Critical Thinking Mind Map

Frequently they look to their advisor to make the connections for them and to tell them what to do.

Frequently they look to their advisor to make the connections for them and to tell them what to do.

Many students suggest that using the mind map strategy supported their ability to effectively explore and integrate the diverse areas of their research topic and create flow and linkage amongst ideas when writing their research proposal or integrated paper.

So while many are investigating the use of mind maps as a teaching and learning tool to foster critical thinking and clinical reasoning in students, it can be utilized as a tool to promote student engagement as demonstrated in the assignments above.

View Mind Map » Assignment 2 For our post-professional doctoral students integrating related topics that must be explored in order to fully address a research question is not so easy.

Linking or connecting topics, theories and developing a theoretical framework often hinder students’ progression.

These sub-branches of key words or pictures can be linked together resulting in the integration of different parts of the mind map.

Recently, many on-line computer versions of mind mapping have emerged such as i Mind Map (Tony Buzan), Mind Meister (Mind Meister Labs), Visio (Microsoft), and Mind Node (Mind Node Software).

The utility of the mind map as a teaching and learning tool is only limited by our ability as instructors to shape its use to meet the desired learning outcome.

Each of us tends to perceive and understand the problems, events, and circumstances of our lives somewhat differently.

This in turn enables us as instructors to spend more time helping them explore the “hands on” techniques of their craft, as well as critical reasoning and communication skills.

Here’s an example of mind map a student created on a chapter associated with clinical decision making regarding patient management.