The Mind Map: A Tool for Exploring Children's and Teacher Trainees' Conceptions of School, Friendship, and Play

Abstract

Mind Mapping can be used in any discipline as a tool for learning and organizing information. Mind Maps can be created as a group as a means of supporting brainstorming or individually to generate ideas. The aim of the present study was to explore preschool children’s and teacher trainees’ conceptions of school, friendship, and play through Mind Maps. A phenomenological approach was employed. The participants were 18 preschoolers (M = 65.33 months; 11 girls and 7 boys) and 12 preschool teacher trainees (M = 21.31 years; 10 females and 2 males). The children and the teacher trainees constructed three Mind Maps as a group and each group’s Mind Maps were evaluated with a rubric. The results revealed that the children can be as successful as adults in Mind Mapping. The children used drawings more often compared to the teacher trainees. The children and the teacher trainees had similar scores on the Mind Maps for school and friendship. With respect to school, it is evident that teachers and physical environment were quite important to children. For friendship, it seems that the children tend to talk about play and the common activities they do with friends whereas the teacher trainees referred to more abstract and emotional aspects of friendship as expected. Lastly, the children and the teacher trainees’ conceptions of play seemed to differ significantly, and the children did not include digital play in their Mind Maps unlike the teacher trainees who referred to digital play with many associations.