see only this page  or (why?)  make a Split-Screen Pair 

Mini-Page

This “miniature HomePage” is written for fellow educators, to help you learn on three levels:

       • in a “read me first” Summary you will quickly understand the main ideas and “big picture”; 
       • a Basic Overview provides explanations that are more thorough (yet still fairly brief)* and many “added value” ideas, plus links to

       • expanded overviews (in corresponding sections of the HomePage) so you can develop understandings that are wider-and-deeper.

     At each level you will construct better understandings of the key ideas, plus a fuller “big picture” of how the ideas form a coherent system-for-education with mutually supportive parts.

   * Your time is valuable, so my goal is to help you learn a lot in a little time (with a high ratio of “your learning / your time”) by making my explanations thorough yet brief.  I want to help you use your time more effectively, and thus — because “time is the stuff life is made of ” (Ben Franklin) — use your life more effectively.

     A writing strategy that is useful for achieving this goal is to use highlighting (with bold-italics-underlines, plus colors) that will help you understand more quickly-and-fully, to increase your ratio of “learning / time”.

an option:  You can skip this gray box — with "about me... everything is free... Viewing Tips" — and go to the Summary.

about me:  I'm an enthusiastic educator (with a PhD in C & I ) who wants to find co-enthusiasts so we can learn from each other by discussing my ideas & your ideas, and your goals.  { networking bio }    /   contact - Craig Rusbult <craigru57@yahoo.com>

everything is free:  The ideas in this website are free ( i.e. I don't want any payment for anything) but are copyrighted although I want you to freely use everything because I want us to improve our Education for Problem Solving.

Viewing Tips:  Your experience will be much better if you view on a monitor and (if it's necessary) put this section on the right side or (if there is no "right side") make a Split-Window Pair with the website's HomePage on the left side;  this Mini-Page is on the right side because most of its links* open on the left and (on the right) this page remains open so you can continue reading it – while seeing both pages! – without using the Back-Button.  But if you do use it, the Back-Button will work properly for all content on both sides;  and in another way the Left-Right Pair “behaves normally” you can scroll each side independently.

    But if you're viewing on a small screen, use a link – at top of page, or here – to see only this page (in its own full-width window so the text is larger) and every link will open in a new window.

    * links with a blue background open a section in the HomePage, and regular links (with no background color) open a section inside this page.   /   another way to use color:  You can tell which page you are seeing because this Mini-Page has a dark-blue border, but in the HomePage the border is bright blue.

Summary

This is a brief “big picture” overview of essential ideas in my website about Education for Problem Solving, with links (that open on the left side - why?) to sections in the longer Basic Overview.

two ways to learn more:  How?  We can help students get more Experiences with Problem Solving, and LEARN MORE from their Experiences.  How?  They can use my model for Design Process (for Design-Thinking Process that is Problem-Solving Process) to promote educationally valuable cognitive-and-metacognitive Thinking Strategies by Coordinating Their Process, and by asking Self-Questions for Self-Regulated Learning.     { more: You'll find additional insights – about helping students “get more & learn more” and skillfully use metacognition in the Basic Overview. }

the benefits of metacognition:  Abundant research shows that when students use metacognition it's highly effective for helping them improve their academic skills — in many kinds of Learning and Performing that include standardized exams — and social-emotional skills.

how you can understand the model :  You can learn from Your Discoveries & My Explanations, and also do Recognition Learning when you see familiar Actions and recognize that Design Process is Your Process, is the process you use – naturally and intuitively, in everyday life – to Solve Problems by Making Things Better.

how students can learn the model :  When students get Problem-Solving Experiences and then Reflect on their Experiences, they will discover Principles for problem-solving Design Thinking, so Experiences + Reflections ➞ Principles.  Then you can help them understand the model more deeply with Their Discoveries & Your Explanations;  and Their Recognitions will be easier due to their previous Experiences-and-Reflections.  During all of this, you will be helping them use a Process-of-Inquiry to discover Principles-for-Inquiry.

logical organization of Process:  My model for problem-solving Design Process uses verbal-and-visual representations to logically organize the creative-and-critical Thinking Actions that people intuitively use for Problem Solving (PS) when we Design Solutions to Solve Problems by Making Things Better.

two Wide Scopes:  There are logical reasons to think that most people use a similar (but not identical) General Process for most things we do in life, AND that this General Process is accurately described by my model for Design Process.  This gives the model two Wide Scopes – for PS-Process and for PS-Activities – because most people use a similar Process for most things we do, both consciously & subconsciously.   /   One reason for the Wide Scope of PS-Activities occurs when we choose to use a broad definition of problem — it's any opportunity to make something better, in any area of life — so a student's Problem-Solving Activities include most things they do in life.  They are problem solving (verb) whenever they are trying to make something better, and they are a problem solver (noun) whenever they do make something better.

using modular flexibility:  Design Process is built from simple Thinking Actions (generate, evaluate, do, imagine, compare,...), and this modular structure gives it a modular flexibility so we can use these simple PS-Actions to describe the complex PS-Process for a wide variety of PS-Activities.  How?  It's analogous to how modular flexibility lets us combine simple Lego Bricks to construct many kinds of complex Lego Structures.

teaching to increase Transfers:  Three main features of Design Process (it has Wide Scopes for Activities & for Process, is logically organized) let us design-and-use instruction — by teaching the model in multiple contexts in a generalized form for deep understanding — that increases Transfers of Learning-and-Performing both Across Areas (in School & in Life) and Through Time (from Past to Present and into Future).

building motivational Transfer Bridges:  When we explain how using Design Process increases Transfers, this will help students imagine Transfer Bridges (Across Areas from School into Their Life, and Through Time into Their Future) so they believe that Skills-in-School will become Skills-in-Life, that improving their School Learning will improve their Life Living, will improve their Future in ways they want, will help them achieve their whole-person Goals for Life, thus motivating them to invest in their Personal Education.

