to us sending her the questions the day before the interview and through her researching it she found it very good and would recommend it and also use it herself. She also said that it would be a great learning tool for everyone as a way of learning.

Both interviews were very helpful for us in learning about Mind mapping and its benefits to students. We got great responses about the learning technique and all parties will be using it as a way of learning in the future.

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15 FOCUS GROUPS RESEARCH Focus groups are a data collection method. Data is collected through a semi-structured group interview process. Focus groups are moderated by a group leader. Focus groups are generally used to collect data on a specific topic.

The research was done also concentrating on individuals who have Dyslexia. The two interviewees were different age. One person was age between 18 and 25, another 5065.The aim of this research was to find out from the primary research what is Dyslexia and does the individuals, who have a learning difficulties have ever heard about the Mind mapping before. One interviewee stated that they never heard about the Mind mapping, where another mentioned, that has a knowledge about the spider maps. The structure of the spider map is similar to Mind map, however, it is not the same as the spider maps are not created on the Mind mapping principles. At this stage, the conclusions can be made.

None of the interviewees heard before what exactly is a Mind map.

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16 OBSERVATION RESEARCH Over the course of carrying out the research for this project as a group we observed, we worked well as a team and ensured that all research that was to be completed was done in the time allocated in order to complete the different sections required. The excellent group co-operation we feel is due to the ground rules established at the commencement of this project. We set team rules, warnings and sanctions if any of these rules were breached and also established a conflict resolution plan in the event that there were disagreements or conflicting opinions.

From what we observed for the researching aspect of this project we used books by the author Tony Buzan who is the inventor of the technique Mind mapping. For example we gained information from his book ‘Use your head ‘. We also gained information from news articles on the internet. However to gain a strong insight to our project, a team member attended a seminar on Tony Buzan on how to Maximise Brainpower with Mind mapping. This gave us research directly from the source. We created many Mind maps covering aspects of personal life, business, education and Mind mapping Software.

Each member of the team had a strong interest in learning new software in order to produce a higher quality project. We also delegated tasks equally to the group members who individually completed particular sections of the project. This was certainly a strong point of the team as it efficiently comprised group and individual work to maximise our output and productivity.

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17 THINK OUTSIDE BOX 

Research Team Name –MAPyourMINDway



Research Team Logo Designed using www.logogarden.com/



Research Team Official Email –mapyourmindway@gmail.com



Facebook Page -MAPyourMINDway

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Conflict Resolution Process for Research Team

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B46lqsNSgARnck04ZDJCU25IdlE/view?usp=sharing 

Problem Solving Steps for Research Team

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B46lqsNSgARnck04ZDJCU25IdlE/view?usp=sharing

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

Consent Waiver



Excel database for data analysis and charts

Learning and Development in Higher Education

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B46lqsNSgARnS3FJU0lNWDcyclk/view?usp=sharing

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Learning and Development in Higher Education

Official Video of MAPyourMINDway

Designed using www.powtoon.com



Mind maps 13 Mind maps created using Mind Mup and Connected Mind applications.

Most of the Mind maps were created for the mobile app. https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B46lqsNSgARnUEY5UVRRaVdUMW8&usp= sharing

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

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Official Mobile application –MAPyourMINDway

Designed using http://snappy.appypie.com/app/creator-software.

Ctrl + click the image to see live mobile app video.

Videocreated using Lollipop Screen Recorder and VivaVideo Editor mobile apps.

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18 EXTRA

Mind Map Gallery

Source: Created by author using Flash Slide Maker software.

Cross-Referencing We used cross-referencing in our project to enhance our project text.

File Sharing/Linking to Google Drive We inserted public Google Drive links into our project, so any reader can access the related information easily.

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Video Tutorials We created 2 video tutorials with Camtasia Studio 8 Video Editing Software.

How to create image slide show How to add the image slide show into the Microsoft Word Document https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B46lqsNSgARnTTl6WEg5eGdTWHc&usp=sharin g Bookmarking The bookmarks were also used in the project to help the reader easier navigate through.

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