Developed by Joseph Novak at Cornell from 1972 (Learning How to Learn, with D. Bob Gowin, 1984).
Arranges the ideas in a subject from general to specific and joins them with arrows labeled by relationship, producing a picture of how the pieces fit together.
When to reach for it
When a new or tangled domain has to be understood, or a group's understanding of it laid out where gaps and disagreements can be seen.
How it runs
- List the key concepts.
- Rank them from general to specific.
- Place the general concepts at the top.
- Join related concepts with arrows.
- Label each arrow with its relationship, such as causes or requires.
- Add cross-links between branches, and refine.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- Learning How to Learn, with D. Bob Gowin, Cambridge University Press, 1984