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Education for Problem Solving

This is the Home-Page for a website of Craig Rusbult, an enthusiastic educator with a PhD in C & I.*  I'm optimistically excited when thinking about activities and strategies that we — using your ideas (for your schools) and my ideas, cooperatively working together — can develop and use, to help students improve their problem-solving skills in all areas of life, by helping them get more experiences (with problem solving) and learn more from their experiences.     {a possibility for talking at a conference}   {improvising conversation & improvising music}

* During life on a road less traveled my PhD project (at U of Wisconsin) was constructing a model for “scientific method” — to describe how science uses logical Reality Checks plus other factors — and using this model to help us analyze & improve our education.  Since then I've generalized this model (for Science Process) to form a model for Design Process (for Problem-Solving Process).     { contact-email:  craigru57-att-yahoo-daut-caum }

my philosophy of writing:  As you know, education is complex;  in order to understand it more thoroughly-and-accurately, we must combine many ideas.  Therefore, in my website I don't want to “keep things simple” if this makes it oversimplistic by ignoring useful ideas.  Instead I'm trying to help you learn more time-efficiently (so you learn a lot in a little time, with a high ratio of “your learning / your time”) because your time is valuable,* and I want to help you use your time more effectively.     { * In the wise words of Ben Franklin, "Do not squander time, for it's the stuff life is made of." }    /    In this page the ideas are not oversimplified, but they are incomplete on purpose, to help you get a “big-picture overview” more quickly & easily.

This new short-HomePage contains key ideas from the original long-HomePage of my large website about Education for Problem Solving.  I want to show you how Design Process (my model for Problem-Solving Process) might be very useful in education, so its possibilities are worth exploring and developing, because (although not proved with certainty) this is “a good way to bet.”

This short-HomePage has two parts:

Part 1 describes educational goals that are generally accepted, that you (as an experienced educator) already know and probably accept, so while reading you'll be thinking “yes”.  But I also explain how using Design Process can help us achieve our goals, and for these claims you might think “yes!” or “yes and...” (yes! plus adding your own ideas) or “yes but...” (with questions) or “maybe” or “no because...” (with reasons to reject), and all of these responses can be useful when we're working to co-create better education.

Part 2 is about my model for Design Process (for Problem-Solving Process) that is descriptively accurate and educationally beneficial,  that – especially when it's effectively combined with other models – can help us achieve the worthy educational goals in Part 1.

What?  When educators choose to use broad definitions, a problem is an opportunity (in any area of life) to make things better, and problem solving happens when we do make something better.

Why?  People solve problems because we want to make things better.

What?  For a design project (i.e. for a problem-solving project) the objective can be to design (to find, invent, or improve) a better product, activity, relationship, and/or strategy (in General Design) and/or (in Science-Design) a better explanatory theory.  We use strategies MANY times every day, These objectives – extending far beyond traditional “design fields” – include almost everything we do in life.     { We can solve a problem by “making things better” when we increase quality for any aspect of life, or maintain quality by minimizing a potential decrease of quality. }

How?  In a simple model for designing (i.e. for problem solving), after you choose an objective (for what you want to improve) you understand “what is” in the NOW-State, and imagine “how it could be better” in a future GOAL-State.  Then you do “problem solving” to convert The Now-State into a Desired Goal-State.

How?  The process can be described in different ways, in...

a family of models:  Design Process is a Model containing many models.  Each model is an Actions-Diagram that is accurate in different ways — because each model selects different Actions to include & exclude — and is educationally useful in different ways.  All models describe the same overall Design Process, but each model includes (and thus encourages a student to think about) different aspects of the overall process.

using models for instruction:  Having a variety of models gives teachers flexibility in their instruction, so they can use a progression – beginning with simplicity and gradually building complexity – to help students understand the models and the Model.  And it's practical for students, encouraging them to “think in different ways” for different problems, because their problem-solving process varies from one life-situation to another.     { You can see a progression from simplicity to complexity in four models, one above and three below. }

