You can help students get more Experiences with Problem Solving, and LEARN MORE from their Experiences. How? By using my model for Design Process (for Design-Thinking Process that is Problem-Solving Process) plus other models (from d.school of Stanford,...) to promote educationally valuable cognitive-and-metacognitive Thinking Strategies.
cognition-and-metacognition: Using my model for Design Process can promote metacognitive Thinking Strategies.
My model for problem-solving Design Thinking uses verbal-and-visual representations (of Problem-Solving Actions) to logically organize the creative-and-critical Thinking Actions that are used by people for most things we do in life, when we Design Solutions to Solve Problems by Making Things Better.
There is support (from scientific evidence-and-logic) for these claims: most people use a General Process that is similar (but not identical) for most things we do in life, AND this General Process is accurately described by my model for Design Process. The model's wide scope has one main cause, and it produces two major effects that are educational benefits:
learn from Your Discoveries and My Explanations: This is the best way to understand my model for Design Process (for Design-Thinking Process that is Problem-Solving Process). You can begin your “discovery learning” by studying this diagram, which is a verbal-and-visual representation of how you combine your Problem-Solving Actions to form your Problem-Solving Process. { all blue-green text is quoted from the Brief Overview }
Then use Part 1 of the HomePage. It guides your explorations when you thoroughly explore the diagram by observing (and thinking about ) all of its words & colors and spatial relationships, and finding the logical structures; and by solving a Mystery, “Why does the Cycle have a right-side arrow, pointing from Evaluate to Generate?”
Then you can compare Your Discoveries with My Explanations – and supplement your Discovery Learning with Recognition Learning – at the end of Part 1.
the educational value of metacognition: You can help students... LEARN MORE from their Experiences when you promote educationally valuable cognitive-and-metacognitive Thinking Strategies. Based on abundant research, we know that using metacognition is highly effective for helping students improve their academic skills (in many ways, including scores on standardized exams) and social-emotional skills. Therefore we know that promoting metacognition (that usually is cognition-and-metacognition) will help students improve, will be educationally beneficial.
getting more and learning more: You can help students get more Experiences with Problem Solving... by using my model for Design Process. How? Even though using my model won't be directly useful to help students GET more Problem-Solving Experiences, it will be indirectly useful by helping students RECOGNIZE that more of their School Experiences (and other Life Experiences) are Problem-Solving Experiences because these include "most things they do." When a teacher calls attention to this wide scope with verbal reminders – during a wide variety of School Activities – that "you now are doing a Problem-Solving Experience," their students will be aware of more Problem-Solving Experiences, so they will be metacognively aware more often, and this will help them LEARN MORE from their Experiences. / also: If a teacher thinks
An overview of the HomePage explains the structure: Part 1 helps you understand my model for Design Process (for the Design-Thinking Process that is Problem-Solving Process), and 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?" with the “What's & Why's & How's”
Part 1 is described above, and an overview of Part 2 outlines the causal connections between its main ideas, in Sections A-B-C,
Wide Scopes of Design Process (for Activities & Process) { in A }
➞ Transfers of Learning (Across Areas, Through Time) { in B }
➞ Transfer Bridges to Motivate for Personal Education { in C }.
about me:
I'm an enthusiastic educator (with a PhD in C&I from U of WI) who wants to find co-enthusiasts so we can discuss my ideas & your ideas, and your goals. I'm especially excited about helping students improve their skills in problem-solving Design Thinking, and I've developed a comprehensive website about Education for Problem Solving. Although it's based on solid principles of learning and offers productive strategies for 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. { a little more bio-info plus my life on a road less traveled }
I've taught chemistry (as instructor for UW-Madison) and physics , math , ESL – plus the skills of tennis , juggling , ballroom dancing , music improvising – and have 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 in 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!
