Acquiring new knowledge is heavily dependent on the quality of teaching. The teacher's role is to establish a learning process in a way that allows students to achieve learning goals independently and holistically. That makes his decision on how to lead a class so much more important.
One of the tools for teaching students in class is mind mapping. For pupils, this can be an interesting and motivational way of learning and it is a natural way of taking notes since our brain works on similar network principles. The network record makes the long list of monotonous information a colorful, organized and easy-to-remember record that works for our brains. By creating a mind map, we strengthen our memory and creativity, as well as our tendency to improve, because notes in the form of rays allow us a continuous addition and updating. In contrast to one-way texts, mind maps not only show facts, but also the relationships between them, allowing for a deeper understanding of matter.
Through our action research, we used mind maps as a tool to increase pupils' knowledge of the industry in their local region. Mind maps served us as a way to connect old and new knowledge and make new connections in our brains. We focused on holistic learning and gave great importance to education for sustainable development, as it involves interrelated issues that relate to the economy, environment, and people. Action research took two steps. The purpose of the first action step was to create a mind map about the industry in the home province whereby students were acquiring knowledge through various activities and were getting used to integrating knowledge. The purpose of the second action step was to create a mind map independently where students showed their knowledge of writing mind maps, as well as the acquired knowledge and linking knowledge with each other.
In our research, we tried to discover problems and advancements regarding the rules and structure of mind maps. In addition, we evaluated knowledge gained using mind maps and how well the pupils connected new information with the already existing knowledge. We obtained the results of the research based on an analysis of all the mind maps that the students created. The mind maps were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively then. We analyzed three mind maps from each student – a mind map of foreknowledge, a guided mind map and a knowledge assessment mind map. We compared the mind maps with each other. Qualitative analysis identified the extent and correlation of knowledge, while quantitative analysis focused on the number of keywords, the number of arrows used, the number of images used, and the number of colors used.
|
