OAGC Page
I did a talk at the 2025 OAGC Fall Conference — "Use Metacognitive Thinking Strategies to improve Learning and Problem Solving" — that is outlined in a 50-word Program Summary and my Whova-Bio. Below, my Post-Conference Comments describe “what happened” and “what now?” are followed by time-effective ways to learn more about essential ideas.
Post-Conference Comments, with a story about...
my Time-Dream and Time-Realities, Good News & Bad News
my Time-Dream: If I had a Time Machine with Life Editing, using Control-Z for Undo-and-Redo, I would return to September 1 and change my using-of-time in the next six weeks, to improve my talk. Then it would be similar to a seminar in 2022 (for OSU Engineering Education) when I was able to honestly tell friends by email, “I was lively and logical, they added valuable insights, we had fun.”
the Bad News: I don't have a Time Machine, so this daydream cannot be a way to “make things better” for us.
current Time-Realities: Instead, now I'm doing what actually is possible, by improving the Talk PowerPoint so it can be MUCH more useful for you. And later (probably Friday, November 7) I'll be contacting some of you, those who "signed up for the talk" in Whova. / Of course, the Revised PowerPoint will be useful only if you use it. But if you don't I will understand, because you decided to invest only the 50 minutes of time from 1:00 to 1:50. You wanted to learn “the essential principles” DURING that time, instead of using my PowerPoint AFTER the 50 minutes.
a previous Time-Reality: As you know, the talk should have been better, and because its quality was below “the best it could be” I apologize.
some Good News: IF you decide to study the PowerPoint (and maybe participate in a discussion?)* I'm confident that your investment of time will be rewarded, because I think the principles are solid, and my claims are valid, and (most important) the teaching methods will be effective if you use them. { * iou – later, I'll describe possibilities for a discussion forum. }
the previous Time-Reality: What happened? During the talk, it seems to me (although you'll have your own perspective) that I was a fairly skilled improviser, thinking quickly in an effort to make 96 minutes of ideas fit into 48 minutes, using PowerPoint Slides packed with TMI. But my real-time adjusting should not have been necessary. Instead the talk should have been carefully planned, with details choreographed (like the routine of a figure skater) and well-rehearsed. During the talk my explanatory improvising was adequate, but I made a Big Mistake by not using more time for our Questions and Responses, for Q-and-R. I should have explained 30 minutes of ideas in 30 minutes, leaving 20 minutes (total) for guided Q-and-R designed to stimulate our Questions (mine + yours) and our Responses, during “the 30 minutes” and at the end when we could build on the solid foundation-of-ideas I had constructed. Unfortunately, something else happened.
Cause-and-Effect: Why did it happen? It wasn't due to a lack of effort. I invested LOTS of time in preparing; it was much more than enough. But I continued to work on developing the pages in my website (Education for Problem Solving) for too long. I didn't begin focusing on the Talk-PowerPoint soon enough, and then I didn't use the time optimally. Basically, I wasn't effective in making frequent-and-wise decisions about using time, by asking “what is the best use of my time right now?” in the previous 6 weeks, beginning September 1. Or even in the final 3 weeks, after September 22. Then I also should have made a better improvised time-decision during the talk by stopping my explanations at 1:30, with a shifting to questions for the final 20 minutes. { one difficulty was that I under-estimated the time required to explain each topic during the talk, so my “48 minutes of ideas” contained too many ideas. }
[[ iou – during October 21-24, I'll be revising this whole section, above and below. ]]
What difference will it make? My short Whova-bio says "I'm an enthusiastic educator (with a PhD in C&I from U of Wisconsin) who wants to find co-enthusiasts" so I had hoped this talk-and-conference would be productive for networking that would be beneficial for both of us, with a win-win, and maybe you would be more enthusiastic if my talk was more prepared. I also wanted you to use educational strategies that you decide will be beneficial for you, and you can learn more in the PowerPoint (that will be improving) and in my website.
What will I do now? My plans-for-action are described below, after asking...
the main difference for you would be improved idea-explaining: I contacted you thru Whova because you think the topic is interesting & important so you “signed up for my talk” to learn more. One of my goals was to explain the ideas quickly-and-clearly. But the quality of my explaining wasn't optimized, so you learned less than I had hoped.
the main difference for me would be improved question-discussing, because I wanted to learn from you by getting your perspectives on the three questions about the POV's of students and teachers.
What will I do now? In the near future, four productive “making things better” actions will be to...
improve the Talk-PowerPoint with a radical revision. Looking at the update will be useful if you want to learn more, AND if you want to invest the time. But probably your original plan was to "invest 50 minutes in the talk" and maybe that's all you now want now.
The PowerPoint will be my main focus for the next week, maybe thru Wednesday, October 22. But gradually I'll shift to...
improving the website's HomePage & Discovery Page. / Then in late 2025, November-December, I want to condense the HomePage into a Summary Page that will combine the virtues of brevity (as in PowerPoint) and detailed clarity (as in HomePage & Discovery Page).
Try to communicate; I'll try this, and
Two ways to quickly understand the main talk-ideas are...
• the PowerPoint for my talk (it will continue improving in late October),
• tips for time-efficient learning in my website (later in this page).