How?  One answer is shown in a diagram that — compared with the simple “Now-State –{problem solving}→ Goal-State” above — is a more detailed overview of problem-solving process, when we Define and Solve.  To make this diagram more concrete, you can imagine that your design objective is to design a better product by improving an old product.  When you study this overview-diagram and think about the actions, you'll understand the cycles of creative-and-critical thinking by Generating-and-Evaluating-and-Generating-and-Evaluating-and-...   /   But here is a mystery question:  Why does the cycle have arrows on both sides?  On the cycle's left side the arrow (from Generate to Evaluate) has a reason that's obvious, because you must Generate An Option before you can Evaluate This Option.  But why does the cycle have a right-side arrow, from Evaluate to Generate?  {a related clue-question} 

While you're thinking about this mystery question, you may find it useful to study the left-side diagram below.  It describes the logic when – after "Choosing an Option" to evaluate – you "Evaluate This Option" by imagining The Option {in a Mental Experiment} or actualizing The Option {in a Physical Experiment} so you can make {PREDICTIONS} or {OBSERVATIONS} about The Actual Properties of This Option.  By contrast, your GOALS define the Desired Properties you want in a New Product that will be your Problem-Solution.  Why is each of these comparisons a QUALITY CHECK?     { an option:  You also can think about why a comparison of PREDICTIONS with OBSERVATIONS is a REALITY CHECK that helps you test the adequacy of an explanatory Theory. }

Observe the words, colors, and spatial relationships in this diagram.  Your studying may stimulate you to think about the process of “doing evaluations for problem solving” in new ways, or maybe it will show what you already have been thinking.   /   two ways to learn:  I thnk you'll enjoy your discoveries, and also my explanations.     { btw, I'm fascinated by verbal-and-visual representations.  For showing the process of problem solving in General Design & Science-Design, this diagram is my favorite – 🙂 – and I hope you also will like it, will appreciate what can be learned from it. }  

This diagram shows how people typically Evaluate An Option.  And how my model smoothly-and-logically integrates Design with Science because the core of its evaluation logic (when we use 3 Elements in 3 Comparisons) leads naturally to the logically-related evaluations that we use for General Design (aka Design, the usual term) and for Science-Design (aka Science, usually);  people intuitively use Quality Checks for Design, and Reality Checks for Science, by asking the Design Question and Science Question.*  When students understand the logical integrating of design-with-science in my model this will help them develop a logical integrating of design-with-science in their thinking while they are solving problems, are designing solutions.

* the questions:  In a Design Question you ask “how high is the Quality?” with Quality defined by your Goals.  In a Science Question you ask “am I surprised?” when comparing Predictions with Observations.

a clue:  While you're thinking about the mystery question, a related question is...  “When you critically EVALUATE an Old Option, how can this help you creatively GENERATE a New Option?”

Both diagrams (Define-and-Solve, 3 Comparisons) are combined in the right-side diagram that answers the mystery question by showing why the cycle has a right-side arrow.   /   what, why, and how:

What?  You do Guided Generation by using critical Evaluation to stimulate-and-guide your creative Generation.  This critical-and-creative process becomes part of a "Design Cycle" when you ask "revise Option? [do you want to revise the Old Option]" to GENERATE a New Option.

Why?  You do Guided Generation when you think a New Option might have higher Quality because there will be a closer match between its Actual Properties (in your Predictions or Observations) and the Desired Properties (that you're defining as GOALS for a satisfactory Solution).

How?  During your critical Evaluation in a Quality Check, when you notice differences between Actual Properties (of This Option) and Desired Properties (in your GOALS), this produces motivation that will stimulate you to GENERATE, and will guide you to ask “what is unsatisfactory about This Option, and how can these deficiencies be improved?” so you can creatively Generate a New Option (or multiple New Options) whose Actual Properties come closer to your GOALS, thus coming closer to being a satisfactory Problem-Solution.

