Tony Buzan

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Tony Buzan
Born	2nd June 1942 Palmers Green, Middlesex
Influenced Mohammad Faisal
Official website

Tony Buzan is an author and educational consultant. He is a proponent of the techniques of Mind Mapping^[1] and mental literacy. He claims to have worked with "corporate entities and businesses all over the world; academics; Olympic athletes; children of all ages; governments; and high profile individuals, in teaching them how to maximize the use of their brain power."^[2]

Background

Buzan was born in Palmers Green, Enfield, Middlesex, is an alumnus of Kitsilano Secondary School where he was Head Boys Prefect 1959-60. He is probably best known for his book, Use Your Head, his promotion of mnemonic systems and his Mind Mapping techniques. He launched his own software program to support Mind Mapping called iMindMap in December 2006. His website, Buzan World, cites trademarks on the phrase 'Mind Maps' which he has registered in many countries.

Following his 1970s series for the BBC, many of his ideas have been set into his series of five books: Use Your Memory, Master Your Memory, Use Your Head, The Speed Reading Book and The Mind Map Book. He has since authored or co-authored over 100 books that have appeared in 30 languages.

As a popular psychology author, Tony Buzan has written on subjects relating to the brain, "genius quotient (GQ)", spiritual intelligence, memory, creativity and speed reading. He is the founder and President of the Brain Foundation (not to be confused with various medical-related bodies with the same name) and also the Brain Trust Charity, the World Memory Championships^[3] and the World Championships of the Brain. He was a co-founder of London's Mind Body Spirit Festival as well as the Mind Sports Olympiad^[4].

Education

• Whitstable School for Boys, Kent;
• Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys, Canterbury, Kent;
• Kitsilano High School, Vancouver, British Columbia;
• The University of British Columbia (BA Hons Arts with Science), 1964

Decorations and Orders

• Freeman of the City of London,1984
• The Eagle Catcher Award, awarded by Electronic Data Systems, “for attempting the impossible and achieving it”,1991
• Special Recognition Award by President Vicente Fox of Mexico for length and excellence of service in helping Mexico with educational and good governance initiatives, 2005.
• Lifetime Achievement Award, The American Creativity Association, for services to global creativity and innovation, 2008
• Granted Armoreal Bearings, College of Arms, 2008
• Freeman of the Guild of Educators, 2009
• Thinker in Residence, Wellington College, 2009^[5]

Career

1959-1970

• Head Boys Prefect, Kitsilano High School, 1959-60
• Captain, winning school chess team, Provincial Schools Chess Team Championship, British Columbia, 1959
• Valedictorian High School Graduation, Kitsilano High, 1960
• Invention of Mind Map, 1960-74
• Feature Journalist, University of British Columbia student newspaper, 1961-62
• First job: ‘removing manure’ on a chicken farm! 1964
• Lecturer, Psychology, English and Creative Thinking, Simon Fraser University, 1964-66
• Inaugural President, Simon Fraser University Student Council, 1965-66
• Special Assignment Teacher, Inner London Education Authority, 1966 – 70
• Co-founded Salatticum Poets with John Carder Bush and Jeremy Cartland, 1967
• Editor, MENSA International Journal, 1969-71

1970-1980

• NUJ, editing and writing for Haymarket Publishing and Daily Telegraph Travel, 1970-74
• Launch of First BBC ten-part television series with accompanying book: Use Your Head, 1973-74
• Prime time feature documentary on the future of education and the brain, The Enchanted Loom, 1974
• Global lecturing connected with the above, 1974-2010
• Writing (see books), 1974-2010
• Advising governments, including those of Australia, Bahrain, China, England, Jamaica, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Mexico, Scotland, Singapore and South Africa, 1974 – 2010
• Advising Fortune 500 companies, including Apple Computers, BBC, Disney, IBM, Intelnecom, Microsoft, Stabilo, Telefonica, and The Kuwaiti Oil Company, 1974-2010

