Assessment

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Course Name: Research Project Course EDU 4503
Code:

Instructor Name: Allan Mutambo

Task Title: Reflective Research Paper

Due Date: May 7th, 2017 Date May 7th, 2017

Submitted:

Students Name & ID: Yasmin Ibrahim Mohammed

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Word count: 5619 words Section: Education-Year 4,

Level 8

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This assignment is entirely my own work except where I have duly acknowledged other sources
in the text and listed those sources at the end of the assignment. I have not previously submitted
this work to the HCT. I understand that I may be orally examined on my sub


yasmin

I
















What is the effect of using mind mapping on
grade three writing?



Yasmin Ibrahim


















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Abstract


The current classroom-based study was intended to investigate the effect of mind
mapping strategy on grade three writing. The main objective of the research was to
promote ESL learners writing skills. The context of the study was a primary school
located in Ras Al Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates. The research respondents were
determined by using purposive sampling that consists six participants from grade three.
The design of this research was mixed methods qualitative & quantitative. Data were
collected by using pre &post-writing test, interview, reflective journals, PTE test scores,
and rubric. The findings of this study suggested that mind mapping seemed to raise
writing tests scores, develop creative thinking, and enhance organizing information in
paragraphs. The paper has some implications in interview participants. The study
recommended further to use mind mapping as a writing planning tool that provides a
practical improvement in writing skills, especially for ESL classrooms.



Keywords: United Arab Emirates, writing skills, mind mapping technique, ESL, creative
thinking.

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Table of contents

Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 1

Literature Review .............................................................................................................................................. 3

Operation Definitions of Key Terms .................................................................................................. 3
Reviews on Mind Mapping Strategy ................................................................................................... 4

Research Methodology .................................................................................................................................... 6

Research Design ........................................................................................................................................... 6
Action Research ........................................................................................................................................... 6
Sampling and Participants ..................................................................................................................... 7
Data Collection Tools ................................................................................................................................. 7
Reflective Journals .............................................................................................................................. 8
Pre- & Post-writing Test .................................................................................................................. 8
Student Self-evaluation Rubric ..................................................................................................... 8
PTE Test Scores .................................................................................................................................. 9
Interview ................................................................................................................................................ 9
Ethical Considerations ............................................................................................................................ 10

Research Implementation ........................................................................................................................... 11

Findings ............................................................................................................................................................... 15
Mind mapping and organizing information ............................................................................. 15
Mind mapping effectiveness on writing test scores .............................................................. 16
Mind mapping and creative thinking development .............................................................. 20
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................... 22
Limitation of the Research ............................................................................................................... 22
Recommendation for Future Study ............................................................................................. 22
Research contributions in Personal and Professional Growth ........................................ 23

Reference list .................................................................................................................................................... 24

Appendices ........................................................................................................................................................ 26
Appendix 1: Blooms Taxonomy Pyramids .............................................................................. 26

IV
 Appendix 2 Calhouns Research Cycle ....................................................................................... 26
Appendix 3 Student Self-evaluation Rubric ............................................................................ 27
Appendix 4 PTE Marking Category ............................................................................................. 27
Appendix 5: Interview Questions ................................................................................................ 28
Appendix 6 Permission Letters ...................................................................................................... 29
Appendix 7 Pre-writing Test Student A artifact ................................................................... 31
Appendix 8 Reflective Journal ....................................................................................................... 31
Appendix 9: Practices Artifact ....................................................................................................... 32
Appendix 10 Classroom Practices Artifact .............................................................................. 32
Appendix 11 Student B Self-evaluation rubric in the practices ...................................... 33
Appendix 12 Reflective-Journal .................................................................................. 33
Appendix 13 Reflective Journal (PTE Term Two) ................................................................. 35
Appendix 14 Test artifacts in PTE TERM 1 & Post-writing Test .................................... 35
Appendix 15 Reflective Journal .................................................................................................... 37

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

The English language is considering as one of the important foreign languages that need
to be mastered in the most United Arab Emirates (UAE) schools. In accordance of the
language relevance, I believe writing can be a productive language skill since it
improves the quality of language acquisition, and could be view as words, paragraphs,
and ideas. In spite of the writing importance, I have realized in my teaching practices
that English Second Language (ESL) learners writing is hardly stated their ideas clearly
in paragraphs.

