The Perfect Mindmap: 6 Step Checklist

Summary

In this educational video, Justin introduces the concept of mind mapping as a powerful tool for enhancing metacognitive skills and critical thinking. He addresses common misconceptions about mind maps and emphasizes the importance of applying the correct technique. Using the 'GRIND' mnemonic—Grouped, Reflective, Interconnected, Non-verbal, Directional, and Emphasized—Justin outlines a method to create effective mind maps that can boost creativity, retention, and academic achievement. The video aims to equip students with a technique that, when properly utilized, can transform their learning process.

Takeaways

• 🌟 Mind maps are a powerful tool for improving metacognitive skills, which is the ability to think about thinking.
• 📈 Studies show that combining mind maps with inquiry-based learning can enhance critical thinking skills more than inquiry alone or conventional learning methods.
• 🔍 Shared mind maps in group settings, like a classroom, support students' ability to learn core curriculum and refine their knowledge structures.
• 💡 Mind mapping has been proven to increase creativity, which is important for making meaningful connections between ideas.
• 📚 A study on medical students found that mind maps improved recall of factual material by 10% a week after the study, even when accounting for lower motivation in the mind map group.
• 🛠 The mnemonic 'GRIND' stands for Grouped, Reflective, Interconnected, Non-verbal, Directional, and Emphasized, which are the key principles for creating effective mind maps.
• 🗂 Grouped: Organize ideas into categories to simplify complex knowledge and create connections.
• 🤔 Reflective: Notes should mirror the thought process and journey of learning, moving away from traditional linear note-taking.
• 🔗 Interconnected: Seek out connections between ideas beyond their immediate categories to appreciate the bigger picture.
• 🎨 Non-verbal: Use creative methods of expression like symbols, arrows, and spatial awareness to enhance knowledge retention and depth.
• 📉 Directional: Arrange connections in a specific order to create a flow that represents cause and effect relationships and logical frameworks.
• 🖍 Emphasized: Make main points visually distinct to reduce cognitive load and improve the mind map's usability for revision and learning.
• 📝 Notes should reflect the learning process, which is unique to each individual, and mind maps should be personalized to fit one's own understanding.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is how to build the perfect mind map and the effectiveness of mind maps in enhancing learning and critical thinking skills.

Why do some students find mind maps ineffective?

Some students find mind maps ineffective because they may not be using the correct technique or following the specific set of guidelines required for creating effective mind maps.

What is metacognition and why is it important for effective learning?

Metacognition is the ability to think about thinking, and it is important for effective learning because it involves being aware of and able to regulate one's own learning process, which is crucial for understanding and retaining information.

What does the study on junior high school students suggest about the combination of inquiry-based learning and mind maps?

The study suggests that the combination of inquiry-based learning and mind maps significantly improves students' critical thinking skills compared to inquiry-based learning alone or conventional learning models.

How do shared mind maps support learning in a classroom setting?

Shared mind maps support learning by helping students learn their core curriculum and refine their knowledge structures, making them effective tools for collaborative learning environments.

What role does creativity play in learning, according to the video?

Creativity plays a crucial role in learning as it allows for the formation of new and meaningful connections between relevant ideas, enhancing the learning experience and the retention of knowledge.

What was the finding of the study on medical students regarding the recall of factual material?

The study found that while both mind map and normal study techniques improved recall immediately after learning, the mind map group showed a 10% greater recall after a week, suggesting that mind maps are an effective study technique for long-term retention.

What is the mnemonic 'GRIND' and how does it relate to creating effective mind maps?

The mnemonic 'GRIND' stands for Grouped, Reflective, Interconnected, Non-verbal, Directional, and Emphasized. It represents the principles that should be applied when creating mind maps to ensure they are effective in enhancing learning and understanding.

What does 'Grouped' in the GRIND mnemonic refer to in the context of mind mapping?

'Grouped' refers to the organization of ideas into various groups and boxes, which simplifies the knowledge and makes it easier to understand and connect different concepts.

How does 'Reflective' in the GRIND mnemonic improve the mind mapping process?

