INTRODUCTION: ABOUT US, & WHAT WE DO
IN THE BRIEFEST OF TERMS, WE ARE SPECIALIST TRAINING PROVIDERS IN THE USE OF CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT NETWORKS FOR EDUCATION, CREATIVITY AND PROBLEM SOLVING. OUR SYSTEM SIMULATES THE NATURALLY OCCURRING NEURAL NETWORKS THAT SHOULD INTERACT SYNERGISTICALLY, TO CREATE NEW NEURAL CONNECTIONS, WHICH ARE THE NEUROLOGICAL BASIS OF MEANINGFUL (EFFECTIVE) LEARNING.
WE ARE THE DEVELOPERS OF CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT NETWORKS (CDNs) WHICH CAN BE EMPLOYED IN A WIDE RANGE OF LEARNING, CREATIVE AND PROBLEM SOLVING SITUATIONS. THEY ARE PARTICULARLY USEFUL FOR PUPILS AND TEACHERS IN SCHOOLS, FOR STUDENTS AND LECTURERS IN COLLEGES (THEY HAVE BEEN USED UP TO MA LEVEL), AND IN THOSE PROFESSIONS AND BUSINESSES WHERE CREATIVE THINKING OR PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS ARE REQUIRED.
THE MANNER IN WHICH CDNs WORK IS THAT ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN DRAWING UP THESE GRAPHIC NETWORKS ACTUALLY MIMICS THE NEURAL NETWORK OF THE BRAIN, PRODUCING WHAT IS KNOWN AS ‘MEANINGFUL (EFFECTIVE) LEARNING’.
THE NETWORKS CAN BE PRODUCED BY THE LEARNER WITH OR WITHOUT A COMPUTER, USUALLY AFTER ONLY TWO TO FOUR HOURS TUITION. THE LEARNER CAN THEN APPLY THE PRINCIPLE TO ANY SUBJECT. THE PROCESS OF PRODUCING THESE NETWORKS IS BELIEVED TO STIMULATES THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW CONNECTIONS IN THE BRAIN’S NEURAL NETWORKS. ONCE THESE NEW CONNECTIONS ARE ESTABLISHED, CONCEPTS’ THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY ISOLATED OR FORGOTTEN BECOME ACTIVE (RATHER THAN DORMANT) ELEMENTS WITHIN THE NEURAL NETWORK SYSTEM. THIS IS WHAT IS MEANT BY ‘MEANINGFUL LEARNING’, SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS ‘TRAINING’ OR ‘REWIRING’ THE BRAIN.
FURTHER DETAILS OF THIS ASPECT OF OUR WORK CAN BE FOUND BY GOING TO ‘TECHNICAL INFORMATION’ VIA THE MENU BUTTONS.
MEANINGFUL LEARNING WAS DISCOVERED BY DAVID P. AUSUBEL(1) OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK. HIS DISCOVERY WAS THAT THE PRODUCTION OF NEW NEURAL CONNECTIONS IN THE BRAIN PRODUCES ‘MEANINGFUL’ (EFFECTIVE) LEARNING, THAT IS, LEARNING THAT CAN BE APPLIED TO MANY SITUATIONS RATHER THAN ‘ROTE’ LEARNING.
FOLLOWING AUSUBEL’S DISCOVERY, THE PROBLEM STILL REMAINED AS TO HOW THE LEARNER COULD ACTIVATE THE NEURAL CONNECTIONS. THE PROBLEM WAS RESOLVED BY PROFESSOR JOE NOVAK(2) OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY, WHO DEVELOPED ‘CONCEPT MAPS’, FROM GRAPHIC NETWORKING BEING USED IN OTHER SITUATION. HIS CONCEPT MAPS PROVED TO BE A HIGHLY EFFICIENT WAY OF PRODUCING MEANINGFUL LEARNING, AND IN THE USA WAS SUPPORTED BY CONSIDERABLE SUMS OF GOVERNMENT BACKING FOR THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE SUBJECTS.
MEANWHILE, IN THE UK, STAN ROSENTHAL (WHO LATER FOUNDED MEANINGFUL LEARNING LTD) WAS INDEPENDENTLY WORKING IN THE UK, IN PARALLEL WITH NOVAK, BUT ON A SYSTEM OF GRAPHIC/MATHEMATICAL NETWORKING(3) THAT WAS USED ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF CONCORD, THE WORLD’S FIRST SUPERSONIC PASSENGER CARRYING AIRCRAFT. HE ALSO WORKED ON THE CO-ORDINATION OF THE WORK OF THREE MAJOR BRITISH COMPANIES ON LARGE SCALE CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS.