Bridges + Metaphors + Adventures:  You can motivate students with...

     • Transfer Bridges and

     • Metacognitive Metaphors by encouraging each student to metacognitively “Drive Your Brain” (and Increase its ‘Horsepower’)* and “Be CEO of Your Thinking” and

     • Thinking Adventures by inviting them to explore the fascinating world of thinking when they LEARN Thinking Strategies (for Cognition-and-Metacognition) and they USE Thinking Strategies (to do Thinking Activities).

iou – There will be some revisions (above) and maybe a few more ideas (above & below) during July 30-31.

Basic Overview  (of website)

We can help students learn more from

their experiences with Problem Solving,

and be more motivated to learn when they

build Transfer-Bridges from School into Life.

help students learn more:  How?  We can help students get more Experiences (with Problem Solving, PS) and learn more from Their Experiences by using my model for Design Process, for a Design-Thinking Process that is Problem-Solving Process.

help students be more motivated:  How?  You already know many ways, and one more is to show each student how we are helping them improve the Thinking Process they use for their Thinking Activities, for most things they do in their everyday life, by showing them the...

two wide scopes:  Why does using Design Process for Problem Solving (PS) produce educational benefits?  Two closely-related reasons are because Design Process has two Wide Scopes, for what students do (in their PS-Activities) and how they do it (with their PS-Process).  But these two Wide Scopes are "closely related" and sometimes it's more useful to think “it has one Wide Scope for Activities-and-Process.”

Why?  The two Wide Scopes occur because...

     ⊡ When educators choose to use a broad definition of problem — it's any opportunity to make something better, in any area of life — a student's Problem-Solving Activities include most things they do in life.  They are problem solving (verb) whenever they are trying to make something better, and they are a problem solver (noun) whenever they do make something better.  Generally, with this definition a Wide Scope also occurs in other Models for Problem Solving.  More specifically for Design Process,...

     ⊡ The other Wide Scope occurs because most people use a similar (but not identical) General PS-Process for most of our PS-Activities (for most things we do), AND this General Process is described by Design Process in ways that are accurate and are educationally beneficial.

Together the two Wide Scopes form a single Wide Scope for Activities-and-Process that you can conceptualize as Activities-with-Process because most Activities are done with a similar Process.

In the HomePage, 

Part 1 helps you understand my model for problem-solving Design Process.

Part 2 explains how this model can help us achieve worthy educational goals.

Basically, Part 1 is the “what” of my model, then Part 2 answers the “so what ?” about educational benefits.

Below is Part 1, to help you understand the model by Learning from Your Discoveries and My Explanations.

 put on Right Side of Split Screen 

In the two sections below, you can learn from Your Discoveries and then also learn from My Explanations , whenever you want ;  so if you want to learn more quickly — although with less fun from Discovery Exploring and Mystery Solving — you can move onward to Recognition Learning.

understand Design Process by

learning from Your Discoveries

How?  You can discover the main features of problem-solving Design Process by studying an Actions-Diagram` (the link puts it on left side).

After you have explored it for awhile, use these tips for two ways to continue learning – by Discovering and Recognizing:

    • Discovery Learning:  To thoroughly study the diagram, observe (and think about ) its words & colors and spatial relationships,  find the Actions & logical structures* that produce two kinds of Essential Action-Sequences, one in the Top Part and another (with three variations, used for General Design & Science-Design) in the Bottom Part ;  and solve a Mystery — “Why does the Cycle have a right-side arrow, pointing from Evaluate to Generate?” — and actively construct your understanding for how this “Why...” is a third kind of Essential Action-Sequence.    { * e.g. notice the art-and-logic in “3 Comparisons of 3 Elements” with symmetric spatial relationships, symbolic area colors for Elements (yellow-green-gold for P-O-G) and for Comparisons (yellow-green, blue), and text colors (blue, red, black). }     /    The diagram above shows the main PS-Actions (to Generate & Evaluate) that people do in the “central” part of our PS-Process.  When you also study an Overview-Diagram – with a “big-picture overview” of Design Process – you will see (in its Top Text and Bottom Text) the PS-Actions that people do before and after we do the PS-Actions of Generating Options and Evaluating Options.

    • Recognition Learning:  During your Discovery Learning you also can do Recognition Learning by asking yourself “do The Actions of Design Process (in its diagram) describe My Actions (in everyday life)?”  You will recognize familiar Actions, and you will realize that Design Process is Your Process;  it's the process you use – naturally and intuitively – to Solve Problems by Making Things Better.   But this will require understanding the connections between...

     Experiments and Experiences:  If you see "Experiments" and think “I rarely do experiments, so this is an unfamiliar Action,” you can use my broad definition:  in the context of Design Process, an Experiment is any situation that produces Experiences and provides an opportunity to make Predictions (by imagining in a Mental Experiment) or to make Observations (during the actualizing in a Physical Experiment ),  so any Prediction-Situation is a Mental Experiment , and any Observation-Situation is a Physical Experiment .   With this perspective — by thinking “Experiments produce Experiences” and “I have Experiences” — you will recognize that many (but not all) of your everyday Experiences happen due to “Experiments” that are done by yourself or by others.     { iou – Tomorrow, August 9, I will briefly describe the importance of logically Designing Experiments, in Everyday Life and also during Design Projects (e.g. for Engineering) and in Research Science;  and I'll link to a HomePage-section that explains creative-and-critical principles for designing useful “fair test” experiments. }

a preview:  Below, in the second part of this section you also — in addition to learning from Your Discoveries and Your Recognitions — can learn from My Explanations for key features of Design Process.  Maybe this will just confirm what you already know from your Discovery Learning, about how “3 Comparisons of 3 Elements” integrates Design Thinking with Science Thinking, so you're asking The Design Question (in General Design) with a Quality Check, and The Science Question (in Science-Design) with a Reality Check;   and why The Mystery Answer is “Guided Generation” when your Evaluation guides your Generation;   detailed descriptions of the three Essential Action-Sequences, in the context of Recognition Learning;   why we use Action Sequences (it's because they're useful), illustrated with an “isolation diagram” that clearly shows a connected series of Actions in the Sequence that people use most often. (of the 7 Action Sequences in Design Process – 1, 3, 3 – which one do you think is most common?)

understand Design Process by

learning from My Explanations

It can be fun-and-effective to learn from Your Discoveries and My Explanations.   Each “way to learn” offers benefits, with a distinctive contrast between the two methods of learning, so I encourage using both.  After you have done some Discovery Learning — and maybe you found the three kinds of Essential Action-Sequences — now...