Personally, I was one of them in my earlier school years, because my teachers followed
the product-driven approach in teaching writing. In other words, most teachers in the
UAE government schools are used to focus on traditional writing rather than teaching
the process-driven writing approach. As I was taught to correct the grammar mistakes
and pronunciations, with ignorance of the writing content. In the light of my own
experience as an English student-teacher in UAE schools, I have noticed that until today
teaching writing spotlights only on grammar structures and spelling the words
correctly, without paying attention to the writing coherent and ideas.

Another purpose of choosing this area is because each year the UAE Ministry of
Education gives PTE (Progress Test in English). It is English language skills measuring
test from grade one to upper grades. As a professional teacher, I have to investigate
practical methods that might activate learning process and enhance students English
writings since it worth 30% of PTE. The students are required to write uncovered or
unexpected topics; essentially they are external from the school curriculum. Hence, it
could be beneficial for the PTE annually scores. Last year mean score was 500, while the
average score my students have reached was 437. Obviously, the learners need to
sharpen their English language skills that alternatives to outlining and organizing the
writing paragraphs.

Based on the issue I had in my school; the primary purposed to investigate the mind
mapping strategy effectiveness on grade three writing performances. The study carried

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in the academic year 2016-2017 in a public primary school located in Ras Al-Khaimah.
The target group was grade three girls, English Second Language learners, average age
nine years. The research began from the first semester of my teaching practice until the
end of the second term.

Given this, education professionals might be interested to investigate the following
question: What is the effect of using mind mapping on grade three writing?

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 Chapter 2: Literature Review

In the context of reviewing the literature, teaching writing is considering as a relevant
skill, and there might be certain procedures to teach it effectively. Accordingly, this
section first presents the operation terms of the study. Then covers a wide variety of
theories findings who used mind mapping in teaching writing (both positive and
negative).

Operation Definitions of Key Terms

In this study, mind mapping can be defined as a method used before writing to generate
ideas linked about a specific topic to show the connections between a topic and ideas.
Indeed, mind mapping is a powerful pre-writing tool to support learners to overcome
writing challenges by organizing several ideas and pieces of information (Ariana &
Mirabela, 2012). With regard to the mind mapping purpose, I used it as a planner before
writing tasks. Additionally, writing is represented as a descriptive writing paragraph
that should be performed by students after mapping their ideas to the paragraph topic.
In fact, this type of writing delivers and carries an authors ideas, thoughts, feelings,
desires on the written form depending on the task question (Byrne, 1991; Colantone,
1998; Ibnian, 2011). To allow students use the mind map, they should be given an
opportunity to think and explore about the topic to associate ideas; this process is called
brainstorming. The approach of brainstorming is defined as a random generation of
ideas based on a subject, the technique used to activate students brain and their use
prior knowledge (Svantesson, 1989).

Therefore, having students to create a mind map and generate ideas is considered as a
high level of thinking in Blooms Taxonomy theory (see Appendix 1). The process of
writing is expected to contribute to strengthening thinking skills because learners
employ them by connecting, analyzing and evaluating ideas that lead to sharpening
their thinking skills (French & Rhoder, 1992).



