Free Mapping in Educational Settings    

Description/benefits

Free mapping is a spontaneous activity that can be used by students and teachers to facilitate communication and/or brainstorm about a topic.  In free mapping, an individual, or a group, using paper and pencil, overhead projector, or dry-erase board, creates nodes (circled ideas) and links (lines showing relationships between these ideas) to capture both main ideas and details of extended thinking or ongoing discussion.  The first node is usually central to the overall work space and the map "grows" around this main idea.   Link types (e.g., "P" for “Part,” or "L" for “Leads To”), can be used to generate questions to guide the structure of the map or to switch perspectives when one is stuck during brainstorming.

Research Principles  

Visual representations, such as node-link mapping, facilitate communication and retention of information.  Research using this tool in educational settings indicates that free mapping:

1.      Facilitates recall of main ideas; especially for low GPA  students  (Holley et al., 1979).

2.      Helps students to recall texts and lectures better (Holley & Dansereau, 1984).

3.      Helps students brainstorm prior to writing outlines (McCagg & Dansereau, 1991).

4.      Helps students better organize their writing (Reynolds & Hart, 1990).

5.      Is preferred by students to traditional papers, especially for use in facilitating creativity (Czuchry & Dansereau,1996).

Implementation/uses    

Free mapping can be used in essentially any setting that provides the means to depict information visually to others.  It can be used as a teaching tool to indicate similarities/contrasts between different topic areas, and to visually link information that may have been previously disconnected in students’ thinking.  It can be used as a brainstorming technique, as a means of exploring personal issues or preparing for writing, presenting, and lecturing.  It can also be used to identify gaps in one’s thinking or to visually explore conceptual connections the learner is (or is not) making.

Limitations   

Although free mapping appears to offer many benefits, the use of link types may block or slow idea production in the early phases of brainstorming (e.g., see Czuchry & Dansereau, 1998).  However, the use of link types as queries (e.g., "what are some additional characteristics of ...") can be beneficial when idea generation stalls.

Links     

For further information on mapping techniques and/or arenas within which they are used, check out the free mapping in counseling settings, guide maps in counseling and academic settings, and monolingual and multilingual information maps.  The links below may also be of interest:

http://www.graphic.org/ Interesting information on a wide range of visual representation techniques of which free mapping is only one example.

http://ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/articles/ConceptMaps/ Interesting information on conceptual mapping and computer applications of hyper maps.

http://cmap.coginst.uwf.edu/info Novak’s conceptual maps are described here, which are similar to the TCU node-link mapping system, but for which there are not a standardized set of link types.  Link types serve to simplify and amplify the communicative value of maps.

Email     

For any questions you may have concerning this section on Free Maps, please 

contact M.Czuchry@tcu.edu.

References  

Blankenship, J., & Dansereau, D. F. (2000).  The effect of animated node-link displays on information recall. Journal of Experimental Education, 68(4), 293-308.

Czuchry, M., & Dansereau, D.  F.  (1996).  Node-link mapping as an alternative to traditional writing assignments in undergraduate psychology courses.  Teaching of Psychology, 23(2), 91-96.

Czuchry, M., & Dansereau, D. F.  (1998).  The generation and recall of personally-relevant information.  Journal of Experimental Education, 66(4), 293-315.

Czuchry, M., & Dansereau, D. F. (2003).  A Model of the Effects of Node-Link Mapping on Drug Abuse Counseling.  Addictive Behaviors., 28(3), 537-549.

Holley, C. D., Dansereau, D. F., McDonald, B. A., Garland, J. C., & Collins, K. W.  (1979). Evaluation of a hierarchical mapping technique as an aid to prose processing.  Contemporary Educational Psychology, 4, 227-237.

Holley, C. D., & Dansereau, D. F. (1984).  Spatial learning strategies.  New York: Academic Press.

McCagg, E. C., & Dansereau, D. F. (1991).  Relationship-guided search as a pre-communication technique.  Unpublished Manuscript.