You can compare Your Discoveries with My Explanations.  Doing this will confirm your Recognition Learning, because...

When you study the diagram and think about the actions you use (naturally & intuitively) while you are solving problems, you will recognize that The Problem-Solving Actions in Design Process are Your Problem-Solving Actions in Your Everyday Living and therefore that Design Process is Your Process.

To confirm this Recognition Learning, study the Complete Diagram (put it on left side with this link`) and ask Recognition-Questions about three Essential Action-Sequences:  Do I often ...

    •  use Cycles of Design by Generating Options and Evaluating Options ?     { each Design Cycle is an Action-Sequence #1 }

    •  use Quality Checks to Evaluate an Option by comparing Predictions (of its Actual Characteristics) with Goal-Criteria (for Desired Characteristics) ?   or by comparing Observations (of Actual Characteristics) with Goal-Criteria,  or by comparing Predictions with Observations ?     { each of these Three Comparisons — to do a Quality Check or Quality Check, or Reality Check — is one variation of Action-Sequence #2 }

    •  use Guided Generation when after my Evaluation (in a Quality Check),  I then "use QC" and this guides me while I'm Revising an Old Option to Generate a New Option and complete a Design Cycle ?     { each kind of Guided Generation — when you "use QC" or "use QC", or "use RC" — is an Action-Sequence #3 }    { the why-and-how of Guided Generation }

Also study the Top Text and Bottom Text to get a “big-picture overview” of Design Process, to see the PS-Actions that you do before, during, and after you do the PS-Actions of Generating Options and Evaluating Options.  You first (before Generating & Evaluating) Learn and Define & Define, then (during) you "continue to Evaluate Options" until you finally "Choose an Option" to be the Problem-Solution, and (after) you "Actualize This Option with Actions."

Here is useful knowledge about seven Action-Sequences, • and • • • and • • • .

     •  timings for Cycles of Design:  With different timings, you can simply alternate the Actions in Action-Sequence #1, so it's Generate-Evaluate-Generate-Evaluate-...;  or (as described here) you can first Generate Multiple Options (to Ideate) and then Evaluate Multiple Options.  Or use other timings.

     • •  in a Quality Check you ask The Design Question:  With a Predictions-Based Quality Check you're asking The Design Question – “how high is the Quality?” (with Quality defined by your Goal-Criteria) — when you compare Predictions with Goal-Criteria and ask “how close is the match?”   Why can you define either question – “how high” or “how close” or both – as The Design Question(s)?    /    In this Quality Check you compare Predictions (of Actual Characteristics) with Goal-Criteria (for Desired Characteristics);  therefore "Define Goal-Criteria... for desired Characteristics of Solution" is a very important Action.    { terms: Goal Criteria & GOALS }     /    You also can do an analogous Observations-Based Quality Check by comparing Observations with Goal-Criteria, and this is a second variation of Action-Sequence #2.   Or in a third variation, ...

     •  in a Reality Check you ask The Science Question:  When you do a Reality Check you're asking The Science Question – “am I surprised?” – when you compare Predictions with Observations.   /   You can do a Reality Check during a Science Project (for Science-Design, aka Science) when your Main Goal is to test a Theory so you intentionally use a Reality Check.  Or maybe during a Design Project (for General Design, aka Design) you unintentionally do a Reality Check when you notice a mis-match between Predictions & Observations, so you answer “yes, I am surprised.”   You can use a Reality Check in three contexts, when it's used for Research Science (when during a Science Project you intentionally use it) and for Everyday Science that can include (maybe unintentionally) using a Reality Check during a Design Project.

     • • •  in Guided Generation your Evaluation guides your Generation:  You do this Action Sequence (that is The Mystery Answer) when you complete a Design Cycle by using Guided Generation.  Why and How?  When you compare Predictions with Goal-Criteria and ask “what inadequacies are causing the mismatches” you are motivated (it's the Why) to ask (for the How) “what revisions will improve the Old Option?” so – with Guided Generation – your Evaluation is guiding your Generation of a better New Option.  When your creative Generating is motivated-and-guided by your critical Evaluating, this Guided Generating is one way to combine creative thinking with critical thinking during your problem-solving Design Process that is creative-and-critical Design Thinking.   /   In the full diagram you see three Cycles — two Design Cycles (when you "use QC" and ask "revise Option"), and a Science Cycle (when you "use RC" and ask "revise Theory") — that are three variations of Action Sequence #3.

integrating Design-and-Science:  When 3 Elements (P & O, G) are used in 3 Comparisons, this logically produces the Evaluations that we intuitively use for Design (in 2 Quality Checks) and for Science (in 1 Reality Check).  This logical integrating of Design-with-Science in the diagram* will help students understand how to improve the logical integrating of Design-with-Science in their thinking when they internalize this logic during their experiences with Problem Solving, especially when the focus is General Design.

 * Design and Science are logically integrated in the verbal-and-visual structure of my model for Design Process;  by contrast, most other models-for-process describe either Design or Science, but not both in the same model.    /    In classroom instruction, a teacher can describe relationships between Design (that includes Engineering as a special kind of Design) and Science.

options for terms:  You can choose to use (or not use) some terms as approximate synonyms — e.g. with Science ≈ Science-Design;  and General Design ≈ Design ≈ Design Thinking ≈ Engineering Design ≈ Engineering;  and The Design Question ≈ The Engineering Question — or to use other terms.