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Reviews on Mind Mapping Strategy

In a field study carried out in the RAK high school, Al Naqbi (2011) found that using
mind mapping under exam conditions has helped students to organize their ideas in
writing tasks and got higher scores than students who did not use the strategy. Her
study is close to mine since both were conducted in UAE public schools, except the age
differences. Similarly, another recent research by Abrams & Byrd (2016) has indicated
significant correlations between the amount of ideas learners generated on using mind
mapping comparing with ones who did not. Apparently, our both researchers are
similar in the way of introducing the strategy and for second language learners.
Moreover, a previous research entitled Mind Mapping and brainstorming as Methods
of Teaching business concepts in English as a Foreign Language was carried by Ariana
& Mirabela (2012); suggested that mind mapping and brainstorming did not only
improve learners writing ideas, but it made learners get their freedom, openly and
confidently express their thoughts verbally and written. It seems that brainstorming has
a huge role in generating ideas into mind mapping since students think and use linked
ideas.

On the other hand, mind mapping strategy also comes with it set of drawbacks as some
theorists claimed. A prior study was done by Farrand, Hussain, and Hennessy appeared
that undergraduate students who used the mind map technique experienced a limited
but notable effect by the mind map remained strong only at the beginning, after which
the students were considerably less motivated to use it. To our knowledge, motivation
plays a massive role in students learning otherwise the learning wont take place.
Conversely of what Abrams & Byrd (2016) stated; Pressley, VanEtten, Yokoi, Freebern,
and VanMeter (1998) study has claimed that mind mapping could be time-consuming
because learners displayed data better when they emphasized soaking up content
directly rather than trying to find a particular style of organizing ideas. Sometimes mind
mapping appears to take away time for a teacher to present the strategy and for
students to organize ideas that they might not use all of them. Although Ariana &
Mirabela (2012) agreed that mind mapping is the best form of teaching writing, Mento,
Martinelli & Jones (1999) investigated that is difficult and unaffected approach for

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students when they have a new topic and they may not have clear enough ideas to be
able to organize the thoughts from the first place. It sounds that mind mapping may not
work when students dont have a subject background.

Overall, it is obvious that mind mapping strategy can go both ways positive and
negative effects. As some theorist suggested it tends to increase test scores, generate
creative ideas, and express thoughts confidently. Nevertheless, it might be time-
consuming, decrease learners motivation to write, and ineffectual for unfamiliar topics.

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 Chapter 3: Research Methodology

The purpose of the investigation is to discover and answer the question What is the
effect of mind mapping on grade three writing?. This section focuses on the procedures
to collect information and data in a way to systematically solve the research question.
Researchers not only need to know how to answer certain issues, but they also need to
know which of these methods could work, what would they mean and why. I followed
some specific research techniques to gather information as shown below.

Research Design
My primary data for this study were collected through conducting mixed methods
(qualitative and quantitative). The qualitative or inductive method is based on
naturalistic, observational, and exploratory, it grounded in descriptions of participants
with no experimentation or measurement tools (Bell, 2002). Whereas the quantitative
or deductive method requires numerical inputs or direct measurements for the
investigation (Bell, 2002; Creswell, 2009). Apparently, using both approaches are likely
allowing researchers to be more confident of the study results. Jick (1979) noted that
mixed research attempting may serve to address the questions since it leads to thicker,
richer, and variety ways of collecting data.

Action Research
Conducting an action research along with teaching primary opened my eyes to things I
have never considered before. From the word action, it means to take action toward
an issue and find ways to solve it. In education, it can be introduced as the process of
studying a school or classroom situation to improve the quality of students learning
process with new knowledge or resolve problems (Mills, 2007; Kothari, 2004, Stringer,
2008). Pedagogically, it is an important option for teachers who face challenges that
effect on learners learning because research might find the right strategies to solve
them. In my study, I attempt to evaluate using mind mapping in writing contents in the
classroom.