1980-1990

• Initiated the ‘Super Class’, teaching 2,000 Soweto schools students in the government-backed ‘Soweto 2000’, 1981
• Founded the World Speed Reading Championships, 1984
• Member of coaching team for the Great Britain Olympics Rowing squad, Korean Olympics, 1988
• Founded the Brain Trust Charity, No. 1001012, 1989
• Mental Toughness coach, Marlow Rowing Club, 1990-2010
• Originated and subsequently co-founded the World Memory Championship with Raymond Keene, OBE, 1991
• Member of coaching team for the Great Britain Rowing squad, Barcelona Olympics, 1992
• Co-founded the World Mind Mapping and Creativity Championships with Raymond Keene, OBE, 1995
• Co-founded the Festival of the Mind with Raymond Keene, OBE, 1995
• Co-created, with Prince Philip of Liechtenstein, the Renaissance Academy, 1995
• Honorary Black Belt in Aikido awarded for services to and knowledge of the art, 1997

2000-Present

• Member of coaching team for the Great Britain Rowing squad, Sydney Olympics, 2000
• Extended ‘Super Class’ concept, teaching 9000 school children at the Royal Albert Hall, 2005
• Happy Dictionary television feature on Mind Maps and Memory for 300 million people in China CCTV, 2005
• Featured in BBC’s documentary, In Search of Genius, transforming the cognitive skills of young children, described by the BBC as “a unique social experiment”, 2005
• Won the Great Education Debate, National Teachers’ Education Conference, England, 2007
• Honorary Fellow of the Academy for Leadership in Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, 2009
• Founding Member of the Inaugural International Board of Advisors, University Putra Malaysia, 2009
• Developed and launched new taxonomy, after Bloome’s, for reading and learning, 2009

Mind Mapping

Memory

The Mind Mapping process involves a unique combination of imagery, colour and visual-spatial arrangement which is proven to significantly improve recall when compared to conventional methods of note-taking and learning by rote.

• A study by Farrand, Hussain and Hennessey (2002)^[6] found that Mind Mapping improved the long-term memory of factual information in medical students by 10%. They reported that “Mind Maps provide an effective study technique when applied to written material” and are likely to “encourage a deeper level of processing” for better memory formation.

• Research by Toi (2009)^[7] shows that Mind Mapping can help children recall words more effectively than using lists, with improvements in memory of up to 32%.

Creativity

Mind Maps really come into their own for encouraging creativity and enabling you to generate new ideas in brainstorming sessions. The spatial layout helps you gain a better overview and makes new connections more visible so you can create an infinite number of thoughts, ideas, links and associations on any topic.

• Mind Mapping was selected as an effective strategy for encouraging creativity development in engineering students and was applied with encouraging results. It allowed creativity development to be introduced into the curriculum in a way that made best use of the time available (Zampetakis et al., 2007).^[8]

• A study by Al-Jarf (2009)^[9] suggests that Mind Mapping software can improve the ability of students to generate, visualise and organise ideas. The students involved reported that the Mind Mapping tool encouraged creative thinking and they became faster at generating and organising ideas for their writing.

External links

• Biography at open2.net BBC/Open University.

References

1. ^ http://www.open.ac.uk/infoskills-researchers/developing-mindmapping.htm
2. ^ "Personal Details". http://www.buzanworld.com/Information.htm. 
3. ^ http://www.worldmemorychampionships.com/index.asp
4. ^ http://www.worldmemorysportscouncil.com/about_us.asp
5. ^ http://www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/page.aspx?id=8079
6. ^ Farrand, P., Hussain, F. and Hennessy E. (2002), ‘The efficacy of the ‘mind map’ study technique’. Medical Education, Vol. 36 (5), pp 426-431.
7. ^ Toi, H (2009), ‘Research on how Mind Map improves Memory’. Paper presented at the International Conference on Thinking, Kuala Lumpur, 22nd to 26th June 2009.
8. ^ Zampetakis, L. A., Tsironis, L. and Moustakis, V. (2007), ‘Creativity Development in Engineering Education: The Case of Mind Mapping’. Journal of Management Development, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp 370-380.
9. ^ Al-Jarf, R. (2009), ‘Enhancing Freshman students’ Writing Skills with a Mind Mapping software’. Paper presented at the 5th International Scientific Conference, eLearning and Software for Education, Bucharest, April 2009.

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