Ms Susanna Carter

I started my career as a secondary school teacher. I have always been interested in how students learn and how to make them better learners. I have taught at all levels of education from reception to year 12 in both the secondary and private sector. Mostly I have been a teacher of German and English and then English as a Second Language. My main aim has always been how to help students be confident learners and motivate them to be excited about what they are learning.

When my children were of school age I studied Japanese at the University of Adelaide and became involved with Japanese exchange students. Through this link I won a job at the Centre for Applied Linguistics in the University of South Australia (CALUSA) now known as (CELUSA). Here I worked with international students preparing them for entry into tertiary study and immigrant professionals mainly in the health sciences preparing them for entry into the workforce. It was then that I started my Masters in Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University and became interested in Funcitonal Grammar and its use in teaching students in ESL and native speakers of English.

When CALUSA closed, I became interested in IT and gained a diploma in Microsoft Technology with a private training institution - finally finding work with PROTECH. I missed teaching, however, and went back to education finally getting my present appointment as a Learning Adviser at UniSA.

As a Learning Adviser I have been able to pursue my interest in teaching and learning by supporting students in their coursework and assignments and by working with academics to support students. This is where my interest in mind mapping began. I became increasingly aware of the potential of this technique to help students who were struggling with their studies, their assignments or managing their workload. It has been spectacularly successful with students who have taken up mind mapping seriously and especially mature age learners returning to study or students who have had trouble studying in the past.

I am presently enrolled as a Phd canditate in the School of Education. I hope to to deepen my understanding of mind mapping and discoveries in cognitive neuroscience and to pursue the application of mind mapping to teaching and learning in the tertiary sector. I think it is an excellent tool to foster student engagement and certainly supports the new Teaching and Learning framework of UniSA.

To demonstrate how effective mind maps are in representing information here is a sample text followed by a mind map of that information.

SELECTION CRITERIA Essential

1. Tertiary qualifications in a field relevant to academic administration or equivalent demonstrated experience.
2. Highly developed interpersonal and negotiation skills to participate in teams and to liaise professionally with people at all levels within and external to the organisation.
3. Demonstrated experience in the development and presentation of concise reports and documentation for a range of audiences.
4. Advanced computing skills including proficiency with administrative information (database) systems, web and Microsoft office programs (eg: Email, Word, Excel, Access, Publisher, and PowerPoint).
5. Demonstrated experience in undertaking analysis of data and benchmarking activities.
6. Ability to interpret and apply policies and procedures and devise and implement strategies to achieve objectives.
7. Demonstrated ability to contribute to and lead the development, implementation and continuous improvement of guidelines, procedures and administrative systems to deliver high quality services.
8. Demonstrated organisational and time management skills to effectively plan and prioritise to meet competing deadlines.

Writing in the Sciences - a blog for UniSA students and staff by Learning Connection

Mind map exchange website

Mind Brain Education

Tony Buzan's website

Neuroscience and cognition - an excellent blog

The sharp brains blog

Lumosity - games to speed up your brain!

How to create wordles

Link to my abstract for Fourth International Conference on Design Principles and Practices: Using Design Principles for a Global Pedagogy.

Fourth International Conference on Design Principles and Practices 2010

Connie Malamed's new book: Visual Language for Designers.

The grammar gang

• I will be presenting a jointly authored paper on our collaboration with members of Purdue University's Owl team and Learning Advisers at the The 2009 Academic Language and Learning Conference - 'Learning together: crossing boundaries through collaborative practices within and beyond the tertiary context' will be held at the University of Queensland, 26-27 November. The paper looks at the achievements of our collaboration and the blog it has produced (Grammar Gang) and the benefits to bloggers, students and staff members of both universities.
• A proposal for the 4th International Design Conference in Chicago 2010 has been accepted and will be addressing the following topic:Using Design Principles for a Global Pedagogy: Teaching to the Students of the Information Age. I will be discussing how design of information can influence cognition in ease of understanding and learning.
• The link to my abstract is above.
• If you are interested in this topic please see Connie Malamed's interesting website and especially check out her book Visual Design Language for Designers.
• I am especially interested in Tony Buzan's mind mapping technique and am currently working with Maurizio Costabile on a Teaching and Learning Grant funded project which will use mind maps to present the Immunology N 201 course and mind map the chapters of the main text book for the course.
• I am also working with Dale Wache and Dr Tangi Steen on a Teaching and Learning Grant funded project which will be evaluating group online peer assessment tools.
• The draft proposal for my PhD research is titled 'Investigating mind mapping to enhance student learning – a case study approach.' Can mind mapping be used to enhance student learning in higher education? Can it be applied to different disciplines? Can it be used by people from different cultures and educational backgrounds? What is it about mind mapping that helps learning? Is mind mapping a different way of learning? Does using mind maps in student learning foster creativity and intelligence? Does mind mapping enable deeper learning? Does mind mapping alter brain oscillations in a different way to the usual approaches to learning? Can neurological evidence be found to support any of these claims?
• Click below to see this 'wordle' which contains all the words I can think of that are related to mind mapping, its functions and applicability.

I am a member of the Association for Academic Language and Learning.

Bachelor of Arts

Honours Politics

Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education

PhD Education Candidate

• Mind mapping and its role in enhancing learning and cognition.
• Discoveries in cognitive neuroscience and how they can be applied to enhance teaching and learning in tertiary education.
• Our research degree qualities as a 'wordle'
• 
• Looking at text and design and how we can apply our knowledge of cognition to promote text design which facilitates cognition, learning and understanding in students. The use of images and applying what we know about visual literacy into text design is part of this research.