PSI Tutor:Mentor

The holiday season is in fact one of the best times to organise and prepare for the upcoming year of studies. Start now, why wait to make it a New Year’s resolution or a fist-week-of-semester activity. You will always be busy~ family, work and personal aspirations (not necessarily in that order) are priorities.

Chunking your activities of organisation and preparation is one of the best ways to follow through on a task, and to set yourself clear guidelines to achieve goals.

A resource to help with the “chunky” side of life is Concept Mapping.

Concept Maps are a learning strategy that enable “deep learning”. Successful learning at any age or across any discipline, requires effective deep learning strategies.

Meaningful learning~ layering of symbols, culture-specific signs, building on prior knowledge.

Engagement with a task can be achieved through practical use of new knowledge in a real-world context; blogging, text or other art journaling can broaden the experience and thus conceptualisation.

Concept maps provide a tool for chunking large amounts of complex information.

Knowledge, skills & competency occur along a continuum of aptitude. Thus knowing the basics is better than not knowing anything at all about a topic.

It is a step toward knowing and understanding more. At the minimum you have something to write about. to anchor other knowledge to.

Start with a Glossary.

How do others define terms/concepts/phenomenon/processes?

How do you?

Use a matrix or flashcards.

Understanding of a task through activity and use of its language creates neural pathways (schema; networks), that become familiar like well trodden paths or roads driven around one’s hometown.

A visual map as created with a Concept Map mirrors neural processes as we understand them thus far.

Straightforward organisation of information as you interpret (perceive) it is easily recalled.

For some, depending on use, the information is integrated automatically with decision making and activity.

Concept Maps

Learning Theories: Concept Maps

Concept or Mind Mapping