A FEW YEARS LATER, WHILST STAN ROSENTHAL WAS RESEARCHING THE DEVELOPMENT OF GRAPHIC NETWORKS FOR EDUCATION IN THE UK, AND FOR ‘DISTANCE LEARNING’, TONY BUZAN(4) BEGAN MARKETING AN ALTERNATIVE METHOD KNOWN AS ‘MIND MAPS’, WHICH MET WITH CONSIDERABLE POPULARIST SUPPORT FROM THE BBC.
STAN ROSENTHAL FELT THAT ALTHOUGH PROVIDING AN ADEQUATE MEANS OF NOTE TAKING, BECAUSE OF THEIR STRICTLY HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE MIND MAPS DID NOT HAVE THE FLEXIBILITY TO MIMIC NEURAL NETWORKING. HE THEREFORE BELIEVED IT WOULD BE UNFAIR TO TRAINEES/STUDENTS TO PROMOTE MIND MAPS AS A MEANS OF PROVIDING AN ADEQUATE ROUTE TO MEANINGFUL LEARNING.
WHILST STILL WORKING ON METHODS OF RESOLVING THIS PROBLEM, NEWS OF HIS WORK REACHED GOVERNMENT LEVEL, AND HE WAS APPOINTED TO A THREE YEAR POST AS GOVERNMENT SPONSORED SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW AT AN INDEPENDENT FACULTY OF A MAJOR UNIVERSITY.
ON CONCLUSION OF HIS CONTRACT, HE CONTINUED HIS WORK ON CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT NETWORKS WITH PRIVATE FUNDING FROM HIS ‘TROUBLE SHOOTING’ CONSULTANCY IN INTERACTIVE PSYCHOLOGY. THIS CONTINUED UNTIL HE HAD ‘FIELD TESTED’ HIS SYSTEM TO HIS SATISFACTION, OVER A SIXTEEN YEAR PERIOD, AT PRIMARY, SECONDARY, TERTIARY, GRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE LEVELS. IT WAS ONLY THEN THAT HE DECIDED TO MAKE HIS SYSTEM PUBLIC BY FOUNDING MEANINGFUL LEARNING LTD. WHICH NOW HAS SOLE RIGHTS TO HIS SYSTEM. WHILST FULLY ACKNOWLEDGING THE WORK OF HIS PREDECESSORS IN THIS FIELD, DAVID AUSUBEL AND JOE NOVAK.
SINCE THEN CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT NETWORKS HAVE BEEN FURTHER DEVELOPED BY MEANINGFUL LEARNING LTD., TO INCORPORATE ANCILLARY CONCEPTS, TAXONOMIES AND HIERARCHIES, EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES, ANCILLARY INFORMATION AND ASSOCIATIONS, EXAMPLES, COGNITION, AFFECT, SOCIAL ABILITY, AND PSYCHOMOTOR SKILLS. THESE ADDITIONS ARE OF PARTICULAR ASSISTANCE IN CROSS-CURRICULA INTERACTION AS IS ADVISED IN THE RECENTLY PUBLISHED ENGLISH NATIONAL CURRICULUM .
MEANINGFUL LEARNING LTD. IS NOW IN A POSITION TO OFFER ADVICE, AND TO CO-ORDINATE AND CONDUCT TRAINING SESSIONS IN CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT NETWORKS ON BEHALF OF INDIVIDUALS, SCHOOLS, COLLEGES, AND STUDENTS, AS CLASSROOM WORKSHOPS, AS INSET DAYS FOR TEACHERS, AND SMALL GROUP PRIVATE SEMINARS. (BECAUSE OF CURRENT COMMITMENTS, TEMPORARILY LIMITED TO ART AND CREATIVITY)
WE BELIEVE WE ARE THE FIRST BRITISH ORGANIZATION TO DESCRIBE ANY SUCH SYSTEM ON A WEBSITE. WE HOPE YOU WILL BENEFIT FROM THE REMAINDER OF THIS SITE.
(1) AUSUBEL, D P: 1963: FOUND IN AUSUBEL, D P ET AL: EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY: A COGNITIVE VIEW (2nd EDN) NEW YORK:HOLT. RINEHART AND WINSTON
(2) NOVAK, J, Novak, J D: A Theory of Education: Cornell University Press: Ithica, NY, 1977
(3) ROSENTHAL, S: NETWORK ANALYSIS AND DERIVED TECHNIQUES: APC: 1965
(4) BUZAN, T, AND BUZAN, B: THE MIND MAP BOOK: BBC ACTIVE: HARLOW: 2007