What?  In your creative-and-critical Design Cycles (when you Generate-Evaluate-Generate-Evaluate-...) there are productive interactions between your critical thinking and creative thinking when with Guided Generation you use critical Evaluation to stimulate-and-guide your creative Generation.     { more about Guided Generation }    { and more about Design & Science that use Quality Checks & Reality Checks to help you ask-and-answer Design Questions & Science Questions }

use Old Information:  This diagram says "GENERATE Options (old or new,...)" because instead of “reinventing the wheel” you can “use a wheel” if this will be an effective Problem-Solution.  In similar ways, you also can use Old Information when you "Learn" or for "Predictions" or "Observations" or to "Design an Experiment" or for other problem-solving Actions.  You can get knowledge-information that is old (already existing) by remembering it in your personal memory, or by locating it in our collective memory that is recorded (culturally remembered) in books, journals, web-pages, audio & video recordings, or is learned from another person.     { finding-and-using old information is Mode 2A }

timings and flexibility:  Each of my models is an Actions Diagram showing the multiple Actions that occur at different times – not simultaneously – during a process of problem solving.  Therefore a diagram IS NOT a snapshot photo of what is happening at any specific time.  Instead, each multi-action diagram IS like a photo that shows all Actions in a time-lapse video of “the Action being done now” (at many different now-times) during an entire process of problem solving.  For each process-of-solving the sequence of actions can be different, because making Action-Decisions about "what to do next" is analogous to the goal-directed flexible improvising of a hockey player, but not the rigid choreography of a figure skater.

two ways to learn:  You can improve your understandings — as when you're learning about my models in this page (above) and the long-HomePage (Part 2) — from your discoveries and my explanations.  A classroom teacher can help students learn Principles for Problem Solving in both ways – from discoveries & explanations – when they do classroom activities that guide them in a process of Experience + Reflection ➞ Principles that uses a process-of-inquiry to help students discover principles-for-inquiry.

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A Short Overview of PART 1,

describing Ideas for Education:

The original long-HomePage has Part 1 (with a Short Overview of Part 1 and Long Overview of Part 1) and Part 2.  This new short-HomePage contains a highly-condensed Part 2 (above) and (in everything below) a Short Overview of Part 1, made by revising the original Short Overview of Part 1.

My goals for Parts 1 & 2 are different yet related, with overlaps.  I want to work with other educators, and I'm hoping you will see our “common ground” in Part 1, so you will be thinking “Craig understands education, is with us and for us, wants what we want, is similar to us.”  And in Part 2 “he is a little different, with an innovative model — to describe (verbally & visually) human problem-solving actions, to help students understand these actions and improve their own actions — that will contribute useful ‘added value’ to education, so working with him will help us improve education.”  I'm hoping you will want to discuss possibilities, and maybe do actions, for...

co-creating better education:

I'm an enthusiastic educator who enjoys talking with other educators, simply to share ideas and learn from each other, with informal discussions.  But as explained in Working Together,

"I also want to collaborate on projects of mutual interest – and doing this unofficially as a free volunteer will be fine with me – with us working cooperatively to develop our ideas for helping students improve their creative-and-critical thinking skills and their effective using of problem-solving process in all areas of life."  Why?  Because we think "strategies for improving our problem-solving education are worth developing and (by converting our strategy-ideas into classroom-actions) actualizing.  To do this developing-and-actualizing, collaboration is necessary because although I have some useful understandings and skills, I need help from other educators who have developed other understandings and skills,... who understand the perspectives of classroom teachers [and students] more accurately & thoroughly, or are skilled activity developers, and have other kinds of useful experience & expertise.  By working together with coordinated cooperation, creatively combining your understandings-and-skills with mine, we can design curriculum & instruction that is a good match for how students like to learn (and are able to learn), and how teachers like to teach. .....  I want to see my ideas actualized in practical ways, by combining them with your ideas, working together to achieve your goals."

[[ iou – May 5-10, I'll describe... discussing metacognition-in-education with a possibility (but not expectation) of supplementing what you already are doing with it. ]]

this new page:  In October 2024, I began condensing the original long-HomePage into this short-HomePage that now is the “read me first” page, so it's linked-to in my personal HomePage.  When you want to learn more, links with blue shading keep you inside this page, and green-shaded links go to sections in the HomePage (in its Longer Overview or Part 2) plus “even more” with yellow-shaded links in a Detailed Overview-Page;  and links to “more” in other pages.