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For my investigation, I have adapted Calhouns research cycle in two semesters and it
includes five phases of implementing the research (see Appendix 2). Initially, I carried a
classroom-based research over nine weeks in my last year of teaching practice. On
October of 2016, I started to investigate my research question at Nusibah Primary
School for Girls. The first cycle of research started with selecting an area which is mind
mapping effectiveness on writing. I have selected the focus area according to my
classroom need in improving English writing level. Furthermore, the rest of the cycle
went through the second term in order to gather data for the study. I have collected data
through qualitative and quantitative methods. Then, l organized data gotten from all
tools and adjusted them when needed. I have analyzed and interpreted data received
from the tools. Finally, the action will be taken whether to use mind mapping or to go
through the cycle again with another writing strategy that may work. It is a practical
cycle because the researcher can easily follow and reflect on each stage, and it allows to
take changes as necessary to fit the action plans and tools gathering (Al Naqbi, 2011). I
think this cycle is the best model for my research because there are interactions among
the stages and flexible for me to use and collect information in all stages in case I found
helpful tools to use.

Sampling and Participants
I chose grade three students, and it consisted 32 emirate students aged between 8 to 10
years old. All of the girls were English second language learners according to their
school profiles. The classroom was chosen regarding purposive sampling. In this
sampling, researchers observe and select purposely individuals who are capable of
providing relevant information (Bell, 2010). I believe it is purposive because I have four
sections in grade three and l chose section 2 for my research. Then, I chose six
participants from this class as they have mixed writing abilities (low, middle, and high-
level), and Im interested to find the mind mapping strategy effectiveness on different
students writing abilities.

Data Collection Tools
To examine the effectiveness of mind mapping strategy on grade three students, I went
through specific procedures and tools in gathering data. According to Mill (2007), the

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researchers should collect data which are appropriate and accessible for them. In this
study, data collection and instruments that were accessible and used are journals, pre &
post-writing tests, interview, student self-evaluation rubric, and PTE test scores.

1. Reflective journals
Weekly, I entered one journal after observing my students during writing practices and
tests. I reflected and wrote on what I have noted and how could I change some of my
tools and ways in teaching mind mapping. As each time I observed and reflected on my
journals, I found that I have to modify my ways along with teaching mind mapping.
Reflections provide opportunities for researchers to record live information from live
cases and it allows teachers to watch their learners through different sides (Mills,
2007). This method allowed to gather data that fits my students abilities in order to
reach the outcomes.

2. Pre-writing test
In sequence to discover the sampling students writing levels, I gave a pre-test before
introducing the mind mapping concept. I tested them once in the first week to
acknowledge myself of their starts and how far could they improve after few weeks
when I compare the results.

3. Student self-evaluation rubric
I designed a rubric for students to evaluate their using of mind mapping after each
writing practice. I have noticed that having a scale (from 1-5 points) in the rubric
writing helped students to conceptualize the mind mapping way more than before (see
Appendix 3). The learners started to reflect on how did they use mind mapping
information in their writings and score themselves out of 5 points. The rubric aimed to
aware students that generating a ton of ideas without writing them wont lead to high
scores in self-evaluating.

4. Post-writing test
I have provided two post-writing tests to evaluate students progress and the influence
of mind mapping. The first test topic was similar with the pre-test that I gave them in

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the earlier weeks. While the second test topic was the same question covered in PTE
test in the first semester. Wilson (2010) has stated that to meet the research reliability,
other researchers need to be able to generate results by using the same methods under
similar conditions. I believe having the same subject from the same students might give
accurate answers since I can compare the writings progress.

5. PTE Test Scores
As I have mentioned earlier that annually the Ministry of Education gives PTE exam at
the end of every semester. The second term PTEs writing scores have been part of my
research because my focus group used mind mapping strategy, and I have used the
results to compare with the first term PTE test scores. The Progress Test in English or
PTE involves a paper-based exam that evaluates the participants proficiency with the
language capabilities in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening (The UAE National
Agenda Parameter, 2017). My study concentrated only on writing section which is out
of 16 for four categories (see Appendix 4).

