Thinking in Maps: NeuraPoints and The Cognitive Code

Forever Art: like a star born long ago.

David Hyerle — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 20:36:40 GMT

These past few months have been a difficult span of time as our friend, our colleague and our mentor, Dr. Art Costa, offered a farewell Aloha and passed on. Art was one of the primary leaders— if not THE linchpin — of the 1980’s movement to focus education on thinking and metacognition in its diversity of forms and processes. His ASCD edited book, De…

Thinking Patterns as the Foundation for Literacy

David Hyerle — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:39:05 GMT

A few months back I had the pleasure and honor to work with the multidiscipline, statewide leaders from the Hawaii DOE Department of Curriculum and Instruction. The above photo is from the Hawaii DOE website and I started our full day exploration together with this classroom clip. Why to I love this view? Behind all of our teaching of disciplines lay…

Could there be...?

David Hyerle — Wed, 27 May 2026 14:54:15 GMT

Could there be a Universal Cognitive Code?

This is a longish post, but I feel that having a more complete framing of this query needs more space!

I have noted in a previous post th…

NeuraPoints for Orchestrating Thinking Patterns

David Hyerle — Sun, 10 May 2026 21:59:24 GMT

The Cartography of Cognition

Before going into depth about NeuraPoints, let’s explore the conceptual metaphor that grounds both the simplicity and utility of this cogn…

What's the Point?! The Cognitive Revolution as an Inflection Point

David Hyerle — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 19:02:29 GMT

Well folks, I am back from a long stretch of time away from Substack and it is good to be back! While away I have been working with a team developing a next-gen model of visual tools— and a Cognitive Code— called NeuraPoints. (Check it out: www.neurapoints.com) Educators and business folks alike will find a common bond here as learners of all ages dev…

Breaking through: Bifocal Assessment in the Cognitive Age

David Hyerle — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 19:51:26 GMT

David Hyerle, Ed.D. and Kim Williams, Ph.D.

Excerpt from “Student Successes with Thinking Maps®” (2nd edition)

(Hyerle, D. and Alper, L. editors)

To access the complete digital book:

h…

Case Study from Victor School District

David Hyerle — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 16:44:53 GMT

Every few months I will be posting research and case studies on Thinking Maps and the direct influence on student learning through a systematic professional development approach. Success doesn’t happen overnight, and as revealed in this case study, it takes the commitment of educators in schools and districts, such as those in the Victor Elementary Sch…

Thinking Schools as a Catalyst

David Hyerle — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 21:26:22 GMT

Hello again!

I am continuing to selectively draw from past writing on Thinking Maps, Visual Tools and the work that my colleagues are doing internationally with Thinking Schools International (www.thinkingschoolsinternational.com).

Visually Leading Thinking

David Hyerle — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 18:43:16 GMT

Thinking Maps® in Action

In previous posts we have looked at visual tools and in particular Thinking Maps as adding value to professional conversations, information gathering, analysis, problem solving and decision making. Here is an excerpt from the introduction to “Developing Connective Leadership”, a book offering the most comprehensive documentatio…

Student Successes with Thinking Maps®

David Hyerle — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 19:53:50 GMT

Hello All !

I have been away from my Substack journal for awhile, focused on new work and, of course, thinking too much about thinking!

Many educators (and non educators) often ask me to define Thinking Maps. Here is …

Pod and Post on Thinking Maps

David Hyerle — Thu, 30 May 2024 14:41:50 GMT

Hello all !

I have had a brief hiatus from this Substack journal and I am back in the swing as most schools closed up for the year and into the summer season. I haven’t been totally lazy! I was able to participate in the Habits of Mind conference in Vista, CA and also gather with colleagues to investigate the concept of Efficacy. More on these happeni…

knowledge workers or thinking work?

David Hyerle — Thu, 02 May 2024 17:59:05 GMT

Graphically Yours

This graphic is grand: so many hands at work and different ways of thinking through the day. There are endless isolated “tools and techniques” for increasing productivity and few true models or common languages for communicating different ways of thinking. The tool belt is sagging on our learners of all ages.

Unfortunately the worlds …

Drawing out Learning with Thinking Maps

David Hyerle — Sat, 13 Apr 2024 23:35:00 GMT

Graphically Yours !

Here is a 6 year old learning about how to use the Bubble Map for describing our big, hot, yellow and fat Sun. Applying one of the eight Thinking Maps®, this young learner is focused on identifying qualities using adjectives and adjective phrases across disciplines and certainly for descriptive writing.

Unlike mindmapping that can be…

Our Thinking Friends

David Hyerle — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 16:33:20 GMT

Graphically Yours

Children so easily play with blocks of different colors, sizes, and shapes. From these primitive forms they create and test their own worlds. Later, through parallel play and then deliberately with playmates, they form unique structures and whole narratives that animate otherwise lifeless wood or plastic. At these earliest ages, they a…

The Origin Story of Thinking Maps

David Hyerle — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 17:42:25 GMT

Graphically Yours

So much to learn, so little time to think, less time to feel.

Quotable

“The word organization is a product of how we think and how we act;

... it cannot change in a fundamental way unless we can change…

Unseen Structures

David Hyerle — Sat, 09 Mar 2024 21:36:48 GMT

Graphically Yours

Never too much? Scientists offer extensive (positive!) research on the causes and effects of drinking two to three cups of coffee every day with limited use of sugar and cream (unless you can’t sleep!). I have been imbibing the PEETS Coffee brew for over 40 years and is my only true addiction… not bad! So I am attracted to s…

Brain in Mind

David Hyerle — Sat, 02 Mar 2024 18:59:31 GMT

Brain in Mind and Body

Graphically Yours for Reflection

This graphic reflects what we so often forget: that our brain, in mind and body, is a dynamic, interdependent and organic part of the world around us and is constantly adapting. We are “of” nature and not “apart” from it !

The unconscious brain activity that is occurring 24/7 is patterning and re-p…

Connecting the Dots to See Systems at Work

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 01:15:45 GMT

Graphically Yours

I love this cartoon: a peep hole outward to the wider world of informational dots and data that remain unconnected. Further, there is a conundrum here: how do we think outside the box when in fact the box of our own vision, perceptions, and beliefs become the singular portal through which we make meaning. We make our own connecting pa…

Graphically Yours for thought!

David Hyerle — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 16:02:48 GMT

What a wild world of ideas, feelings, and random associations coming our way all the time ! Of course, nowadays, how we show and represent all that is going on in our minds is as dynamic and important as what we are trying to communicate. The medium has become a larger part of the message than ever before. And, where and who that message comes from i…

"Thinking Maps are the paper of my mind"

David Hyerle — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 21:32:38 GMT

1. You are Graphically Welcomed!

This graphic art was created by a high school student from New York State.

Her teacher’s assignment for an art class was to use the graphic primitives of Thinking Maps in some way to express their understanding of the model. Brilliant and beautiful, as if the student combines an artistic rendering of how the graphic con…