You can get different kinds of understanding...

in the community of educators:  [[ iou – This will be written soon, May 5-10. ]]

in this website:  Compared with printed material – in articles, magazines, books,... – in my web-pages (and other pages) a major benefit is the flexibility of clicking links that let you explore topics to gain different kinds of understanding (e.g. with different depths of examining, or different perspectives on a topic, or with other differences) by clicking a link when you want understanding that is deeper-and-wider, or is just different.  In my website, for example, you can gain different kinds of understanding for all important topics, including these:   [[ iou – I'll continue writing this section soon, probably May 5-10. ]]   [[ @#phil, this page is intentionally incomplete to make it shorter so you can get a "big picture overview" more quickly & easily. ]] [[color-coding explained above - maybe not needed?]]

• Building Bridges in this short-HomePage & the long-HomePage & Details-Page & another page/eTalk/eTalk-Page/eltalk-Page. (e is elevator not electronic - its usual modern meaning)

• Transfers of Learning in this page & long HomePage & Details-Page & other pages.

• Metacognition & Thinking Strategies in

• Learning More from Experiences in

• my Model-for-Process in

  and other models in

• Designing C&I in

• and many other topics.  [[ iou – I'll link to a page with some topics that aren't covered in this short-HomePage. ]]

[[ iou – and I'll describe/link-to an "appendix page" with selected sections from the Detailed Overview-Page. ]]

Table of Contents

You can read the rest of this page in any order, by going to any part that looks interesting:

Design Process has Two Wide Scopes that increase Transfers of Learning  -  Two Wide Scopes (for Activities and Process)  -  Scientific Knowledge about Increasing Transfer  —  when students expect Transfers (because we Build Educational Bridges from School into Life and into Their Future) this will improve their Motivations and Confidences.

Develop-and-Use a Growth Mindset  –  Improve in the Present and/or Future with Objectives for Performing and/or Learning  –  Help Students Learn More from their Problem-Solving Experiences by combining Design Process with Metacognitive Thinking Strategies.

Goal-Directed Designing of Curriculum & Instruction  –  designing a coordinated Wide-Spiral Curriculum with Wide Scope and Spiral Repetitions  –  designing Instruction Activities that are Fun (in two ways) and Personally Useful  —  connections between Problem-Solving Education and Overall Education  —  Improving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

combining different Models-for-Process.

Now we'll shift from WHY (with Reasons for Using Design Process because this can Increase Transfers (because of Two Wide Scopes) and Build Bridges that improve Confidences & Motivations) to WHAT-and-HOW, beginning with three related ways — with a Growth Mindset + Learning that Improves Performing + Learning More From Experiences — to use metacognitive Thinking Strategies.  One useful Thinking Strategy is the productive attitude of...

Learning with Transfers

(Across Areas, thru Time)

by using a Growth Mindset: 

An excellent way to learn more effectively is by developing-and-using a better growth mindset so — when a student asks themself “how well am I doing in this area of life?”* and honestly answers “not well enough” — they are thinking “not yet” (instead of “not ever”) because they are confident that in this area they can “grow” by improving their skills, when they invest intelligent effort.  With this attitude they're supplementing current self-perception (based on what they've done in the past) with optimism (about what they can do now & in their future) to build a more useful self-perception.  This optimistic view-of-self will help students develop a justifiable confidence in their ability to improve now so they can “do things better” in their future, because they are improving their functional intelligence.  With two kinds of Objectives – connecting their present and future – they will try to improve their present-time Learning so they can improve their future-time Performing.  This long-term perspective will motivate them because they have a confident belief – with a growth mindset – that their efforts to self-improve (as in personal education for life) will be rewarded.

* A reason to ask “how well am I doing?” is to learn from experience, for self-education.  When I make a mistake, I want to learn from the experience so I can “do it better” the next time.  Therefore I ask myself “why?” and often the answer is “my process wasn't effective,” so (in an effort to do better) I've found it beneficial to develop-and-use a Checklist for Problem-Solving Process.

