Sociograms aren't mind maps but they do help organise difficult information visually, which is one of the (many) uses of mind maps. They show difficult information simply.
Below are two sociograms constructed before the use of random pairs and after one term of their use. (Excuse the spelling.) Students had been asked to list about three people in the group they would like to have as a 'support partner' - someone to turn to if they got stuck with work.
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For more information about this project look at the Random Pairs Study. What is important though is that it is easy to see how the group dynamics changed, and the positive effect using random pairs had on the cohesion of the group.
They give powerful information that can be used in many ways, as shown in the mind map above. You can use sociometric techniques without drawing diagrams but that's not what this site's about.
There are whole books written about sociograms and there is a whole range of terminology associated with them. The books can be tricky to get hold of but these two are good starting points:
- Evans, KM (1962) Sociometry and Education London, Routledge and Kegan Paul
- Gronlund, NE (1970) Sociometry in the Classroom Bath, Cedric Chivers
Walsh's (excellent) Classroom Sociometrics program can be used to simplify the whole process. The following are examples of diagrams produced with this software:
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Here is a quick guide. (This is what I do. It is probably technically wrong. But it works.)
Ask you class one simple question - you can have an ulterior motive, such as to draw up a seating plan. You can match a positive question with a negative one. Questions could be:
- If you had to choose a partner to work with on a project who would you choose?
- If you could choose someone to sit next to, who would it be?
- If you were stranded on a desert island, who in the class would be most fun / most likely to help you survive / best company?
You can probably think of more. Make sure you have a list of absent students on the board so they don't get forgotten. As a guide, ask your students to list about 3 students but they can write more or less. How many names an individual writes down can in itself be interesting. Then you take all the students and write their names in circles. If an individual picked another student, draw an arrow from their circle to the circle of the student they picked. Do this for everyone. You will now have a horrible mess but you will also have a better idea about where to place individuals' circles. Redraw the sociogram trying to have as few arrows crossing over as possible. In some computer drawing programs (flow chart programs are best for this) you can move circles around and the arrows will follow. Once you have something that looks okay, you have your finished sociogram.
Tips
- Don't try this with groups over 20 without using software, you will go mad trying to draw the diagrams clearly.
- Positive questions are easier to make sociograms with than negative questions.