'Reflective' means that the mind map should be a mirror of the thought process and learning journey inside the mind, rather than a linear representation that may not accurately reflect how we learn.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Building the Perfect Mind Map

In this paragraph, Justin introduces the topic of creating effective mind maps, a technique he finds universally beneficial for students despite initial challenges some might face. He emphasizes that mind mapping is a technical skill with specific guidelines and shares his experience coaching thousands of students, none of whom found the technique ineffective when applied correctly. Justin also references research studies that highlight the benefits of mind mapping for improving metacognitive skills, critical thinking, and creativity in students. The studies show improved academic performance and knowledge retention, suggesting that mind maps can enhance learning both individually and in groups.

05:02

📚 The GRIND Mnemonic for Mind Mapping

Justin presents the mnemonic 'GRIND' as a method to create effective mind maps. 'GRIND' stands for Grouped, Reflective, Interconnected, Non-verbal, Directional. He explains that successful mind mapping involves organizing ideas into groups, ensuring notes reflect internal thought processes, making connections between different ideas, using non-verbal elements to enhance retention and creativity, and maintaining a clear directionality in the flow of information. Justin stresses that while this technique builds upon the foundation of successful student attributes, it is a layer that enhances deep processing and inquiry-based learning, ultimately leading to more efficient and effective note-taking and learning.

10:04

🎨 Embracing Non-Verbal and Directional Elements in Mind Maps

This paragraph delves deeper into the non-verbal aspect of mind mapping, encouraging the use of visual elements like doodles, arrows, and symbols to represent ideas, which can improve retention and creativity. Justin dispels the myth that one needs artistic skills for this, arguing that simple representations are sufficient. He also highlights the importance of directionality, which adds a layer of logic and flow to the mind map, reflecting cause-and-effect relationships and aiding in deep processing and critical thinking. Directionality helps in organizing information in a way that makes sense, allowing for a higher level of learning and understanding of concepts in relation to each other.

15:05

🖍 Emphasizing Key Points for Effective Mind Maps

In the final paragraph, Justin discusses the importance of emphasizing key points in mind maps to make them visually distinct and easier to navigate. He suggests using thicker lines, color coding, and other visual cues to highlight main ideas and connections. This not only improves the mind map's usability but also forces the creator to prioritize and justify the most important elements of the information. Justin concludes by reiterating the value of mind maps in enhancing the learning process, saving time on note-taking, and achieving a deeper level of understanding. He invites viewers to share their experiences with mind mapping and encourages them to subscribe for more content on effective learning techniques.

Keywords

💡Mind Map

A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information, typically around a central idea. In the video, mind maps are presented as a tool to improve metacognitive skills, which is the ability to think about thinking. The script emphasizes the effectiveness of mind maps in enhancing critical thinking, creativity, and knowledge retention among students.

💡Metacognition

Metacognition refers to the awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes. The video script discusses how mind maps can improve metacognitive skills, allowing students to think more effectively about their learning strategies and the way they process information.

💡Differentiated Science Inquiry

Differentiated science inquiry is a learning approach that encourages students to ask questions and follow their curiosity. The script mentions a study comparing this method combined with mind mapping to traditional learning, finding that the combination led to higher critical thinking skills.

💡Directionality

Directionality in the context of mind mapping refers to the arrangement of ideas in a specific order or flow. The script explains that by organizing connections in a directional manner, mind maps can reflect cause-and-effect relationships and enhance logical understanding of concepts.

💡Flow

Flow, as discussed in the script, is the natural progression of ideas in a mind map, which represents the cause-and-effect logic. A well-organized flow indicates a higher level of deep processing and critical thinking, as it shows how concepts are interconnected and build upon each other.

💡GRIND

GRIND is a mnemonic introduced in the script to remember the key principles of effective mind mapping: Grouped, Reflective, Interconnected, Non-verbal, Directional, and Emphasized. It serves as a guideline for students to create mind maps that are more than just visual but also cognitively efficient.

💡Grouped

Grouped is one of the principles of the GRIND mnemonic, which suggests organizing ideas into categories or groups. In the script, it's explained as a way to simplify complex information and make it more manageable by creating connections between related concepts.