Help students learn more fromtheir Problem-Solving Experiences,and build motivational Transfer Bridges:You can help students get more Experiences with Problem Solving, and LEARN MORE from their Experiences. How? By using my model for Design Process (for Design-Thinking Process that is Problem-Solving Process) plus other models (from d.school of Stanford,...) to promote educationally valuable cognitive-and-metacognitive Thinking Strategies. cognition-and-metacognition: Using my model for Design Process can promote metacognitive Thinking Strategies. My model for problem-solving Design Thinking uses verbal-and-visual representations (of Problem-Solving Actions) to logically organize the creative-and-critical Thinking Actions that are used by people for most things we do in life, when we Design Solutions to Solve Problems by Making Things Better. SCOPE -- There is support (from scientific evidence-and-logic) for these claims: most people use a General Process that is similar (but not identical) for most things we do in life, AND this General Process is accurately described by my model for Design Process. The model's wide scope has one main cause, and it produces two major effects that are educational benefits: A -- SCOPE-CAUSE(s) (main is modular flexibility, as with Lego Bricks) (also broad defn of Problem & PS) B -- SCOPE-EFFECTS (teaching-for-TRANSFERS-Areas+Time) C -- SCOPE-EFFECTS (to imagine BRIDGES) Area-Transfers from School into Life (+ reverse) and Time-Transfers into Future (+ from Past)
Areas-Transfer requires Time-Transfer, but Time-Transfer can occur without Area-Transfer (if in Same Area),
topics: 2C - Bridges, Metaphors, Adventures after 2-ABC, growth mindset, learning-and-performing, metacognition,
When a teacher calls attention to this wide scope with verbal reminders – during a wide variety of School Activities – that "you now are doing a Problem-Solving Experience," their students will be aware of more Problem-Solving Experiences, so they will be metacognively aware more often, and this will help them LEARN MORE from their Experiences. / BUT ALSO... teachers will be more likely to do more PS-Activities IF they believe that these Activities will be educationally valuable, will help their students.
in 2-B — how "the two wide scopes of Design Process increase two Transfers of Learning [Across Areas & Through Time] and help make education Personally Useful" plus in 2-B -- our "Logical Evidence-Based Reasons to Expect Transfers" in 2-C -- /// We also can motivate students with metaphors (to “drive your brain” & increase its performance, and “be CEO of your thinking”) and promote their adventures with thinking (when they explore web-resources & do activities) that can include Design Process (by studying its logic-and-art, and using it to improve their problem-solving abilities).
Part 2 - ABC — describes an important characteristic of Design Process — A [[it has Two Wide Scopes (for Problem-Solving Activities & Problem-Solving Process) — plus WHY and [[C – answers SO WHAT -- explains how these wide scopes help make Design Process more educationally useful.
2–B This wide scope lets us design instruction that increase transfers in three ways, by teaching the process-and-skills of Design Process in multiple contexts, in a generalized form with a logical structure that promotes deep understanding. / --> Transfers through Time, and Transfers-between-Areas (that require Transfers-thru-Time). two-way Transfer Bridges (from School into Life, but also Life-into-School) that require Transfers-thru-Time (Past-to-Present and Present-to-Future) This wide scope lets us teach Design Process by using principles from How People Learn (NRC 2000); to increase transfers, teach knowledge (including the procedural knowledge of problem solving) in multiple contexts, in generalized form, with a logical structure that promotes deep understanding.
2–C -- (earlier) This wide scope helps a student imagine “Transfer Bridges” so they believe that Skills-in-School will be Skills-in-Life, that improving their School Learning will improve their Life Living, will help them achieve their whole-person Goals for Life, motivating them to invest in their Personal Education. These transfers (Across Areas, Through Time) let you show students how their Learning in School is Learning for Life, so improving their School Learning will improve their Life Living, will help them achieve their Goals for Life. This will help all students (especially those often underserved in schools) become more confident (with growth mindset) and more motivated (to proactively pursue their Personal Education), to fulfill more of their whole-person potential. C) These transfers (Across Areas, Through Time) let you show students how their Learning in School is Learning for Life, so improving their School Learning will improve their Life Living, will help them achieve their Goals for Life. This will help all students (especially those often underserved in schools) become more confident (with growth mindset) and more motivated (to proactively pursue their Personal Education), to fulfill more of their whole-person potential. and how we can help students build bridges so they expect school-into-life transfers that produce direct benefits (with better results in their learning & performing) and indirect benefits (with better attitudes in their motivations & confidences)" so a student wants to proactively pursue their own Personal Education, and wisely Design Their Life. THREE STRATEGIES (partnering two other strategies + yours) -- Motivate Students with Brain Metaphors, Adventures in Thinking, Transfer Bridges FROM OLD g.htm -- Teachers can motivate all students with strategies like those in ⊡ 4 , by building bridges from school into life & present into future, using metaphors of brain-driving & CEO-ing, promoting adventures with thinking. Get students excited about thinking creatively-and-critically, with Brain Metaphors (drive your brain, increase its horsepower, be its CEO) and Thinking Adventures (learn & use cognitive-and-metacognitive Thinking Strategies) and Transfer Bridges (expect improved School Learning to improve your Life Living). How? DETAILED -- Motivate Students with Brain Metaphors, Adventures in Thinking, Transfer Bridges Get students excited about thinking creatively-and-critically, with... • Brain Metaphors by urging them to "Drive Your Brain and Increase its HorsePower (BrainPower)" and "Be CEO of Your Thinking" and your favorites. • Adventures in Thinking when they learn cognitive-and-metacognitive Thinking Strategies — with my model for Design-Thinking Process plus other models-for-process (from d.school of Stanford,...) and a variety of useful mindsets & mental models — and use the Thinking Strategies to do fun Thinking Activities. • Transfer Bridges so they expect that Skills-in-School will be Skills-in-Life, that improving their School Learning will improve their Life Living, will help them achieve their whole-person Goals for Life, motivating them to invest in their Personal Education. How? One way is to show them (with analogy to using Lego Bricks) how my model for problem-solving Design Thinking describes how they do most things in School and in Life. We will discuss possibilities and will learn from each other. adventures can include the fascinating science of thinking, and synergistic interactions between models for ...net/oagc -- And gifted students tend to be naturally self-motivated, being very interested in thinking and wanting to improve their cognitive-and-metacognitive thinking skills. @ to use for ADVENTURES IN THINKING -- index.htm (for ws.htm) -- Also look at the Table of Contents in a “details” page (just to see the wide range of topics) but don't click any links. Then use the Back-Button to reload the HomePage and move onward to...