[[ an idea to develop, May 7-10, is actual growth allowed by neuroplasticity --> neural growth. ]]

Are there two kinds transfer?  Although present-to-future learning typically isn't considered to be transfer, there are connections between “two kinds of transfer” because Transfers Through Time are necessary to produce Transfers Across Areas, and for inspiring self-motivated Personal Education.  It can be educationally useful to think about transfers-thru-time as being transfers-of-learning, e.g. when you are...

trying to improve in your

Present and/or Future with

time-related Objectives for

Performing and/or Learning:

When you want your best possible performance now, you have a Performance Objective.  When you want your best possible learning now, so you can improve your best possible performance later, you have a Learning Objective.   For example, compare a basketball team's early-season practice (with a Learning Objective, wanting to learn NOW so they can perform better LATER) and late-season tournament game (with a Performance Objective, wanting to play their best NOW).   /   The title is "and/or" because your highest priority can be to maximize your learning now, or your performing now, or both, by placing different values on the present and/or future.  And by adding an important aspect of life, it's Performing and/or Learning, plus Enjoying.

In your future, your better performing can happen in two ways.  First, you will know better because you have learned from experience, so your potential performing has improved, and you can do better.  Second, this potential must be actualized by converting “can do better” into “are doing better” with high-quality actual performing.   /   a summary:  After your past learning has improved your present potential performing, this potential (in principle, as a possibility) to “do it better” will be actualized (in reality) when you do present actual performing with high quality, so you're combining past learning (wanted in previous Learning Objectives) with present performing (wanted in your current Performance Objective).     { more about performing better now in these two ways – by using your past-to-present Learning, and present Performing – as in the “know better, do better” of Angela Mayou. }    { Mahatma Gandhi, "Live as if you were to die tomorrow.  Learn as if you were to live forever." }    { a friend became – by learning in the present – a better-performing welder in his future }

helping students learn more from

their problem-solving experiences

by combining Design Process and

metacognitive Thinking Strategies:

getting more and learning more:  A useful definition of education is learning from experience.  Students will learn more when they get more experiences (of the kinds that are educationally useful) and learn more from their experiences.  Well-designed uses of Design Process can be especially useful for helping students learn more from their problem-solving experiences.  How ?  By...

developing-and-using effective metacognition:  A teacher can promote educationally useful cognition-and-metacognition with reflection activities by asking students to reflect on (to remember or observe, and think about) their experiences while solving a problem — by asking “what did I think, and do?” (or “what am I now thinking and doing?”) and “then what happened,” and also “with different thinking & actions, could the results have been better?” — so they can learn more from the experience and do things better the next time, to improve their performing and/or learning and enjoying.  When a teacher wants to help students learn Principles for Problem Solving (that are accurately described in a model for Design Process), this Reflection is the central part of Experience + Reflection ➞ Principles that uses a process-of-inquiry to help students learn principles-for-inquiry.  Usually students will learn more, and will think more effectively, when they develop-and-use Strategies for Thinking to effectively regulate their metacognition by deciding when to avoid it (to just focus on cognitive thinking-and-doing) or use it, and how to use it.  The main goals of Thinking Strategies are to help students become expert thinkers (as stated in the term) and also expert learners, for expert performing & learning, to achieve their Performance Objectives & Learning Objectives.       [[ iou – ideas-to-develop are... MC with goal of improving performing and/or learning with productive thinking that's a combo of using knowledge plus thinking that's creative-and-critical [already above] and [merge into above & below] using C-and-MC process of monitoring (= observing + regulating) of thoughts/emotions, for [merge into below] in system of consc+subconsc. ]]   { getting more experiences by adventuring }    { a common Thinking Strategy is Self-Regulated Learning }

regulating metacognition to make it more effective:   [[ iou – before mid-May I'll write a condensed version of the main section about regulating metacognition and will add an explanation of how – whether our “thinking” is conscious and/or subconscious in a particular situation – we use a similar process of Observe & Learn, Generate, Predict & Evaluate, Decide & Do and how "you can use executive control to optimize your thinking system (so your conscious & subconscious each can do what it does best) if you develop-and-use a [thinking strategy] for effectively regulating your subconscious processing by deciding when-and-how to reduce it or increase it." } ]]

education that improves metacognition:

[[ iou – In early May, I'll write this section.  It will describe how Design Process (DP) can be used to help students develop-and-use metacognitive strategies, and to effectively combine these with other metacognitive strategies (especially Self-Regulated Learning, SRL) to form a synergistic combination of specific strategies (using DP) plus general strategies (like SRL) that is more effective than either by itself.   /   It will include an important idea that isn't yet part of the website, in this HomePage or elsewhere:  although I sometimes connect DP with "Problem-Solving Activities" these include "almost everything students do" so a school's curriculum and instruction doesn't have to be radically modified in order to become "Education with Metacognition" that will help students improve their learning and problem solving. ]]

INSTRUCTION — skillfully design

Problem-Solving Activities that

are Fun and Personally Useful:

A holistically integrated strategy for designing effective Instruction – by trying to do everything that will help achieve the goals for effective Curriculum – will include Problem-Solving Activities that motivate students because what they're doing is FUN for students, and is personally USEFUL for them, is...

    FUN intrinsically when a student enjoys the experience because they think the problem-topic is interesting, and their own actions are interesting.  This will stimulate their curiosity, can inspire a love of learning.
    FUN due to personal satisfaction when a student anticipates success, and does succeed.  We want to help them develop confidence with a growth mindset.  One way is to design activities with a “just right” level of challenge, like a good mystery story, so students won't be bored (if too easy) or discouraged (if too difficult), so they will be challenged but will succeed and will enjoy the satisfactions of success.    {more about levels}   [[ iou – to be engaged in learning (nec?), motivated to learn, view as useful -- zone of proximal development, Vygotsky}
    USEFUL as perceived by a student who thinks it will be personally useful, will help them achieve their personal goals, short-term and long-term, including intrinsic fun and satisfaction.  We can try to understand students (with empathy), and then consider their goals when defining our goals, to guide our goal-directed designing of their activities.  We want them to think “this school-activity will be a useful part of my personal education, will help me achieve my personal goals for life.”

combining different

Models-for-Process

I'm not thinking “my model versus other models” because we don't have to make either-or choices between models;  we can invent creative strategies to effectively combine models, so it's “my model plus other models.”  We can design instruction to include different models so our models will interact in ways that are synergistically supportive — that make the combination of models better than any single model by itself — because Design Process (DP)...

    • is similar to other models — with basic agreement about the productive thinking & actions we use during a creative-and-critical process of problem solving — so DP is educationally compatible with other models and it “plays well” with them.  DP can be smoothly blended into most systems of instruction, using common methods for teaching inquiry, whether the instruction currently does or doesn't use another model.  This offers practical benefits, because we don't have to design DP-specific activities, instead we can just add DP to already-available activities using other models, or using no models.

    • is distinctive in important ways,* with special features that produce added value;  DP can be especially valuable in a well-designed combination of models, contributing to a synergism that provides extra benefits for students.

Together it's “yes and” with “yes” due to similarities, with “and” for distinctive added value.

iou – May 5-10, I'll describe benefits of combining general metacognitive strategies (e.g. SRL) with specific metacognitive strategies (using the framework of Design Process), and principles for doing this effectively.  And also for combining POE (to introduce the Science Process that's used in Science-Design) with DP (to integrate Science-Design with General Design).

* Here are three distinctive “added value” features of Design Process (DP).     { You can quickly learn DP – and these features – with your discoveries plus my explanations. }

DP logically integrates Design and Science, because the core of its evaluation-logic (when 3 Elements are used in 3 Comparisons) leads naturally to it being used for both General Design (aka Design, the usual term) and Science-Design (aka Science, usually).  By contrast, most other models are for a process of either Design or Science, but not both.  When students understand the smooth integrating of design-with-science in my model this will help them develop a smooth integrating of design-with-science in their thinking while they're solving problems.     {more about the differences when we're comparing my model for Design-AND-Science with other models that are Design-OR-Science}

DP is a family of models:  One reason for the educational utility of DP is because it's a Model (capitalized) that is a logically organized family of models.  This logical “family structure” lets a teacher use different models in a 4-Stage progression of learning so students can begin with simplicity and gradually learn the complexities in an intuitive progression.  The progression is intuitive and it works well, because each model is a different version of the same Model.  Each model is "a different version" of the Model, with a different description of the same process;  each model features different aspects of the Model.    { Due to these differences, each model accurately describes in different ways, and each model is educationally useful in different ways. }   /   When principles for process (it's procedural knowledge) are verbally-and-visually organized – as in my Model for Design Process – this produces many kinds of educational benefits.