Action Sequences

Why?  These are used because they are useful.  The three Essential Action-Sequences tend to occur naturally when you are Coordinating Your Process (by deciding “what to do next”) and you decide that a particular Sequence-of-Actions will help you make progress toward Solving the Problem.  These common Sequences "tend to occur naturally" so you don't need to “learn” them;  instead you can just recognize Sequences and use them.

What happens first ?  An “isolation diagram” (put it on left side`) makes it easier to see the Action-Sequence that is most common in our Problem-Solving Actions.*  Notice how each Action leads to the next Action:  after you Generate multiple options you Choose an Option so you can Evaluate it when you DO a Mental Experiment by imagining an Experiment-Situation to make a Prediction that you compare with Goal-Criteria (GOALS) in a Predictions-Based Quality Check.  This is an Essential Action-Sequence #2.     { * This Action-Sequence is most common in both subconscious processing and conscious thinking. }

What happens next ?  Then your Problem-Solving Actions can continue IF you do the Actions in the region that is lightly shaded to show that it's optional, although it's often done.  In this Essential Action-Sequence #3, you follow the left-side arrow upward (compare ➞ use ➞ revise ➞ Generate) to complete a Design Cycle by using Guided Generation.  How?  When you compare Predictions with Goal-Criteria and you "use QC" by deciding to ask “revise?” (i.e. you ask “what inadequacies are causing the mismatches, and do I want to make a revision that will improve the Old Option?” and you answer “yes” so you do revise-to-Generate,  your Evaluation is guiding your Generation of a better New Option.     { the three Essential Action-Sequences }

Students Learn More when they

Get More Experiences and they

Learn More from Experiences:

A useful definition of education is learning from experience.  We want to provide better education, so we want to help students learn more from their experiences with Problem Solving (PS), and we can do this with...

two ways to learn more:  Students can learn more by combining two actions, when they GET MORE PS-Experiences, and they LEARN MORE from these PS-Experiences by using my model for Design Process – i.e. for Problem-Solving Process – plus other models (for Self-Regulated Learning, and from d.school of Stanford plus others) to promote cognitive-and-metacognitive Thinking Strategies.    /    educational benefits:  Abundant research shows that when students use metacognition skillfully, these actions are highly effective for helping them improve their academic skills — to boost their Learning and Performing in many areas, including their scores on standardized exams — and their social-emotional skills.

differences in the two ways:  Using the model for Design Process can directly help students LEARN MORE from Experiences, by promoting metacognition.  By contrast, the value is indirect for helping them GET MORE Experiences, when the model helps them recognize* that most of their Experiences are PS-Experiences so they will be metacognively aware more often, and their frequent metacognition will help them LEARN MORE.     { * A teacher can promote this recognition by saying “the Wide Scope of Design Process includes most things you do” and by sometimes calling attention to the Wide Scope with reminders – during a wide variety of School Activities – that “what you're doing now is Problem Solving.” }  

For this Basic Overview, the title begins with "help students learn more..." and ends with another way to help students learn more, because they will "be more motivated to learn [and will learn more] when they build Transfer Bridges from School into Life."  Two other ways to motivate students are with Metacognitive Metaphors (to “Drive Your Brain” and “Be CEO of Your Thinking”) and Thinking Adventures when they LEARN Thinking Strategies (for Cognition-and-Metacognition) and USE Thinking Strategies (to do Thinking Activities).

use Cognitive-and-Metacognitive Thinking Strategies

How?  The essential foundation of Metacognition is for you {or a student } to observe your thinking, but you also can think about your thinking, and evaluate it so you can regulate it, as in Self-Regulated Learning.  With five levels, your Metacognitive Actions can be...

      0 )   none,

      1 )   observe,

     2a)   observe  +  ( think about ),

     2b)    observe  +  ( think about  &  evaluate ),

     2c)    observe  +  ( think about  &  evaluate-and-regulate ).

Why?  Because skillful Regulation by Metacognition requires skillful Regulation of Metacognition.  How?  To achieve higher quality in a particular situation, you might decide to stimulate your Learning-and-Performing by using metacognition of a particular type in a particular way (re: its amount, timing,...) by doing 1 or 2a or 2b or 2c.  But in your efforts to be more skillfully effective, in other situations you will want to “go with the flow” by just thinking-and-doing (instead of thinking about thinking) to allow higher-quality Learning by avoiding metacognition totally (at Level 0) or by avoiding some types, with only observing (Level 1), or by using 2a or 2b but not 2c.     { decreasing metacognition to increase flow, inner game, incubation }

You can Regulate your Thinking-and-Feeling * — with a goal of using Whole-Person Regulation to achieve Whole-Person Goals — so you are using Goal-Directed Metacognition.     { * Most educators think it's beneficial for students to Regulate their Thinking AND Feeling because this can make their life better in a wide range of important ways by improving their academic skills AND social-emotional skills. }

use Design Process for Thinking Strategies

How?  Three ways (with each combining cognition-and-metacognition) are by Coordinating your Problem-Solving Process and, in two related Actions, with Self-Questioning and Self-Regulated Learning.

use metacognition to Coordinate your Process:  You are Coordinating your Problem-Solving Process when you ask “what is the best way to make progress in my process?” and decide “what to do next” and do this Action.  How?  During a skillful Coordinating of Process – by making Decisions about Actions – you combine cognitive-and-metacognitive awareness of Your Situation (of “where you are” in your PS-Process, and “where you want to go”) with conditional knowledge for each Action-Option (by knowing “what this Action can achieve” and “when it can be useful”).