My model for Design Process (for Problem-Solving Process) uses verbal-and-visual diagrams to integrate Design Thinking with Science Thinking in Design Process, to help students integrate Design with Science in Their Thinking. {fix this} Design Process can help students understand and use the Metacognitive Thinking Strategy of Self-Regulated Learning, and use Metacognitive Self-Questioning. Research consistently shows that these actions are highly effective for improving Learning and Performing.
LEGO Bricks BASIC -- How? One way is to show them (with analogy to using Lego Bricks) how my model for problem-solving Design Thinking describes how they do most things in School and in Life. MORE -- Unlike most other models for problem solving, my model uses simple Thinking Actions (Define, Generate, Evaluate, Choose, imagine-to-Predict, actualize-and-Observe, Compare, Revise) that people creatively combine to do most of their complex Thinking Projects, like combining simple Lego Bricks to construct complex Lego Structures. • The main cause for this wide scope is the model's logical structure, because it's constructed from simple Actions (generate & evaluate, choose, use, do, imagine to predict,...) One way is to show them (with analogy to using Lego bricks) how my model for problem-solving Design Thinking describes how they do most things in School and in Life.
you may enjoy the light-yellow sections after 2-ABC -- Growth Mindset (this won't be new for you) and (with familiar ideas expressed in new ways) having a Performance Objective and/or Learning Objective.
METACOGNITION (and COGNITION) [in expOV] Design Process can help students understand and use the Metacognitive Thinking Strategy of Self-Regulated Learning, and use Metacognitive Self-Questioning. Research consistently shows that these actions are highly effective for improving Learning and Performing. #mctwo0 • Unlike most other models for problem solving, my model uses simple Thinking Actions (Define, Generate, Evaluate, Choose, imagine-to-Predict, actualize-and-Observe, Compare, Revise) that people creatively combine to do most of our complex Thinking Projects, like combining simple Lego Bricks to construct complex Lego Structures. METACOGNITION 4 levels (observe-think-evaluate-adjust) describes metacognition (the what, why, how) and the metacognitive Thinking Strategies that are highly effective for improving student performance-and-learning in academic areas (including standardized exams) and for social-emotional aspects of life. -- DP-Based mc (checklists, coordinating, Cycles of SRL). How? In three direct ways – with Self-Questioning (using Metacognitive Checklists), and Making Action-Decisions (to stimulate & coordinate a Process of Problem Solving), and to understand-and-use Cycles of Self-Regulated Learning – and in other ways.
During your metacognition you can only observe your thinking or also think about it and evaluate it and adjust it, so five levels of metacognition are 0 ) none, 1 ) observe, 2a) observe + ( think about ), 2b) observe + ( think about & evaluate ), 3 ) observe + ( think about & evaluate-and-regulate ). When you regulate your thinking — to produce metacognitive regulation that is regulation by metacognition (i.e. regulation by using metacognition) — with the intention of achieving a purpose, this makes your metacognitive actions goal-oriented. With goal-directed metacognition that will help you achieve other goals (for better learning or performing or problem solving,...), and usually – but not always – this helps you improve your thinking-and-doing. Many educators recommend “observing your thinking-and-feeling” to help you “regulate your thinking-and-feeling” because this can make your life better in many important ways by improving your academic skills AND social-emotional skills.
