H o w
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G e t
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C o l l e g e
M i n d
M a p p i n g
a n d
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G e n e r a t e
H i g h e r
T h i n k i n g
W h a t
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a c h i e v e s
How to get to work/college/university in the morning develops higher
order processing skills. It develops an understanding of ‘higher levels’ of
conceptual and critical thinking through the experience of organising of
information and the processing of information. These skills are important
for strategic thinking for senior managers in the workplace, and in higher
education work. This experience is particularly useful for those engaged
in Higher Education.
These skills are identified in the higher cognitive layers of Blooms
taxonomy of learning. These include synthesis, judgement, evaluation,
critical, conceptual and creative analysis. The session uses an
experientially engaging activity that generates positive learner
participation and fun.
U n d e r l y i n g
p r i n c i p l e s
This session starts with a simple problem or statement being positioned in
the centre of a large whiteboard. In the future we may be using huge
areas of glass to do such work and a glass or be connected to the
Internet and this will make complex thinking patterns much easier to
nurture and develop.
The handout included with this activity highlights various layers of
learning, and follows a basic taxonomy. These educational taxonomic
levels are the basic principle for the vertical mapping process, moving
through from basic understanding and knowing and describing to
synthesis evaluation and judgement as shown below.
ADVANCED - Evaluation – judge, evaluate, select, recognise, criticise.
Synthesis – summarise, argue, relate, précis, organise, generalise, conclude.
Analysis – select, compare, differentiate, contrast, break down.
Application – predict, select, assess, find, show, use, construct, compute.
Comprehension – identify, illustrate, represent, formulate, explain, contrast.
BASIC - Knowledge – write, state, recall, recognise, select, reproduce, measure.
Bass, B.S. (1956) Taxonomy of Education: The Classification of Educational Goals, Longman,
London).
Using a popular engaging phrase of ‘how to get to work or University: a
critical analysis’ the session gradually moves learners from simplicity to
complexity, and learners experience how to become more critical,
conceptual and analytical (for example in higher education
institutions/corporate university degree level work).
The technique uses horizontal mapping first, then applies vertical
mapping. Obvious spatial connections are made between the lower
and higher layers. Whilst horizontal mapping is commonly known such as
the work by Tony Buzan, vertical mapping to develop higher cognitive
thinking is less commonly applied. The approach deliberately generates
a sense of fun and enjoyment especially in the first brainstorming stage
which generates creative ideas.
Photo: Cycling is just one method of getting to
college, university or work...
The capacity of the brain to conduct these higher thinking activities can
be limited by the small space used to convey information. A book page
or computer screen is limited and so turning over pages affects the
ability to see the whole picture. For this reason this activity requires a
large area of writing space such as that of a large whiteboard. Tables or
floor space can suffice if there is no large writing space. Cards can also
be used instead of writing the answers on a whiteboard.
H o w
t o
r u n
i t
In the centre of a large whiteboard write the fictitious, fun assignment
that is to be addressed:
e.g. ‘Student methods of transportation: a critical analysis of getting to
lectures in the morning’.
People are asked to call out any means of transport they can think
of…...
Tram, car, coach, train, walk, horse etc……..
As they are called out I write down their responses on the whiteboard.
Discussion is not needed at this brainstorming stage but often funny
comments add to the challenge. If someone shouts out helicopter for
example I might say ‘we have some wealthy people in the audience!’
Any empty space on the whiteboard seems to encourage students try
to fill it - with more, and often increasingly innovative and interesting
ideas:
Parachute, skateboard, through the sewers, virtual/ teleconferencing,
by canoe, …..etc…..
Note: some students say qualifications ….and virtual ways to get to
college….these are interesting and innovative thinking patterns.
Qualifications – means the learner has interpreted the question in a
different way…..this is good and they should be told that they might
explain how they have interpreted the question to the reader.
Virtual is a creative thought pattern (the opposite is real ways to get to
college)…encourage these ideas……..
This first level of brainstorming represents the hard ground level work, the
building blocks. By this I mean that in reality, in order to answer any
assignment question learners need to go to the library, carry out
extensive reading and take a lot of notes – about trams, bikes,
parachutes, etc. This is what this layer is all about and would be full of
notes if done by an individual. This represents getting to know the
subject or breadth of ‘territory’ at this first level. The topic or territory is
thus mapped out horizontally first.
All these responses represent the first level of thinking.
Green in handout one
Then - take a different coloured pen and ask the students to organise
and cluster information from this the first layer. The handout 1. can be
given out to highlight the layers of thinking skills involved. Cluster and
organise can be found for example on layer two on the handout:
Motorised, non-motorised, human powered, animal powered, by air, by
land, by sea, by two wheeled, multiple wheeled, slow, fast, etc.
Students tend to come up with many ways of classifying the first layer.
This builds the second level of thinking – blue in handout one.