DP is modular:  Another distinctive of Design Process (DP) is how its modularity encourages a flexibly customized coordinating of problem-solving process.*  DP describes our problem-solving process with short-term Actions (that can be functionally connected to form short-term Sequences) but other models typically describe longer-term Phases that contain the shorter-term Actions & Sequences of DP;  using DP can help students understand how their creative-and-critical productive thinking happens during the short-term Actions & Sequences of DP.  And because our Models (my DP and another Model) operate at different “levels” (with short-term in DP, long-term in other Models) it's less likely that our Models will compete with each other to perform the same teaching-functions during instruction.  Instead we can use the different Models for different functions, so they will be supportive instead of competitive, with each contributing to the instruction.*   For thinking about DP's modularity, a useful analogy is using LEGO Bricks (the short-term Actions & Sequences of DP) to make LEGO Objects (the longer-term Phases of other Models),  or using small atoms & molecules (the Actions & Sequences of DP) to form larger objects (the Phases of other Models).     {* Wikipedia says "modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit [thus produced] of flexibility and variety in use." }

* Structures and Strategies:  Typically a model-for-process is educationally useful in two ways, by providing structures (for instruction) and strategies (for thinking).  Each model has its own structures & strategies, so each offers its own benefits for students.  When we effectively combine the structures & strategies from two (or more) models, we combine their benefits.

The full-length section ends by describing possibilities for combining DP with other Models, especially with POE (Predict-Observe-Explain) and CER (Claim-Evidence-Reasoning) but also with others.  And these ideas are examined with more depth in another page.

== [[ iou – Before mid-May, I'll write an INTRO that links back to "different kinds of understandings" because this section describes (and links to) places in the Detailed Overview where each Action in Design Process is described at a deeper level, with many useful details that will be useful for helping students learn, for improving valuable problem-solving skills. ]]

Below, the 10 Modes of Action are detailed descriptions — showing WHAT is being done and HOW to do it better — of the main Actions that are functionally organized to form my model for problem-solving Design Process. 

 ▓  10 Modes of Action    (into left frame`)

iou – May 5-10, this subsection – ending at "Here are 10 modes of Action..." – will continue being revised-and-condensed:

Actions and Process:  This page supplements a family of models for Design Process by offering a different perspective. 

Actions ➞ Process:  My model(s) for Process is a system of functionally related Actions that are logically organized in educationally productive ways to show the coherent integration of productive actions to form a productive process.  It's educationally useful for students to see (in verbal-and-visual diagrams) how the 10 modes of Problem-Solving Actions are organized into a model for Problem-Solving Process.  (actually it's a family of related models that students can explore in a 5-stage progression for learning)

You can see how the 10 Modes of Problem-Solving Actions are organized into a "thinking process" model (actually it's a family of related models that students can explore in a 5-stage progression for learning) in diagrams that show relationships between models and modes`.

Actions and Process:  Or, when we ask “converting Problem-Solving Skills into a Problem-Solving Process”, Design Process shows how productive design-actions (in the Modes) — which include creative-and-critical productive design-thinking and more — are coordinated (by making action-decisions about “what to do next”) to form a productive design-process.