When you regulate your thinking — to produce metacognitive regulation that is regulation by metacognition (i.e. regulation by using metacognition) — with the intention of achieving a purpose, this makes your metacognitive actions goal-oriented. You want to regulate your thinking in ways that will be useful, that will help you achieve other goals (for better learning, problem solving,...), and usually (but not always)* this helps you improve your thinking-and-doing. Many educators recommend “observing your thinking-and-feeling” to help you “regulate your thinking-and-feeling” because this can make your life better in many important ways by improving your academic skills AND social-emotional skills.
TAKEAWAYS -- You will quickly master my basic model, and will learn how to understand it deeply and combine it with other models;
IMPLEMENTATION -- I will want to learn from you when we discuss potential problems with implementation, and strategies for designing & actualizing problem-solutions. / and how students can do exploration adventures so [IMPLEMENTATION] you “learn in classroom time” to reduce your external prep time. And... DISCUSSION #2 -- re: IMPLEMENTATION -- two related POV-Questions, about the POV s of students and teachers: ⊡ A – Do you think students will be excited-and-fascinated? My claim — that "we should expect gifted students [and many other students] to be excited about using metacognition (generally) and (specifically) to be fascinated with the logic-and-art in my model for problem solving" — is supported by what is known about the motivations of gifted students so it's plausible, but is not proven due to a current lack of observations; hopefully this soon will change. / also: Compared with teachers, do you think students would be “more motivated” [if they get the opportunity] to use metacognition and my model? ⊡ B – How do you think teachers [and administrators] will respond to the possibilities I'm describing? This question is complex in many ways; it's examined in a large set of sections asking "What kind of Knowledge-and-Skills Curriculum will produce optimal Whole-Person Education?" that includes the benefits of starting with gifted students. (⊡ A and ⊡ B are mostly Education Info but also have some Education-with-Model Info) |
iou – This second "brown box" contains old ideas (from an earlier version in 2025) and today – April 25 – they will be revised-and-moved or just removed.
Below is a plan for time-efficient learning in my website; An option that is even more time-efficient — between MiniPage & HomePage, eventually — is my PowerPoint for a Talk although (iou) it will continue being developed between now and December 20. For the reasons explained above, this page is designed to be in a left-side frame, so if necessary (if it isn't there already) you can put it on the left side. supplementing H.htm#part10 with DPH -- Then continue downward for a wider range-of-discovering in "the flexibility of Design Process," illustrated by "three common Action-Sequences" that show how we do Quality Checks & Reality Checks (to ask the Design Question & Science Question) and use Guided Generation; and how people develop-and-use metacognitive mental roadmaps. three kinds of information in my website: Model Information describes my model for Design Process, as in ⊡ 2. Education Information describes general Educational Principles & Educational Goals that you already know and probably accept, so while reading you will be thinking “yes”. But often I also explain how using Design Process can help us achieve our Educational Goals, and for these claims (they're Education-with-Model Information, are featured in ⊡ 3, ⊡ 4, ⊡ 5) 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 revise or reject), and all of these responses can be useful when we're discussing possibilities for improving education, and... "I'm hoping you will see our “common ground” [regarding general Education Info] so you will be thinking “Craig understands education, wants what we want, is similar to us.” And also “he is a little different, with an innovative model [learned with Model Info] — that describes (verbally & visually) human problem-solving actions, to help students understand these actions and improve their own actions — and [based on Education-with-Model Info] this model could contribute useful ‘added value’ for us, so working with him will help us improve our education.” I'm hoping you will want to discuss possibilities, and that – by working with colleagues (who might include me, or maybe not) – you will be able to co-create better education by actualizing strategies for effectively using metacognition, with or without using my model.
BIOs (extras) Two medium-short bios are below. Others are in the HomePage (even shorter) and original HomePage (with a little more detail about my PhD work). And there is a full bio-page about my life on a road less traveled with a detailed personal history that explains how my different responses to hearing “we historians” (no, but...) and thinking “we educators” ( Yes ! ) helped me become an enthusiastic educator, and describes my mixed feelings about the uncommon road.Here is my profile in Whova for my talk at the 2025
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Two effective {DP-Based} ways to use metacognition are self-questioning and Cycles of Self-Regulated Learning, and (much better, more effective) using both. Design Process can help students develop-and-use SRL, and teaching SRL-with-DP offers three benefits that make it easier-and-better; one benefit is that using DP is “SRL Plus” because DP can help students improve their metacognitive self-regulating skills (with SRL) AND their cognitive problem-solving skills (with DP), and improving both is an effective combination.