6. Interview
I conducted an interview for five random sampling students to analyze their opinions
about mind mapping as well as to link the answers with their test result. According to
Mill (2007), interviewing participants is useful to gather relevant information from
their perspectives and responses about the researchers used methods. Indeed, I chose
the simple random sampling because different academic level of students will have
equal chance to share their opinions. It is considered as a fair way of selecting a sample
from a given sampling since every member is given equal opportunities of being
selected (Patten, 2009). However, I have voice- recorded chosen students and asked
them opened-questions designed as follow-up to their progress with using mind
mapping in the tests (see Appendix 5). The interview was designed as informal
interview in a small group. Mills (2007) has stated that informal interviews are more
productive because the participants feel more comfortable as it looks typical
interactions between the teacher and students in the classroom.

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Ethical Considerations
Before collecting the data, I took permissions from the school principal, English head
teacher, and participants parents (see Appendix 6). Research permission always need
to carry out and be sought at an early stage (Bell, 2002). Additionally, research ethics
must be clear about the nature of the investigation subjects (Bell, 2002). The
participants have been informed about the research topic and purpose before
conducting any tool. As participants names are hidden to protect their privacy rights.
Moreover, I got the access of the participants PTE test scores with the school principal
permission.

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 Chapter 4: Implementation

In terms of investigating strategies that perhaps improve the writing skills, the
implementation of the technique was conducted within nine weeks. I have presented
mind mapping concept as a preparation tool to plan before writing. During the
implementation, I adopted Calhouns research cycle to reflect upon my teaching
strategies and adjusted them if necessary. However, the following weekly procedures
brought to light the research findings.

Week 1
During the first week of my investigation, I gave a pre- writing test about what is your
favorite transportation (see Appendix 7). A previous study by Matten (2013) has
recommended measuring a starting point before experimenting a new strategy, to
compare the learning progress level between start and post-tests. However, the test was
given individually and lasted about 20 minutes. During the pre-test, I was upset to see
the participants leaped into writing without planning or even thinking about the topic.
Their writings seemed to lack of linked ideas or direct focus. Al Naqbi (2011), has
reported in her research for high school students that lack of planning is a common
downfall of learners writing grades in UAE.

Then, the brainstorming method was presented by giving learners a topic about
summer holiday. They were asked to think and share verbally of any related ideas
that showed up in their mind. Occasionally, the students brainstormed and shared
thoughts from their prior knowledge. I presented the brainstorming technique to gather
the list of ideas that comes up in mind without writing them in paragraphs. The focus
group were not familiar or taught on how to brainstorm. I noticed that from the first
practice when I asked them to come up with ideas, they seemed to be confused because
they used to write down ideas without planning or thinking. Ariana & Mirabela (2012)
mentioned in their study of introducing brainstorming preferred to start in sequence to
deliver the idea successfully especially for ESL learners. Thus, first-week focus was only
in brainstorming on association ideas. As well as, some of the practices were in groups
since they felt shy to present their ideas individually at the beginning (see Appendix 8).
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Week 2-3
In the second week, I introduced the mind mapping concept as a pre-writing tool with
modeling it on the board (see Appendix 9). The instructional sequence to teach mind
map is suggested by Buzan (2006), the father of mind mapping technique. Is first to
circle a topic, then create an arrow each time students write a key word or idea
connected to the subject. In the end, the mind map would be like a visual structuring of
ideas about a specific topic. However, the students were taught on how to draw nets
and map out their thoughts.

In the third week, brainstorming concept along with creating mind mapping was
adopted to different topics like house, school, farm, hobbies, etc (see Appendix 10). Al
Naqbi (2011) literature review has suggested giving students opportunities in
brainstorming by providing a wide variety of writing. Each practice the participants
were trained to brainstorm in few minutes, then about three minutes to map their
thoughts. After that, they were given 15 minutes to write their planned ideas in
paragraphs. There was a challenge diagnosed during reflecting my journal, the students
started to focus on generating ideas rather than the writing structure. They likely
ignored the writing section and focused only on creating a maximum number of ideas
with less time to write them. It was not satisfying because the aim of mind mapping was
to improve their writing not to marginalized it.