💡Reflective

Reflective, as part of the GRIND mnemonic, means that the mind map should mirror the thought process and understanding of the learner. The script points out that traditional linear note-taking does not reflect the way we think and learn as effectively as mind maps do.

💡Interconnected

Interconnected is another principle of the GRIND mnemonic, which encourages creating links between different ideas or categories. The script explains that making distant connections can lead to a more holistic understanding and prevent knowledge from becoming isolated.

💡Non-verbal

Non-verbal in the context of mind mapping refers to the use of symbols, images, and spatial awareness instead of extensive text. The script argues that non-verbal elements can enhance knowledge retention, motivation, and creativity by engaging different parts of the brain.

💡Emphasized

Emphasized is the final part of the GRIND mnemonic, which involves making the main points in a mind map distinct through visual elements like color, size, or symbols. The script explains that emphasizing helps in quickly identifying key information and improving the overall learning experience.

Highlights

Mind maps are a complex and technical skill that follows specific guidelines.

The effectiveness of mind maps has been proven in various studies with students across different educational levels.

Metacognition, the ability to think about thinking, is a crucial part of learning effectively, and mind maps can improve this skill.

A study found that junior high school students using differentiated science inquiry combined with mind maps showed the highest critical thinking skills.

Shared mind maps in classroom settings support students' ability to learn core curriculum and refine knowledge structures.

Mind mapping has been shown to significantly improve student success in inquiry-based learning.

Creativity is enhanced through mind mapping, allowing for more meaningful connections between ideas.

A study on medical students showed that mind maps improved recall of factual material by 10% a week after the study.

Mind maps are an effective study technique when applied to written material, but motivation to use them needs to be improved.

The mnemonic GRIND stands for Grouped, Reflective, Interconnected, Non-verbal, Directional, and Emphasized, which are key principles for creating effective mind maps.

Grouping ideas into categories simplifies knowledge and helps create connections between concepts.

Reflective note-taking should mirror the learner's journey and thought process, not just linearly record information.

Interconnected mind maps create links between ideas, fostering a holistic understanding of the subject.

Non-verbal elements in mind maps, such as symbols and arrows, can enhance retention and creativity.

Directionality in mind maps establishes a logical flow and cause-effect relationships between concepts.

Emphasizing main points in mind maps makes the technique easier while maintaining high-quality learning.

The GRIND method, combined with deep processing, can lead to more efficient note-taking and deeper learning.

The speaker offers a course for a more in-depth look at mind mapping and its benefits.