Research scientists have found that two very effective ways to use metacognition are with Self-Questioning and Self-Regulated Learning or (most beneficial) by combining both.  These are good reasons to help students...

use metacognitive Self-Questioning:  During a PS-Process, students can ask two basic self-questions, “am I effectively Generating Options?” and “am I effectively Evaluating Options?”  These questions and others — with choices perhaps stimulated-and-guided by a metacognitive checklist — can help them perform a better Process and design a better Solution.   /   timings of before-during-after:  A student can self-question during a PS-Experience by Monitoring, and also after it with Reflections that help them learn more from the Experience and grow so they will “do it better” the next time;  or before an upcoming Experience, to stimulate & support their learning-and-growing.

use metacognitive Self-Regulated Learning: 

What?  Self-Regulation (SR) is a useful skill for living.  Students can “Be CEO of Their Thinking” by using metacognition that includes Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) to improve their Learning-and-Performing.  If a student expands the purpose of their Executive Functions they can be “Chief Executive Officer of Their Thinking-and-Feeling” so their SRL becomes Self-Regulated Living that improves the total skills they use to function as a Whole Person.  And this “total skills” goal is realistic, because research shows that using SRL can help students improve their academic skills and also their social-emotional skills.

How?  A common way for students to use SRL is with Cycles of SRL, and...

We can use Design Process to

teach Self-Regulated Learning:

Why?  This is educationally beneficial because...  [ iou – this will be written tomorrow, August 8 ] --- We can...

     teach SRL with DP:  A teacher can help students understand-and-use Cycles of Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) by studying diagrams for Design Process (DP) that have been modified to form a Basic Diagram for SRL with actions of “PLAN, DO, REFLECT” (that actually are “PLAN, DO-and-MONITOR, REFLECT”) plus an Expanded Diagram for SRL that has the same framework, but adds details (from Design Process) about how to PLAN.  Both diagrams can help us teach SRL with DP.  In this Basic Overview only the Basic Diagram is used, and no knowledge of Design Process is required.  Building on this foundation, the Expanded Overview uses the Expanded Diagram to show how knowledge of Design Process can help students understand SRL more deeply, and use SRL more skillfully.

iou – Tonight, August 7, I will review this section, and will make minor revisions & additions.

How?  We'll look at four parts of the Basic Diagram:  its Top Box and Upper Cycle, plus an SRL Cycle and Mini-Cycles.

Top Box:  It describes how you {and students} begin a Cycle of SRL:  you Define the Task that you will DO;  and you Learn more about the Task and Strategies to DO the Task (maybe from experts?) and you learn about Yourself (so you can use Knowledge-of-Self to personally customize your Plan to DO the Task).   You also imagine the desired Results that you want when you DO the Task,  i.e. you Define your Goal-Criteria for how to DO the Task effectively with high Quality.

Upper Cycle:  When you PLAN (verb) you Design a Plan (noun) that is a Strategy for Task-Actions.  How?  To do your Plan-Designing (i.e. to PLAN), you Generate Strategy-Options and Evaluate Strategy-Options in multiple iterative Cycles of Design, until you CHOOSE the Strategy that is your Plan.    { notice the symbolic color-coding & capitalizing:  when you PLAN, you Design a Plan }

SRL Cycle with REFLECT:  To use a Cycle of SRL with three phases, first you PLAN (in the Upper Cycle of Generate-and-Evaluate) to Design "your Strategy for Task-Actions" (it's your Plan to DO the Task)" and then you DO these Task-Actions;  then after you finish the Task, you "REFLECT (Evaluate & maybe Adjust) in a re-PLAN" that completes the Cycle of SRL and begins a new Cycle, by using your Adjusted Plan to DO the Task.  When you Evaluate, you have the option of Adjusting your Plan to Generate a New Plan that now is your New Strategy to DO the Task-Actions;  but Adjusting is optional, is only a "maybe" since you may decide that the Current Strategy-Plan is working well, so you want to continue using it as-is with no Adjusting. 

Mini-Cycles with MONITOR:  While you DO the Task, you also use metacognition to MONITOR (in order to Self-Regulate) so the Cycle of SRL – with 3 Phases – actually is PLAN, DO-and-MONITOR, REFLECT.  In both MONITOR and REFLECT, you "Evaluate and maybe Adjust" but there are differences in timing;  with MONITOR you "Observe" the "Actions & Results" that are happening now (while you DO);  then later (after you DO) with REFLECT you Remember the Actions & Results that already happened.

Regulation of Metacognition:  You want both aspects of DO-and-MONITOR to be effective, and this requires Regulating your MONITORING (i.e. Regulating your Metacognition) by using principles outlined earlier.  [ I'll continue developing this paragraph tonight, August 7 ]

using Design Process to teach

Self-Regulated Learning (Part 2)

iou – Tonight, August 7, I will review-and-revise the section below.

Cycles of Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) are described above by using a Basic Diagram and assuming no knowledge of Design Process (DP).  But knowing the principles of DP – summarized above – will help you understand SRL in this “Part 2” of teaching SRL with DP.

Below, first I compare DP with SRL, and then explain how DP can help us teach SRL.

comparing Design Process with Self-Regulated Learning

In a side-by-side comparison of the “full diagrams” for Design Process (left side) and Cycles of SRL (right side), you can see many connections.  Why?  It's because Design Process describes the general process that people use for most things we do in life, when we want to “make something better” by designing a better Product, Activity, Relationship, Strategy, and/or Theory.*   Cycles of SRL describes a specific application of Design Process, when you want to Design a Strategy.    /   * It's "and/or" due to overlaps, for example when you want to design a Strategy to improve a Relationship.

The two Top Boxes have a similar structure.  And they have the same concepts, despite some differences in their descriptions:

     Both first lines emphasize the importance of "Learn more" but for DP the purpose is general (to "construct a more accurate-and-thorough understanding"), and for SRL the purpose is specific (to Learn more "about the Task & Strategies to DO Task & Yourself ").

