Affinity Diagram

AFFINITY DIAGRAM

An Affinity Diagram is an analytical tool students utilize to classify ideas with common attributes into subgroups. The Affinity Diagram strategy is an effective brainstorming technique students use to creatively generate new ideas and reveal patterns as they examine relationships between various terms and group similar ideas.

Using this strategy, you will pose to students a topic or issue and have them brainstorm ideas about it and record those ideas on sticky notes. Students then classify similar ideas together and create labels for each grouping. This process promotes creative thinking and brainstorming about ways to, for example, address a community problem, explore options a historical leader could have chosen to address a problem, or identify ways to test a scientific theory.

TASK - Construct an Affinity Diagram (Group activity)

Group of five |Time: 15 min | Tool: Padlet

The case of pollution of Sungai Kim Kim

Brainstorm ways to mitigate the pollution of Sungai Kim Kim to ensure it would not happen again in the future.

Follow the 5 steps to create the affinity diagram using Padlet (feel free to use other tools).

This article, Instructional Strategy: Affinity Diagram, describes how the author uses Affinity Diagram in her classroom.

Some examples (adopted from Stobaugh, Rebecca. Fifty Strategies to Boost Cognitive Engagement (p. 245). Solution Tree Press. Kindle Edition):

A language arts teacher instructs students to brainstorm topics for a short story they will write and then group similar ideas to determine the best idea.
A science teacher instructs students to brainstorm characteristics of a new super animal that could thrive in arctic climates.
A mathematics teacher instructs students to brainstorm ways to geometrically construct a new park in their neighbourhood and group similar ideas together.
A music teacher instructs students to brainstorm characteristics for a new music piece they will compose and perform at the school assembly. Students group similar ideas together.

Can you think of how you can use the Affinity Diagram in your course?

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