Transcripts

hey guys welcome back it's justin here

and today we're going to be talking

about how to build the

perfect mind map now i know a lot of

people have tried mind maps

and many of the students that i work

with will initially say that they tried

it and it didn't really work

out very well but what i've found is

that most of the time

the technique of doing the mind map

wasn't done

correctly and surprisingly mind maps are

a complicated and technical skill

that follow a specific set of guidelines

and so what i'm going to be doing is

teaching you

those guidelines so that you can start

using mind maps which

in my experience i haven't really found

a situation

where it hasn't been effective what

that's to say is that

in the thousands of students that i've

actually coached into studying more

effectively

i haven't met a student who was using

the mind map technique correctly

and didn't find that was effective and

to my knowledge

all of my students that i've personally

coached are still using

mind maps now before we jump into the

technique of the mind map properly

let's actually have a look at which

parts of the research

a mind map is actually utilizing and i

think you might be surprised to find

how technical it actually is so

so brief search for the term mind map is

showing me this study which is

a tool to improve student metacognitive

skills

now metacognition is actually a crucial

part of learning more effectively

and what that really means is the

ability to think about thinking

the study here looking at junior high

school students critical thinking skills

using three different ways of learning

tested the difference between students

that were using

something called differentiated science

inquiry which is

a form of learning based on inquiry

where you're asking questions and

allowing your curiosity to take you

combined with a mind map compared with

just the inquiry itself

and then conventional models which most

people are already used to

and the findings for the study showed

that the highest skills in critical

thinking

were reached by students who are using

both the inquiry model and mind map in

their learning in fact when we look at

mind maps done in groups for example in

a classroom scenario

we can see that shared mind maps support

students ability to learn their core

curriculum and refine their knowledge

structures so even mind maps

not done individually are effective at

increasing learning

the study looking at primary student

success with again this inquiry-based

learning

and using the mind map showed that it

was a significant difference in favor of

the experimental group over the control

group

the experimental group being the group

that used the mind mapping technique

student success in the study looking at

their perceptions of inquiry based

learning skills

academic achievement and their retention

of knowledge all things that we would

strive for

in fact mind mapping has also been shown

to increase the level of creativity

and creativity is something that's

really important with learning because

it allows us to make

new and more interesting meaningful

connections between relevant ideas

and as this study puts it perfectly in

the first sentence of the abstract

mind mapping promotes all aspects of the

brain working in

synergy with thought beginning from a

central point

it enhances creative thinking knowledge

attainment

utilizing colors images codes and

dimensions to amplify

and enhance key ideas in this particular

study done on the efficacy of the

technique itself

looking at second and third year medical

students

as a subject saw that their recall of

factual material improved for both

mind map and their normal study

techniques at an immediate test

but when you check that a week after the

mind map group was greater by

ten percent and we adjust for motivation

which they found to be lower in the mind

map group

something that i personally have also

found with my students because the

technique itself can be a little bit

more challenging and difficult

adjusting for motivation they see that

the improvement could have been

15 so the conclusion was that mind maps

are an effective study technique

when applied to written material however

before they are adopted as a study

technique there should be a way to

improve

motivation and this sums it up perfectly

which is why i'm going to teach you mind

maps the way that i teach it to students

aka

a way that works

so how do we do this epic amazing mind

map well

it's actually really quite simple and i

use the mnemonic

grind

so what i'm going to be teaching you is

how to do a grind map

now grind is short for grouped

reflective

interconnected non-verbal

directional and emphasized

now this mnemonic comes from years of my

experience coaching students on how to

do this

and i found that when a student applies

these principles the mind map

overall tends to be pretty good now this

isn't to say that the supersedes

any other advice that i've been giving

about learning so the five attributes

that a successful student has

those are still a foundation and this

technique layers on top of that

other things like deep processing and

inquiry-based learning

as always the notes are just a

reflection of the learning

the learning itself still needs to

happen inside your own head

in the brain and if the learning hair is

not high quality

and the learning out here is not going

to be high quality as well so let's

start off with the first one which is

grouped

now i'm not going to go through all of

this in complete detail because

it's a pretty big topic and i go through

this more in my proper course

but i'll give you enough to understand

how to start using the technique to a

competent level

grouped means that when we have ideas we

should be aiming to organize them

into various groups and boxes so this

organization of data

into these boxes allows it to make more

sense for us

and simplifies the knowledge so instead

of trying to learn 10 different

things all by itself which is a lot for

us to take in

we are grouping these into categories

that allow us to create

these connections and it makes lots and

lots of

smaller concepts fit together with the

big picture

which are usually fundamental larger

concepts

and when we have these larger concepts

