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.
iou – during May 9-12, I'll revise the paragraphs below and will continue writing additional paragraphs in “parallel pairs” for this Brief Overview and also the corresponding part of the Expanded Overview so both will continue growing & improving.
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: [ to be continued, May 14-15 ]
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.
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 soon (the morning of May 15) I'll describe it here, by summarizing ideas from A Wide Scope for Problem-Solving Process.
We use a General Process that is not identical because [to be continued, with an explanation available May 15].
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 “what you're doing now is Problem Solving,” 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: A teacher will give students more Problem-Solving Experiences if they think these experiences are valuable.
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 }.
help students Learn More (from Design-Thinking Experiences) and Build (motivational Transfer Bridges)
You can help students get more Experiences with Design Thinking, and LEARN MORE from their Experiences. How? By using my model for Design-Thinking Process plus other models (from d.school of Stanford,...) to promote educationally valuable cognitive-and-metacognitive Thinking Strategies.
My model for problem-solving Design Thinking logically organizes the creative-and-critical thinking that people use for most things we do, when we Design Solutions to Solve Problems by Making Things Better. 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, thus motivating them to invest in their Personal Education.
You will quickly master my basic model, and will learn how to understand it deeply and combine it with other models; and how students can do exploration adventures so you “learn in classroom time” to reduce your external prep time. And...
I will want to learn from you when we discuss potential problems with implementation, and strategies for designing & actualizing problem-solutions.
a context: This was the Short Description in my proposal for a conference talk, as you can see in its final two paragraphs: "You will quickly master my basic model,..." and "I will want to learn from you..."
In the Expanded Overview below, I sometimes quote from this Description (using blue-green text) and add details, and make links to corresponding parts of the HomePage.
what you can teach me: I will want to learn from you because – as explained in my bio – "I need help from fellow educators who have better understandings of K-12 students, teachers, and culture." During the talk, before we discuss potential problems with implementation I will briefly describe “how it seems from my perspective,” then I will ask “what do you think? how does it seem from your perspective” when we co-consider strategies for designing & actualizing problem-solutions and examine possibilities for co-creating better education.
learning more with metacognition: Students can learn more by using my model for Design-Thinking Process plus other models (from d.school of Stanford,...) to promote educationally valuable cognitive-and-metacognitive Thinking Strategies.
• Based on abundant research, we know that metacognition is educationally valuable, is highly effective for helping students improve their academic skills (in many ways, including scores on standardized exams) and social-emotional skills.
• My model for Design Process (i.e. for Design-Thinking Process that is Problem-Solving Process) is especially useful for cognitive-and-metacognitive Thinking Strategies that combine cognition and metacognition. One practical application is to help students understand-and-use Cycles of Self-Regulated Learning.
• Design Process has a structure that lets it be effectively combined with other models-for-process (from d.school of Stanford,...) and with other cognitive Thinking Strategies, e.g. by using mental models & frameworks. This is useful because it makes the combination of models better than any single model by itself, due to synergistically supportive interactions.
discovering logical structures & solving mysteries: The best way to understand my model of Design Process is with “discovery learning” by using Part 1 of the HomePage. It guides your explorations when you study this verbal-and-visual representation by observing (and thinking about) the words & colors and spatial relationships that will help you find the logical structures that show Two Essential Actions. It also asks a Mystery Question — “Why does the Cycle have a right-side arrow, pointing from Evaluate to Generate?” — and this “why” makes it a Third Essential Action. / Then you can compare Your Discoveries with My Explanations – and supplement your Discovery Learning with Recognition Learning – at the end of Part 1.
An overview of the HomePage explains that its Part 1 is about my model for Design Process (for Problem-Solving Process) that can help us achieve the worthy educational goals in Part 2.
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 }.
Section A explains why Design Process has Wide Scopes for Problem-Solving Activities (to do most of our life-Activities) and for Problem-Solving Process (because people use a General Process that is similar – but not identical – for most of our Life-Activities), AND this General Process is accurately described by Design Process; =[a key reason]
analogizing (from Lego bricks to design-thinking actions): People use a similar General Process for most things we do, and the structure of Design Process — it's built from simple Thinking Actions with the verbs (generate, choose, evaluate, do, imagine to make, compare,...) used by problem-solving people — give the model a modular flexibility that lets it accurately describe this General Process. How? It's analogous to how modular flexibility lets us combine simple Lego Bricks to construct many kinds of Lego Structures; in a similar way, the modular flexibility of Design Process lets us combine simple Thinking Actions to construct many kinds of Thinking Activities. { more about this claim for a wide scope, and its educational benefits == }
Section C describes strategies for motivating with Bridges, Metaphors, and Adventures about Thinking Skills.
iou – during May 9-12, I'll begin making a brief outline of strategies for motivating,* including many you already use plus a few that involve Design Process. {* I'll briefly summarize the main ideas in Section C. } Before then, here is an extremely brief summary.
motivating with Bridges: How? This wide scope [of my model] helps a student build 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.
motivating with Metaphors: e.g. encourage students to "drive Your Brain" (and increase its horsepower) and "be CEO of Your Thinking."
motivating with Adventures: invite students to LEARN Thinking Strategies (for improving their Design Thinking) and USE Thinking Strategies (in Design-Thinking Activities). [ iou – by 4 pm on May 9, you'll find valuable information about motivating students with Adventures. ]
iou – during May 9-12, I'll summarize key ideas in Sections A and B that (in Section A) describe why the model has a wide scope, and (in Section B) how "this wide scope [including most things we do] helps a student build Transfer Bridges." These two sections are a foundation for my claims (in Section C) about the benefits of using my model for Design Process.
about me – Here is a “networking bio” :
I'm an enthusiastic educator (with a PhD in C & I from U of WI ) who wants to find co-enthusiasts so we can share ideas. How? You can learn from me (in this website) and I can learn from you (if you contact me) and we can learn from each other (if you want) by discussing 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 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. { more: some possibilities for co-creating better education and how my model began during a PhD project plus 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!