Professor Jospeph Novak, a biologist, specialized in research on learning processes, studies on education and the creation and representation of knowledge.
Concept maps are a tool to represent in a concise and synoptic, structures of thought too complex to facilitate creative thinking.
The building, with certain rules, a mind map on a problem, such a situation, an idea, a need, etc ...., Allows us to produce new ideas and associations. In a mind map instead, there is a dynamic structure, which certainly provides a starting point (the center), but in which each new concept is potenzialmente anch’esso un centro da cui possano partire altre associazioni; inoltre, non esiste una fine della mappa concettuale, né dal punto di vista logico né da quello topologico.
Una mappa concettuale si presenta allora come uno schema in cui riportare tutti gli elementi di conoscenza relativi alla questione affrontata secondo un processo di libera associazione. Al centro si pone, con pochissime parole chiave, l’idea o il problema principale, e da questo si diramano in tutte le direzioni in forma di ramificazione gerarchica, informazioni, idee e concetti che vengono collegati l’un l’altro.
La rappresentazione può essere esclusivamente verbale, oppure essere arricchita a seconda delle inclinazioni personali, drawings, colors and symbols (examples of mind maps are listed in Appendix "Creativity practice for the Food Service division of the company X" and "constructive criticism").
The rules of construction are as follows:
- from the center
- any idea or association is written on a branch by using few keywords;
- stay the proceedings;
- if you can think of a concept is not associated with any branch already mapped out, attach it to the center;
- to proceed quickly;
- if it stops the flow of ideas, draw empty lines: the mind in general will try to automatically fill;
- free to use colors, symbols and figures.
Speed \u200b\u200bis very important because it prevents to start operating the inhibitions and proceedings. It is essential not to discard anything that flows into the mind map will always be calmly sorted, cleaned and reorganized.
"Figure 1 Example of concept map built from the word" computer "
The term concept map can also be used to identify other methods to generate alternatives to solve a problem or seize an opportunity second tree diagrams.
A very effective method was proposed by De Bono, to illustrate, we start from a formal definition of "alternative" means two alternative solutions are called if they share a connection point ("fixed point"). One can easily see that the fixed point is the key to the generation of alternatives according to a scheme tree.
Some examples will immediately grasping the significance of the fixed point and its importance for the generation of alternatives.
Example 1 (in this case, the connection point concerns the purpose):
Buses and cars are alternatives for commuting
Example 2 (in this case, the connection point concerns' membership to a group):
apple and banana are alternatives if we think of fruits as a whole
Example 3 (in this case, the connection point concerns the membership of a group):
Pen and pencil are alternatives such as writing instruments
Example 4 (in this case, the connection point for the concept):
pen and tie are no alternatives for a gift.
The search for alternatives can then work like this:
1.definire the purpose of research
2.dalla first idea to extract the concept
3.porre the concept as a fixed point
4.generare alternatives with respect to any fixed point
5.da Or check out a new concept
6.porre many new concepts such as fixed points from step 4
7.ripetere
Figure 2 Generation of an alternative method with the fixed point