Week 4-6
In week four, I modified my teaching strategies and designed the student-evaluation
rubric and asked them to evaluate their writings (see Appendix 3). Hence, students
were asked to reflect on their using of mind mapping ideas after each writing practice.
The rubric was evaluated by students themselves after finishing their writings. In the
first two times, students attained low scores in the scale because they noticed that ideas
were generated but not written (see Appendix 11). However, later on, the learners
started to acknowledge the process of mind mapping and how to associate it in writing.
Therefore, I hardly trained the students to mind map in less than ten minutes by
preparing activities like the actual writing tests time limits.

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In week five and six, the students were asked to write paragraphs by their own after
creating the mind mapping. I modeled some suitable writings to support the
participants in conceptualizing of using ideas from mind mapping in the writings. The
students were given topics from their interests and choices to practice in three times.
Naqbi (2011) has recommended future studies to give learners chances to write what
they are interested in. I noticed that students scored high points in the rubric because
the map ideas produced well in writings since they were engaged more about the topic.
The duration was restricted again to train the learners of spending the exact time in the
PTE tests.

Week 7-8
In week seven, I created the similar PTE exam environment to give the first post-writing
test. To record the participants progress and the effectiveness of mind mapping, I
provided the similar topic with the pre-writing test which was about transportations.
They were given only 15 minutes because the same topic was covered in the pre-
writing test with the same duration. In relate to the research review, Abrams & Byrd
(2016) advised researchers to offer similar test questions under similar conditions to
analogize the progress sufficiently. As I reflected from my journals that participants
performed productive and organized ideas comparing with the first test. Even
surprisingly, the depth of topic understanding and organization of ideas were positively
improved (see Appendix 12).

In week eight, I gave the second post-writing test, and the topic was the same question
covered in PTE test in the first semester. The topic was about talk about yourself, and
they were given 20 minutes the same Term 1 PTE test period. I chose the same topic to
have an opportunity to compare the writing impact with using mind mapping.
Highlighting to the time issue, students seemed to spend less time as they used to, I
noticed most of them finished five minutes earlier. For a moment, I was concerned
because that they missed converting to the writing. To find out information about the
incident, I had a casual conversation with Student A, and she said: I feel like I
brainstorm automatically and map them quickly after all the practices. As I reflected on
my observations, with wide exercises, the participants were familiar and capable of

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generating ideas faster than they used to. Additionally, two days later, the PTE term 2
exam was held. The students were confirmed to have PTE test with an unexpected topic
for writing. I was allowed to observe and take notes for my journals (see Appendix 13).
The students were given 20 minutes to write about favorite types of food. At the end
of the week, the three writing tests were marked by school English teachers according
to the PTE category (see Appendix 4).

Week 9
I conducted a ten minutes informal interview with some participants and asked
questions related to mind mapping experiences (see Appendix 5). I chose five random
students by my participants name list to analyze their opinions about mind mapping.
As I was asking the same questions, I noticed that two of the participants answers were
not matched to their previous answers. I had some rephrased questions in the questions
list to evaluate their answers validity. I realized later on that maybe they did not
comprehend the questions since they were asked in English. Overall, the interview went
like a small-group discussion like any other classes activities. I noticed that the students
felt assured to share their perceptions and discuss them. While I only monitor the
interview directions and ensured all of the participants had chances to answer equally.

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 Chapter 5: Findings

The main purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of mind mapping on
learners writing, especially for grade three. The effectiveness was determined by
writing pre & post-tests, comparing PTE scores, rubric, interview and classroom
reflections. After the data have been collected, I turned to the task of analyzing them
and divided my findings into three main themes.

1. Mind mapping and organizing information

Throughout analyzing data, it seems that mind mapping not only enhanced generating
ideas, but organizing information in writings. According to the school English teacher
who marked the PTE term 2, she claimed that most of the participants got high scores in
paragraphing section in the PTE category (see Appendix 4). Therefore, the below figure
1 table indicates the interviewees answers of this aspect.

Figure 1: the participants responses in the interview

According to my reflective journals, when I gave the second post-test, learners came up
with many linked ideas and organized them way more than I expected. As it is shown in
figure 2, screenshot from my reflective journal (see also Appendix 13).