     Both second lines use "before-during-after" (along with the gray two-directional arrows below the Top Box) to emphasize the flexibility of Design Process, because although our PS-Process is similar for most things we do there are variations because we improvise in every Process instead of following a rigid step-by-step sequence.  But again this line is customized for each diagram, so it's generally useful for DP (when you "Solve the Problem with Cycles,...") and is specifically useful for SRL (when you "PLAN-DO-REFLECT ").

     Both third lines emphasize that you...  Define a PS-Goal that is general for DP (it's "What You Want to Make Better") and is specific for SRL ("the Task").  And you Define Goal-Criteria for Quality;  as usual, these are general for DP (the term "desired Characteristics" is useful generally for “most things we do”) but the criteria are more specific for SRL (because when you DO the Task, your "desired Results" is a term that is useful more-specifically for “most Tasks we Self-Regulate”).   /   Also, "GOAL" is included only in DP because this term is used only in the DP-Diagram;  this term is not used in the SRL-Diagram, although the concept is used.

In other connections,...

     • both diagrams include iterative Cycles for Generate-and-Evaluate because this is a key feature of Design Process and (because SRL uses DP) it's a key feature of SRL because the purpose of its PLAN is to Design a Plan for the Task.  Therefore both diagrams describe the Action-Sequence of Guided Generation, although this is done in different ways;  it's only implicit in DP, when "use QC" helps you complete a Design Cycle when you ask "revise Option?" to Generate a New Option;  but it's explcit in SRL when you "do critical Evaluating to guide your creative Option-Generating".

     • both diagrams represent (verbally & visually) the same two Action-Sequences for Quality Checks that are Predictions-Based & Observations-Based.  And again there is customizing;  this time it's based on the principle that Experiments produce Experiences so the SRL-Diagram (unlike the DP-Diagram) says Physical Experiences & Mental Experiences.  During an SRL-Activity (it's a specific kind of PS-Activity) students are "experiencing" the Experiments, because during DO their "New Physical Experiences" are actually produced actually do produce their Experiences;  using "Experience" in the two terms will direct their attention to the connection between Experiments-and-Experiences, because with SRL they are personally experiencing this connection.

iou – This sub-section will have a conclusion, including a disclaimer about being incomplete because there also are "other connections," and you will see some below.

using Design Process to teach Self-Regulated Learning

This section builds on two foundations:  basic explanations in the Basic Overview and comparing DP with SRL based on this side-by-side comparison.

In another visual comparison you can see that the Basic Diagram and Expanded Diagram are identical except for the Middle Part that has many extra principles for How to PLAN.  The two diagrams have...

an identical Top Box, and

almost-identical Bottom Part — with a Cycle of SRL, and Mini-Cycles to Monitor — that differs only by the addition of "New Physical Experience" that is the outcome of...

But there are MAJOR extra ideas in the Middle Part, to describe (using concepts & Actions from Design Process) many useful principles for PLAN when you Design a Plan to DO the Task.

iou – The rest of this section will be developed in the afternoon & evening today, August 4.

   Experiences that are "old & new, 1st-hand & 2nd-hand"  --  Experiments (Mental or Physical) can be Old or New, done by You or by Others:  In a Quality Check (used for General Design) or Reality Check (used for Science-Design), you can use old Observations (made in the distant past, during an old Experiment) or new Observations (made in the present, during a new Experiment).  Also, your total experiences include your first-hand experiences with events you personally Observe (that you remember in your Personal Memory, from your own experience in the distant past or the present) plus the second-hand experiences (found in our Collective Memory) that were Obsea rved by someone else, then later (in a report or recording) you hear it and/or see it, or (in a web-page, tweet, book,...) you read about it.   /   In similar ways, a Prediction – of what will happen during an Experiment – can be an Old Prediction (made in the past) or New Prediction (made in the present) by you or by others.

iou – Until the following ideas are used (above) or eliminated (below), just ignore them:

    teach SRL with DP:  A teacher can help students understand-and-use Cycles of Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) by studying diagrams for Design Process (DP) that have been modified to form a Basic Diagram for SRL with actions of “Plan, Do, Reflect” (that actually are “Plan, Do-and-Monitor, Reflect”) plus an Expanded Diagram for SRL that has the same framework, but adds details about how to Plan.  Both diagrams can help us teach SRL with DP.  In this Basic Overview only the Basic Diagram is used, and no knowledge of Design Process is required.  Building on this foundation, the Expanded Overview uses the Expanded Diagram to show how knowledge of Design Process can help students understand SRL more deeply, and use SRL more skillfully.

    term changes, ≈ approximate synonyms, be flexible thinker (adapt),

    specific applicn of dp (most common, ≈ all due to strats,

options:  You can read any section (below) whenever you want, in any order.    { although I recommend that you first get a “big-picture overview” by reading all sections in the shorter Summary }

 put section on right side 

In the HomePage, 

Part 1 helps you understand my model for problem-solving Design Process.

Part 2 explains how this model can help us achieve worthy educational goals.

Basically, Part 1 is the “what” of my model, then Part 2 answers the “so what ?” about educational benefits.

To explain how using Design Process can help us produce educational benefits, Part 2 describes three claims (in Sections A-B-C) and explains the causal connections between these claims:

Wide Scopes of Design Process  (for Activities and Process)  { A }

    ➞  Transfers of Learning  (Across Areas, Through Time)  { in B }

    ➞  Transfer Bridges to Motivate for Personal Education  { in C }.

Part 2  –  Educational Benefits

Section A  —  Wide Scopes and Educational Benefits

This section has three sub-sections, to explain why Design Process...  A1) has a Wide Scope for Process,   A2) has a Wide Scope for Activities,   A3) can be educationally beneficial with two main benefits, by helping students learn more (this is examined in A3) and (described in B & C) by producing Transfers of Learning that will help students be more motivated.