we're able to work with these and a

little bit

more flexibility than if we had every

individual detail

it's kind of like if you imagine a tree

you know

if you cut down a tree and you have all

the big branches that you've cut off

from it

you can build a lot of things with that

you can rearrange them to create

different types of frames

now imagine if all you had to work with

were the leaves well then you're really

limited because the leaves don't provide

much

structure you'd have to have a lot of

leaves to provide just enough structural

support

to produce pretty much anything and it's

the same with learning

when we have leaves of knowledge it's

really hard to do anything with it when

we've got

big sticky groups and trunks

of knowledge that are a lot more robust

we can actually start rearranging those

concepts and connecting them in more

interesting ways and creating something

called

flow which we're going to come to in the

directionality part let's move on to the

next one which is

reflective this one simply says that

whatever your notes are

however they look on paper should be a

reflection

of whatever it is that is going on

inside

your mind and for those of you that are

wondering

this is a mirror

now this is actually really important

because a lot of students are used to

writing notes

left to right down a page like this and

this is a type of note writing that i

call

linear now linear note writing is not

very good because it often

doesn't reflect the way that we learn it

inside our own heads it doesn't reflect

our learner journey

so if you think about something you know

really really well then you probably

don't

think about it inside your head left to

right in paragraphs or lists or bullet

points on a page

but because we just so used to learning

it this way it tends to be the default

but it's actually important that we

break away from this style of learning

because linear note taking

ends up being a waste of time and

will probably not get much learning out

of it anyway there are alternatives that

are producing better learning that are

more time efficient and then we're not

gonna have to redo our notes again and

again or recursively read through it

multiple times and smash it into

repetition much

like how you should smash the like

button if you're enjoying this type of

content

the next one interconnected means that

we're

grouping these ideas and categories of

information that we already created

before

and we're connecting them between each

other we're not just connecting ideas

that

already seem connected we're actually

looking for more connections outside of

just that small

scope or box which we would normally

have thought inside

we want to give ourselves the

opportunity to make new and distant

connections that potentially might be

even more meaningful

because that's going to allow us to

appreciate the big picture more

holistically

and it's going to stop knowledge from

becoming isolated and isolated knowledge

is weak because the connections going to

and from it are weaker and therefore

more forgettable

and the non-verbal is the same thing

that i talked about in my five

attributes of student success

which is that we don't really need to be

making notes that are super verbal

because we're already learning in that

form a lot anyway

and writing notes in a heavily verbal

way often takes a lot of time

by forcing us to use more creative

methods of expression

like doodling or arrows and symbols and

shorthand and even the spatial awareness

of where

ideas are on a page this all contributes

to increasing the retention of that

knowledge

and the depth of that knowledge as well

as improving motivation and creativity

and all the other things

that we know that mind maps can help us

do so i

often find that people that do mind maps

for the first time transitioning from a

linear note-taking style

like we see over here to something

that's a little bit

more free-flowing and non-verbal much

like how i have actually been doing my

notes

here where you see there's very few

words the main difference tends to be

that there's a sense of insecurity with

removing words and to that i'll just say

remove a little bit and just try to cut

down over time

until you become more and more

comfortable with having less words in

there

you don't have to dive into the deep end

if you're comfortable with that by all

means go for it but if

not then shave off the words little by

little

making full sentences a last resort and

eventually making words themselves

a last resort now the other objection

that i get is that people say

well i can't really doodle well it

doesn't take a lot of skill to do

stick figures and just abstract

representations of ideas

i'm not asking you to draw a mona lisa

type painting what i'm saying is just

have an idea and express it

on paper or on a tablet in a way that

just makes sense to you so that when you

look at it you can think okay i know

what that was meant to

represent now directional directional is

super special so i'm going to give it

this green star next to it because

directionality is talking about the idea

that we're creating

not just these connections that we were

talking about before between these

and not only are we looking for new and

distant connections

but we're actually arranging these

connections in a way that has a specific

order and directionality to it so if we

say this is a

and this is b and this is c we can see

that the flow of ideas goes from a

to b to c likewise if we had more ideas

we might see something that looks like

this we could have a and b

combined leading to c joining in with d

contributing towards creating e which

combines with

f and that all comes together to j which

actually feeds

in to that so you can see this is what a

mind map should look like there's a

strong

directionality to it now this is really

important because directionality

actually gives us

flow and the flow is really talking

about a

cause and effect relationship

and cause and effect relationships are

fundamentally

logic so when you've got good

directionality and good flow

what that tends to mean is that it's

organized in your head

you've got the grouping done well you've

got good levels of interconnectedness

and you're able to arrange it in a way