Figure 2: second post-writing test reflective journal

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In this regard, and by referring back to the literature review, both Ariana & Mirabela
(2012) and Al Naqbi (2011) stated that using mind mapping strategy is an efficient way
to organize ideas clearly and sequencly in paragraphs. My findings agreed with theirs
maybe because we shared the same sampling which are non-native English students. It
could be noticed that non-native English speakers need to be taught a practical strategy
to plan before English writing.

Therefore, the mind mapping ideas were introduced and linked well in the writings. I
noticed that with writing down all ideas, students realized where each idea should go to
smooth logical connections among ideas. As it is displayed in figure 3.

Figure 3: Student A mind mapping ideas about food and the sub-ideas

I realized that mind mapping might help learners to organize their ideas in paragraphs
because they likely visualize, plan and organize them rather than writing any idea
jumps in their mind.


2. Mind mapping effectiveness on writing test scores

- PTE Term Two Scores
According to the scores I collected from the PTE test in term 2, I assume that
participants scores have raised about 3-5 points. The test was marked by the school
teachers according to PTE category (see Appendix 4), as four marks for each.
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 Figure 4: the participants PTE test scores in term 1 and 2

Comparing with the term one scores, the students who used mind mapping slightly
improved their writing structure and got higher grades as it is shown in the figure 4.

Though the strategy was implemented less than three months, but the outcomes
seemed to be satisfying. The participants were capable to produce productive writings
in the test. This was obviously suggested in the PTE tests results, and the participants by
themselves in the interview as shown in figure 5 table.

Figure 5: the participants responses toward the interview question

My finding seems to go in favor of the literature review which Al Naqbi, (2011) and
Abrams & Byrd (2016) have found that mind mapping has improved writing test
grades.

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However, in relate to my observations, I noted that majority of students have been
struggling in the writing test and generally spend more time than expected as shown in
figure 6 (see also Appendix 13).

Figure 6: PTE (term 2) writing test reflective journal

As highlighted in my literature review, VanEtten, Yokoi, Freebern, and VanMeter (1998)

argued that mind mapping could be time consuming because learners displayed data
better when they get in the content directly rather than trying to find a specific way of
organizing ideas. It appears that my findings go against this research because the
participants finished earlier than the students who did not used mind mapping strategy.
There could be many reasons of this difference, maybe because my participants are in
primary school while their participants were college students. I think the amount of
wording and writing complexly is extremely different.

- Pre, post-writing test results
The post-writing tests as they were similar topics of pre-test and term one test, the head
of English teacher marked them according to the PTE rubric (see Appendix 4). I

Figure 7: the writing scores in pre-writing test comparing with the first post writing test. 18

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analyzed that there was a significant progress in the final product of post-tests
comparing with the pre-tests and PTE term 1 test scores as shown in figures 7 & 8.

Figure 8: the writing test scores in term one PTE comparing with second post writing test.

The significant change that occurred in the test data is that all participants scores went
up approximately from 2-5 marks. It is interesting to note that the results post-test
results showed a positive relationship between using mind mapping and scoring higher
grades.

By referring back to my literature review, Farrand, Hussain and Hennessy (2002) have
seen that mind map technique as a noteworthy effect since it remained strong only for
the first week, and then students get less motivated to use it. This seems to go across my
findings because I gave two post-writing tests after eight weeks and the students looked
motivated all the way of implementing the strategy. Therefore, the post-test results
seem reasonable to assume the participants motivation did not affect while using mind
mapping strategy. As I have asked in the interview the following question (figure 9):

Figure 9: the participants responses to the interview question 19

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However, in relate to my observations, I noted that student A performance seemed to be
improved comparing with both pre-test and PTE writing. The gap between process to
the final product writing has been fulfilled with mind mapping strategy. The figure 10
shows a piece of my reflective journal (see also Appendix 12).