There is one Wide Scope (for Activities-and-Process) but sometimes it's useful to think “it has two Wide Scopes, for Activities and for Process” so that's what I'll do in most of A1 and A2.   (and later in B)

A1  –  Design Process has a Wide Scope for Process

An Actions Diagram shows how Design Process uses action-verbs (Define, Generate, Evaluate, Choose, imagine-to-Predict, actualize-and-Observe, compare) to describe the basic Problem-Solving Actions that people actually do while we're Solving Problems.  This gives the model a modular structure and a modular flexibility that lets us combine these simple Thinking Actions to do a wide variety of complex Thinking Projects (with Process that is similar but not identical), often by combining some Actions into Action-Sequences.  By analogy, it's like combining simple Lego Bricks to construct complex Lego Structures;  or how simple atoms combine to form complex molecules.     { The analogy works well because action-verbs and Lego Bricks both produce a modular structure that allows modular flexibility. }     And...

You can get personal “anecdotal evidence” for a Wide Scope that includes Your PS-Actions when you do Recognition Learning by "thinking about the actions you use (naturally & intuitively) while you are solving problems" and recognizing that Your PS-Actions in Everyday Life are The PS-Actions in Design Process so Your Personal Process is a General Process (with Wide Scope) that is Design Process.

Even though I'm confident that using Design Process can be educationally valuable, its utility is limited by an important reality:  all models-for-process have an inherent limitation, because it's impossible to construct any model that is an optimal “best process” for all Problem-Situations.  Therefore a very useful teaching strategy is recognizing that ...

By itself, sometimes Design Process isn't sufficient for an optimal Problem-Solving Process — for a “best Process that produces a best Solution” — so my model should be combined with other models.  For some Problems it's useful to supplement the principles & strategies of Design Process with the principles & strategies of other Models-for-Process.  We can combine models effectively because the modular structure of Design Process forms a foundation that is solid yet flexible so it can “play well” with other models, producing interactions that are synergistically supportive, that make the combination of models better than any single model by itself, to improve Education (by teachers) and Problem Solving (by students).     { exploring the possibilities for productively combining models can be an exciting part of “thinking adventures” in Section C }

A2  –  Design Process has a Wide Scope for Activities

Why?  It's partly because choosing a broad definition for problem – as any opportunity to make something better, in any area of life – produces a Wide Scope.   /   But this definition can be used with many other Models for Problem Solving, so they also can have a Wide Scope for PS-Activities.  It's much more important for a model to have a Wide Scope for PS-Process.  And as explained in A1, Design Process does accurately describe the General Process that is used by most people for most things we do throughout the Wide Scope of our PS-Activities, so the model has a Wide Scope for Activities-and-Process.

What?  You decide to do a Problem-Solving Activity when (quoting from an Overview-Diagram) you "Define a Problem-Solving Goal (for What to Achieve, for What to Make Better).  Your choice can be in...

five categories of PS-Activities:  When you Define your PS-Goal (and thus a PS-Activity) you can choose to design a better product, activity, relationship, and/or strategy (in General Design, aka Design) and/or (in Science-Design, aka Science) a better theory about “how things work in the world” and “what will happen.”   These PS-Goals – extending far beyond traditional “design fields” – include most things you do in life.   /   The main reason I confidently claim "most things" is because you use strategies MANY times each day;  two common examples are using Self-Regulated Learning and making decisions, most often by asking Time Questions (“what is the best use of my time right now?  and later?”) so you can wisely use your time, and — because “time is the stuff life is made of ” (Ben Franklin) — you will wisely use your life.

other ways to categorize:  A teacher may want to define another set of categories, customized so it's a better fit with their students.  A teacher wants the categories (for PS-Goals) to closely match the life-experiences of students, so they are more likely to recognize the personal relevance of School Activities and be motivated by expecting that “my learning in School-Life will improve my Whole-Life (and I want this), so I want to proactively pursue my own Personal Education in School-Life.”

Despite a common perception, a “problem” doesn't necessarily begin with a bad situation.  When we broadly define a problem as "any opportunity to make something better," the change could be from miserable to adequate, or from pleasant to wonderful.  Each of these is problem solving because things have become better.

Another way to think about the Wide Scopes of Problem Solving is to recognize that you can "make something better" if ...

     with reactive Problem Solving you “make it better” by improving it (to fix it) after it already exists, or

     with proactive Problem Solving you “do it better” the first time, so there is less need to "fix it" with reactive improving.     { This is the “measure twice, cut once” of carpenters, to take advantage of your only opportunity to make a high-quality first cut. }

You also can make things better — by increasing quality or maintaining quality (by minimizing a decrease of quality) — when...

     with proactive Problem Solving you do positive Actions that (because they are done) will produce beneficial effects, and

     with protective Problem Solving you avoid negative Actions that (if they were done) would produce detrimental effects.

And you can do all of these with your subconscious processing and/or your conscious thinking.

A3  –  Educational Benefits

iou – Soon, August 4-7, I will write this section.  More than any other incomplete “iou section” it will describe important ideas — including

     the benefits of combining Design Process with other Models-for-Process because "it's impossible to construct any model [including Design Process] that is an optimal “best process” for all Problem-Situations" so "in some Problem-Situations it's educationally useful to supplement the principles & strategies of Design Process with the principles & strategies of other Models-for-Process,"  These combination can be an exciting part of Adventures with Thinking.

     teaching Design Process with a sequence of Experiences + Reflections ➞ Principles — and it will link to other sections (in this Basic Overview) with other important ideas about Educational Benefits.

B – The Wide Scopes increase Transfers of Learning.

Design Process (DP) has two Wide Scopes and is logically organized.

These three characteristics of DP let us teach its procedural knowledge (for the skills of Solving Problems, of Designing Solutions to Make Things Better) in ways that will increase Transfers of Learning,* both Across Areas (in School & in Life) and Through Time (Past ➞ Present ➞ Future).