that makes sense it's a higher level of

learning not only are you thinking about

the concepts themselves

you're also thinking about how they make

sense with relation to each other

what the wider purpose is why this

concept exists

and where it is leading towards and so

that clear

this causes this create a logical

framework and a logical scaffold

which provides much deeper levels of

learning than just learning the

superficial

facts and concepts that are actually

built on the logic in the first place

so flow is one of those things and

directionality when i look

at someone else's mind map i can pretty

much immediately tell how good their

level of deep

processing and critical thinking is and

how much time they spent trying to

organize the information in their head

because a clean well-organized

mind produces a well-flowing mind map

and

this is probably the area that a lot of

intermediate levels learners are getting

stuck

on and the final point is there's

something that enhances our ability to

use those other aspects of our brain

that aren't normally

used it reduces the cognitive load

of the technique without reducing the

cognitive load

of the learning itself which that

is necessary for good learning so

by making the technique itself easier

but still making our brain work hard to

figure it out

we strike the perfect balance where our

energy is directed towards high quality

learning that's a cognitive load on that

side but at the same time

we have a low cognitive load on

executing the technique

so if you imagine driving a car you want

to have a challenging race track that

forces you to use your skills

but you don't want to have difficulty

learning how to drive and turn the wheel

we want those techniques to be habitual

very easy for us

and we want to be able to focus on the

challenging task that is providing

the good learning opportunity and

learning experience

so emphasizing elements of the mind map

means that the technique becomes easier

while the learning remains high quality

and the way that we do this is very

simply we make the

main points more distinctive just by

using something like

thicker lines for the central point

making

sort of word art or larger font size

and then if we have let's say the first

point we're talking about is aqueous or

water or something we might make a blue

line

with a little a water wave arrow going

to something that says

h2 oh that looks very watery and so this

is a way that we can just make our mind

maps look visually more distinct

and when we've got a big huge mind map

of maybe multiple lectures at a time

and we look at it it's going to be easy

to figure out where the main connections

are

and it's going to allow us to pick out

the flow

of information much more quickly so that

when we're revising the information

we're not trying to troll through bodies

of information to figure out what the

hell is going on

we can look at it at a glance see what's

going on and then focus our attention on

the learning that actually

matters it's kind of like if you read a

book and then you know that there was

this really

useful memorable part in that book and

you want to read it again

but you don't exactly know where it is

you now have to go

reading through maybe hundreds of pages

to figure out

where it was now imagine if this entire

book was laid out in a single sprawling

mind map

where all the main points were visually

very distinct you can imagine how much

faster it would be to find the point

that you were looking for

in something like that compared to

trawling through pages and pages of

linear comprehensive overbearing notes

so the emphasis point is something that

a lot of students neglect because

it seems kind of artsy and airy fairy

but

it does actually improve the overall

technique

and it kind of lubricates it in a way

that

overall brings all the techniques

together and just a more cohesive kind

of way so

for me i always make sure that i

emphasize all of my main points

and all of my main connections and the

other aspect of benefit which is

probably even more important than that

is that emphasizing your main points

forces you to be very

clear and explicit about what are the

elements

and what are the connections that are

the most important

you have to create a very distinct set

of priorities

and this again is a higher level of

knowledge mastery

rather than just learning each concept

in itself

more so even than figuring out how they

relate to each other

but creating even a hierarchy of

information that you are having to

justify

is a higher level of mastery even still

so emphasizing your points is

important enough to be part of the grind

mnemonic so

grouped reflective interconnected

non-verbal directional

and emphasized this combined with good

level of deep processing and all the

other things that produce good quality

learning

this is going to allow you to really

save a lot of time on writing notes

as well as achieving a higher level of

depth with your learning

itself now i cover this topic in a lot

more depth as well as critiquing

different mind maps to show what's good

and what's not

more fully in my course so if you're

interested in that check the links below

and you can sign up for that

but as we all know notes should be a

reflection of the learning process

that's happened inside our own heads and

that's always going to be different

for everyone so i would really love to

know how is your experience being with

writing notes or experimenting with

different note-taking styles

have you used mind maps before and if so

did it work well for you and if it

didn't

did you apply all the things in the

grind map let me know what your thoughts

are on this topic leave a comment down

below

if you like this video and if it's

helped you in a certain way then hit

that thumbs up button

like the video it really helps with the

algorithm allowing my videos to reach

more people and help more people

and if you like this type of video then

consider subscribing because i try to

upload videos like this around once a

week

going over areas of concern that i find

are really common with the students that

i coach

but otherwise thanks for watching stay

efficient and i'll see you in the next

one

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