Figure 9: the participants responses to the interview question

Figure 10: second post-writing test reflective journal

Overall, students presented better writing performances in post-test comparing with
PTE 1 and pre-test. It could be notable that mind mapping enhanced their abilities to
produce well-quality of ideas in the writing (see Appendix 12).

3. Mind mapping and creative thinking development

According to my data, I have analyzed that mind mapping is likely to develop
participants thinking skills. I noted they became better in planning, generating,
organizing ideas. The students spent less time than they used to since their thinking and
practicing different topic have activate their brain. In other words, they have fed their
mind with different ideas and each time a new topic is discussed, they connect it with
the previous backgrounds and come up with new ideas.

As cited in the literate review, Mento, Martinelli & Jones (1999) claimed that is mind
mapping is seen as unaffected approach for students when they have a new topic.
According my reflective journals, I noted that students were able to create ideas with
different and new topics without difficulties as shown in the figure 11 (see also
Appendix 15).

Figure 11: practice-week reflective journal

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I assume because students used to rely on their background to create new ideas in mind
mapping. According to my participants perceptions of this point and responses as it is
shown in figure 12.

Figure 12: the participants responses to the interview question

Referring to my literature review, French & Rhoder (1992) agreed that the process of
mind mapping builds up learners cognitive skills. My findings seem to agree with their
results, as we both conducted it for young primary school girls and in two months.

Overall, mind mapping seemed to enhance students abilities to build connections and
establish associations between their experience and new information.















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 Chapter 6: Conclusion

The conclusion was made based on using qualitative and quantitative methods in
collecting data such as interview, pre, post-writing tests, rubric, PTE test scores, and
journals. The findings suggest that mind mapping may impact on students abilities to
organize their information effectively in writings. Therefore, using mind mapping could
raise PTE test scores and writing tests. Additionally, it could be noted that it develops
learners thinking skills and generating new concepts from their prior knowledge. In
general, mind mapping strategy appears to be a suitable writing tool for grade three ESL
learners. As it supports them to focus on writing process to produce a well-organized
final writing product. It is likely to face some challenges when conducting mind
mapping strategy, especially for ESL learners who still in the process of learning the
language. But I think using mind map worth trying in UAE government schools since it
might improve their writing skills. I used mind mapping strategy myself as a student,
and it helped me in writing and generating ideas. To be honest, I still use it in my college
courses because it smoothly organizes my essays content.

Limitation of the Research
The study had a limitation that should be considered in future researches. It might be
obvious that the interview questions were asked in English while all of the participants
were ESL learners. That leaded to misunderstanding the questions, as I had to reduce
the participants number into three only. I could have more or different perceptions if I
interviewed all members. Also, it can be argued that the research has faced lack of
objectivity or the data collected from the interview possible threat the research validity.
However, the research included other instruments that backed up the limitation of
participants in the interview. Therefore, the interview questions were rephrased to
evaluate the respondents honesty. This helped me to include three participants
perceptions whom answers were matched.

Recommendation for Future Study
Regarding the limitations of the study, further researches are suggested to provide
translation for non-native speakers in case giving interviews or any instrument that
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required perceptions. Also, it would be very useful to consider to use both girls and
boys for testing. My study was performed only on girls as participants so gender
differences should be taken into account.

Research contributions in Personal and Professional Growth
Conducting this study has been fruitful and enriched my experience in the education
field that contributed to my personal and professional growth. To be more precise,
during the investigation I faced challenges which developed my thinking, reflecting, and
teaching skills. As reflection and conducting research are part of student-teacher
competencies, I become more reflective on my own teaching strategies and how to
adjust and improve them to fit my students. Therefore, the research has enhanced me to
meet the course EDU 4503 requirements to the commitment in conducting research
through two internships. However, personally, I noticed that I build my personal
teaching philosophy from this study because I chose different academic level
participants that inspired me to believe all students are willing to learn. Overall, I have
learned some worthwhile research skills that would help me in future to investigative
classroom issues.

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