How?  Transfers increase when we teach the procedural knowledge...  

     • in multiple contexts (allowed by DP's Wide Scope for Activities)

     • in a generalized form (allowed by DP's Wide Scope for Process),

     • for deep understanding (promoted by DP's logically organized verbal-and-visual framework).

* We have reasons to be confident — due to evidence-based research and common-sense logic — that these “ways to teach” will increase Transfers of Learning and will be useful for a Goal-Directed Designing of Curriculum & Instruction when we Define Goals for a Curriculum and Design Instruction to achieve these Goals.     { iou – the Expanded Overview will describe one source for the

C – Transfers help students build Motivational Transfer-Bridges.

       We can motivate with Bridges plus Metaphors & Adventures.

When we explain how the Wide Scopes of Design Process let us use methods of teaching that (as described in B) increase Transfers of Learning, we can help students expect Transfers to occur Across Areas (from School-Life into Their Whole-Life) and Through Time (from Past to Present and into Their Future).  They will think “Learning in School is Learning for Life” and they will build Transfer-Bridges that motivate them to invest effort in proactively pursuing their own Personal Education.  Why?  Because they believe that improving their School Learning will improve their Life Living.   [ iou – July 17, I'll add a few more ideas to this section. ]

More generally, we can help students motivate themselves with...

     Bridges for Transfers of Learning-and-Performing from School into Their Whole-Life and into Their Future-Life.

     Metaphors about Thinking, by explaining how to metacognitively “Drive Your Brain” — and use your Growth Mindset to imagine how exciting it will be when you increase its Performance (like a car's Horsepower & Torque, DriveTrain, Handling Characteristics)* — and “Be CEO of Your Thinking” by using your Executive Functions to optimize your Whole-Brain System of Subconscious Processing + Conscious Thinking.     { use analogies:  Horsepower & Brainpower, Car-Performance & Brain-Performance;  Growth Mindset-plus-Actions for Muscles & Brain }     [ iou – Later there will be "more" in the Expanded Overview. ]

     Adventures in Thinking, by inviting them to explore the fascinating world of thinking when they LEARN Thinking Strategies (for effective Cognition-and-Metacognition) and USE Thinking Strategies.     { iou – This is the section that I'm most excited about developing during July, especially by exploring possibilities for understanding cognition-and-metacognition and for combining Design Process with other Models-for-Process. }

Part 2 has some sections (A-B-C above) that directly involve Design Process, and others (below) that are General Principles of Education.

Principles for Motivating Students:   [ iou – I'll develop this later, during July 17-21. ]

Growth Mindset

A student is responding with an optimistic growth mindset – not a fixed mindset – if they ask themself “how well am I doing in this area of life?” and honestly answer “not well enough” BUT they are thinking “not yet” (instead of “not ever”) because they expect that in this area* they can “grow” and improve their abilities, when they invest intelligent effort.  As one way to promote this realistic-and-optimistic view of self, a teacher can explain how a student's "intelligent effort" can include cognitive & metacognitive Thinking Strategies that they now can use more often (and more effectively) than they did in the past, and these strategies will help their future abilities “grow” beyond their past abilities.

 * It's "in this area" because a student's attitudes will vary from one area to another, re: their expectations for personal growth.  Ideally a student will develop-and-use a growth mindset in all areas of their life, because...

As you know, promoting a productive growth mindset is one of the best things a teacher can do for their students, to help them thrive in school and in life.

Learning that improves Performing

When you want your best possible Performing Now, you have a Performance Goal.  When you want your best possible Learning Now so you can improve your best possible Performing Later, you have a Learning Goal.  Or you can want some of both, with a combination of Performing-and-Learning.     { For example, compare the main goals for a basketball team during an early-season practice and late-season tournament game. }    { more }

Differences in Goals — whether you want best Learning Now and/or best Performing Now — will affect strategies (of students & teachers) in ways that are important and complex.

iou – during July 17-21, I will condense sections in the HomePage to make the following sections for this Basic Overview and the Expanded Overview:

Three Kinds of Improvising – for problem solving, conversation, music

Goal-Directed Designing of Curriculum & Instruction for Optimal Whole-Person Education that helps us improve Diversity & Equity in Education to “open up the options” for all students, so each will say “yes, I can do this” for a wider variety of subject-options in school and career-options in life.

iou – during mid-August, I will write a brief “conclusion” for this Basic Overview.

about me – Here is a “networking bio” :

I'm an enthusiastic educator (with a PhD in C & I ) who wants to find co-enthusiasts so we can learn from each other by discussing my ideas & your ideas, and your goals.    { How?  You can learn from me in this website, and I can learn from you – and we can learn from each other – if you contact me. }

I'm especially excited about helping students improve their skills in problem-solving Design Thinking, and I've developed this comprehensive website about Education for Problem Solving.  Although it's based on solid principles of learning & teaching, I don't have any direct experience with teaching K-12 so I need help from fellow educators who have better understandings of K-12 students, teachers, and culture.     { also – In my main edu-bio you will find more about me (and you) and why our combining of similarities-and-differences can help us co-create better education, plus how my model began during a PhD project  and “having fun with music” and a full bio about my life on a road less traveled. }

But I do have a variety of teaching experiences with chemistry (instructor for U of Wisconsin-Madison) and  physics ,  math ,  ESL ,  problem solving  –  plus the skills of  tennis ,  juggling ,  ballroom dancing ,  music improvising  –  and I've enjoyed all.

I have degrees in Chemistry and History of Science, plus Curriculum & Instruction that is my favorite, is the central hub (with many fascinating spokes) for continuing adventures with lifelong learning.  It's a strong motivation for action because improving our education — by designing better ways to teach & learn, so we can improve our thinking and doing — is one of the most important things we can do.  And it's fun!

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