What is an "action"?  Productive Actions are "mental and/or physical" because an ACTION can be mainly mental, or mainly physical, or... mental-and-physical.    { more about Mental-and-Physical }

a system of functionally related modes of action — that becomes an overall model of Design Process when the modes are logically organized in educationally productive ways to show the coherent integration of productive actions (in these modes) to form a productive process. dynamic model0

Here are 10 Modes of Action – organized into 4 categories with colorizing – that people use during Problem-Solving Process:

1. DEFINITION  (at top of Diagram 1`):

1A. Define an Objective (what you want to design) for a Design Project,

1B. Define Goals (for the desired properties of a problem-Solution),

2. GENERATION  (to get information, both old & new) (in Diagrams 1, 2a, 3b, 4a/4b)

2A. Learn (find old information about Options & Predictions/Observations, Models),

2B. Invent Options (modify old Options, or innovate with new kinds of options),

2-CDE. Experiments (to MAKE Information that we USE) play key roles in Design Process:

      2C. Design Experiments (for Mental Experimenting, Physical Experimenting, or both),

      2D. Predict (imagine in a Mental Experiment, to MAKE Predictions for USE in 3A & 3B),

      2E. Observe (actualize in Physical Experiment, MAKE Observations to USE in 3A & 3B),

3. EVALUATION  (in Design Cycles and Science Cycle of Diagram 3b):

3A. Evaluate Solution-Options using Quality Checks

3A. (by COMPARING Goals with Predictions or Observations),

3B. Evaluate Model-Options using Reality Checks

3B. (by COMPARING Predictions with Observations),

4. COORDINATION  (often including Communication & Collaboration)

4A. Evaluate the Process and Make Action-Decisions (for what to do and when)

4A. as an individual or (in a group project) using Communication for Collaboration.

These 10 modes are not 10 steps, because Design Process is not a rigid sequence of steps.  Instead we see interactions between thinking in different modes, in productive thinking that skillfully blends a knowledge of ideas with creativity and critical thinking.

For each mode, the section below describes WHAT is being done and HOW to do it better.

iou – What's below is a temporary "staging area" so (during May 5-10) I can condense the ideas and use them earlier in the page.

The Actions of Design Process

Design Process is a Model containing many models.  Each model is accurate in different ways – because it selects different actions to include & exclude – and is educationally useful in different ways.  Here are summaries for two stages, and an in-depth look at Stage 3.

Each model is a simplified representation of problem-solving process (it's a simplification of the complex actions that are used by people during our process of solving a problem), so each is a model for problem-solving process. 

They are part of “a family of related models” that combine to form my overall Model, as explained later.  All of my models are "related" because they all describe the same process;  but each model emphasizes different aspects of the overall process, and this makes the models educationally useful in different ways.

complexity and simplicity:  Although your actual process of thinking is complex — as in the blending of conscious with subconscious when you're Generating-and-Evaluating Ideas or Coordinating Your Process — constructing simplified models is useful for thinking about thinking, for learning (in education) and doing (in problem solving).

models and stages

By creatively using different models (in the family of models for Design Process) a teacher can design a logical progression of instruction that begins with simplicity and gradually makes complexity easy to understand.  For example,

Above you studied two complex models that visually-and-verbally (in diagrams for Stage 3) show the Actions a person does while they are Evaluating an Option, during their process of Solving a Problem.  Of course, Stage 1 and Stage 2 use models that are simpler.

Below, while you're increasing your own understanding of the Stages (1,2,3,4) you can be thinking about how to design activities that will help students understand Problem Solving, and improve their Problem-Solving Skills.  An effective way to help students understand is by providing Experiences (in Solving Problems) plus Reflections (on their Experiences) and gently guided Discussions, to help them discover Principles (of Design Process, and thus Problem-Solving Process), with Experiences + Reflections ➞ Principles.  In a progression of instruction, during each stage you “keep it simple” (by focusing on Functional Actions) to help students understand that stage.  Moving from one stage to the next, you gradually increase the levels-of-complexity they can understand.  The overall result is that eventually students will be able to “cope with complexity” at higher levels, and the complex process-of-solving will seem simple because they understand it.  When this happens, the complex process has become (in their thinking) a “simplicity” because all parts are fitting together in ways that make sense for them, so their view of Problem-Solving Process is logically simple, psychologically intuitive.

the educational benefits of logically organized knowledge:  When principles for process (it's procedural knowledge) are verbally-and-visually organized – as in my Model for Design Process – this produces many kinds of educational benefits.