Then take a third coloured pen and create construct all the simple
opposites from the layer two and write them down in a list……
ANALYSIS
motorised – non-motorised
human powered – animal powered
fast - slow
public – private
one wheeled, two wheeled, etc
expensive cheap,
real-virtual,
single mode-multiple mode,
air-land,
regular/convenient – infrequent
ground-underground,
railed/tracked-road,
mass transport-individual,
etc.
This highlights their development of simple constructs. These ideas might
then be re-organised into new clusters consisting of say ‘utility’ (speed,
cost, convenience/frequency etc), ‘location’ specific (air, water, land,
underground, tracked/limited, free roaming etc ), and ‘propulsion’
(human animal natural fossil fuel powered etc).
Learners are then encouraged to develop more complex constructs by
adding a number of these simple ideas for example by creating two
axes – building a quadrant model. An example would be to ask learners
to consider efficacy, the most ‘effective’ way for the majority of students
to get to University. This often results in agreement that ‘cost’ and
‘speed’ are two important utility factors. Cheap transport is fine but if it is
very slow it might not be the ‘best’ way. Cheap and fast might be the
best combination? A helicopter is fast and expensive. The students can
then re-classify examples of specific forms of transport types into these
new categories.
Figure 1: A simple Construct of Utility.
SLOW AND EXPENSIVE
FAST AND EXPENSIVE
e.g. Taxi in rush hour
e.g. Plane, Helicopter.
SLOW AND CHEAP
FAST AND CHEAP
e.g. Walking
e.g. Bus, Tram
Shaded area explores the most appropriate way for the majority of
students. A third conceptual dimension might be frequency, or the
extent of environmental damage caused or carbon footprint in the
selected methods getting into college or university.
This involves the generation and justification/evaluation of multiple
modelling factors – for example speed, cost, availability, pollution
(personal choice perhaps). The thinking is now moving to multidimensional conceptual thinking or modelling. These are thus more
complex constructs.
Figure two: Moving on to a three dimensional framework.
Environmentally friendly transport ratings might be a mixture of several
factors. Discussion of such factors can then be included as part of the
development of critical analysis.
We may also want to be critical of the final categorisations and explore
limitations in these ways of seeing and interpreting transport options.
What is explored here is predominantly a utility-functional (speed and
frequency) categorisation as are the physical elements such as
wheeled and fuel. Why is this? The only value based (principle or
ideological) element was the degree of environmental impact any
particular transport mode has. Comfort on the other hand is a relative
phenomena, related to personal requirements and choice (what is it to
be comfortable?).
Thus students might develop four further categories:
 physical,
 personal,
 utility and
 principled.
This critical, creative and conceptual work represents the
third level – orange in handout 1.
If students can cope with this then move on to level 5. Which might look
at their ability to learn to move up and down these layers - for
assignments or problem solving.
Learning to learn and mastery is level four
This is associated with the ability to move up and down the cognitive
(thinking) layers. Moving through these layers is part of good assignment
work ….but higher layers cannot easily be reached unless layer one is
completed, as the foundation layer, representing the hard work of
extensive reading and note taking! Handout 2 is optional and can be
used to discuss the wide range of skills needed to reach higher levels of
thinking.
R e s o u r c e s



r e q u i r e d
Large whiteboard,
Four coloured pens.
Handouts optional.
Handout One:
Can be given out before the exercise - or after - to show the key words
that might apply to each level of learning.
Handout Two:
Provides more comprehensive skills list to be developed by learners for
higher levels of analysis.
T i p s :
One of the main skills of higher levels of thinking is to see shape and form
and trends and patterns and different clusters of information/data.
The brain can be trained to do this processing.
Seethe chapter Different Ways to learning in Learning to learn from
experience by Edward Cell (1984) for a comprehensive view of higher
order thinking skills.
R e a d i n g :
Bass, B.S. (1956) Taxonomy of Education: The Classification of
Educational Goals (London Longman).
Cell, E (1984) Learning to learn from experience (New York, State
University Press).
Handout One:
A Simplified Model of the
Higher and Lower Levels of Thinking.
Handout 2
Skills essential in the development of higher levels of critical thinking.
1.
Gathering information and utilising resources
2.
Developing flexibility in form and style
3.
Asking high-quality questions
4.
Weighing evidence before drawing conclusions
5.
Utilising metaphors and models
6.
Conceptualising strategies (mind mapping, pros and cons lists,
outlines etc)
7.
Dealing productively with ambiguity, differences and novelty
8.
Creating possibilities and probabilities (brainstorming, formulas,
surveys, cause and effect)
9.
Debate and discussion skills
10.
Identifying mistakes, discrepancies, and illogic
11.
Examining alternative approaches (shifting frame of reference,
thinking out of the box etc)
12.
Hypothesis testing strategies
13.
Developing objectivity
14.
Generalisation and pattern detection (identifying and organising
information, translating information,
cross-over applications)
15.
Sequencing events
Taken from Brain-based Learning: The New Science of Teaching and
Training (2000) by Eric Jensen.
R e f e r e n c e s :
Bass, B.S. (1956) Taxonomy of Education: The Classification of
Educational Goals, Longman, London