What will happen during the talk? As described in my Whova-bio (copied at end of page), "I'll explain why we should expect many gifted students to be excited about using metacognition (generally) and (specifically) to be fascinated with my model for Problem Solving (by ‘making things better ’) that's an extension of my PhD work," and we'll discuss questions about the POV' s of students & teachers. Hopefully it will be like a seminar in 2022 (for OSU Engineering Education) when, as I later told friends by email, “I was lively and logical, they added valuable insights, we had fun.”
also: Don't view this page on the mobile app of Whova, because the page will be extremely narrow. The app won't rotate to landscape mode (as in Safari & other browsers) so the page is very narrow, even if you click "open only this page" here or at the top-of-page. But the two-page format (left + right) is much better IF you view it on a screen that is wide enough to let you comfortably read the text and see the diagrams.
about me: My bio-in-Whova isn't really a bio. Most of it — all except the first sentence, "I'm an enthusiastic educator with a PhD in C&I from U of Wisconsin, who wants to find co-enthusiasts" — is about my talk. But several authentic bios are available, at the end of this page (short) and in the HomePage (even shorter) and longer 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.
contact info: You can use "craigru57-att-yahoo-daut-caum" to email me before-during-after the conference. I want to talk with people while we're there, so if you also want this we can exchange phone numbers for “where are you” texts.
many iou's:
The main pages in my website – the HomePage and Discovery Page – have many iou's. They're much more numerous now than in early April, because during the past 7 months I've been getting ideas at a fast rate, but writing at a slower rate. I'll continue developing the website, in the “iou places” and elsewhere.
IDEAS and QUESTIONS
The paragraphs below (for ideas in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and questions in A, B) describe pages in my website about Education for Problem Solving, and here are some useful...
tips for viewing: If possible, you should view this pair of pages (on left & right sides) with a computer monitor so the text is large enough to read comfortably. The two-page format is useful because in this page sometimes (e.g. during 1, 2, 3) the internal links (to pages within the website) open in the right-frame, so you still can see this page in the left-frame. But sometimes (during 4, 5, A, B) you're invited to "put page into right-frame" because internal links (to pages within the website) open in the left-frame, so you still can continue seeing this page in the right-frame. / With either "sometimes" your browser's Back-Button will always (AFAIK) return you to “where you were” earlier ; but “in case it doesn't” each main other-page (HomePage & Discovery Page) has an end-of-page link for "Tips Page" that will open this pair of left-and-right pages; or you can proactively make “spare pairs” now. But external links (to pages outside the website) will open in a new tab. / And if you're viewing on a small-screen tablet or phone, a top-of-page link will "open only this page" and then if you click any link it will open in a new tab.
Below is a plan for time-efficient learning of ideas in my website; a “partial plan” is to focus on Parts 2-and-3 to get the main ideas. Another time-efficient option is the PowerPoint for my Talk.
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.
⊡ 1 – Begin with the HomePage but read only its first paragraph. {and maybe the bio-paragraph} 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...
⊡ 2 – The best way to understand my model for creative-and-critical Design Process (i.e. for Problem-Solving Process) is to learn by discovery when you study its diagrams, by observing (and thinking about) the words & colors and spatial relationships. You can begin by studying the right-side diagram. Then for deeper understandings, in a Discovery Page read the Page-Introduction (in a “White Box” that indicates its importance) and a second White Box that has questions & comments about the three main diagrams. / 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. / But skip the gray box (with "three common Action Sequences – Part 2") until later.
⊡ 3 – scroll downward and read the third White Box (titled "the Two Wide Scopes of Design Process") that describes an important characteristic of Design Process — it has Two Wide Scopes (for Problem-Solving Activities & Problem-Solving Process) — and explains how these wide scopes help make Design Process more educationally useful. / also: • how combining Design Process with other models-for-process can make the combination more effective than either model by itself, and • how Design Process can help students develop-and-use metacognitive Self-Regulated Learning.
Before moving on to ⊡ 4, first I'll describe the...
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.
iou – before tomorrow morning (November 6) I'll explain why you should put this page into the right-side frame for Sections 4, 5, A, B.
⊡ 4 – Back in the HomePage a long fourth White Box contains related sections that explain – with more depth than in ⊡ 3 – how "the two wide scopes of Design Process increase two Transfers of Learning [Across Areas & Through Time] and help make education Personally Useful" plus our "Logical Evidence-Based Reasons to Expect Transfers" 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. 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).
Between ⊡ 4 and ⊡ 5, you may enjoy the light-yellow sections with Education Info: 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.
⊡ 5 – a fifth White Box 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. Two effective ways to use metacognition are self-questioning and Cycles of Self-Regulated Learning, and (much better) 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.
My Whova-bio has 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. Teachers can motivate all students with strategies like those in ⊡ 4 , by building bridges from school into life, using metaphors of brain-driving & CEO-ing, promoting adventures with thinking. And gifted students tend to be naturally self-motivated, being very interested in thinking and wanting to improve their cognitive-and-metacognitive thinking skills.
⊡ 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)
This is the program-summary (in 50 words) for my talk:
Use Metacognitive Thinking Strategies to improve Learning and Problem Solving
Give students more experiences that are educationally useful, and use metacognitive thinking strategies (self-questionings, reflections, Self-Regulated Learning, my model for Problem-Solving Process,...) to help them learn more from their experiences, improve their knowledge and skills. Use the wide scope of “problem solving” to build motivational transfer-bridges (from school into life) throughout the curriculum. { note: For clarity in the first sentence, this is expanded to 57 words. }
I'm an enthusiastic educator with a PhD in C&I from U of Wisconsin, who wants to find co-enthusiasts. (bio-details are in final paragraph)
PowerPoint for Talk: educationforproblemsolving.net/oagc/talk.pdf
In my talk, we'll discuss questions, and I'll explain...
what my verbal-and-visual model for Design Process (i.e. for Problem-Solving Process) IS and ISN'T; it will help you recognize The Design Question & The Science Question.
how its two wide scopes (for PS-Activities & PS-Process) help students "build bridges" from school into life, so they will be motivated to proactively pursue their own Personal Education;
why we should expect gifted students to be excited about using metacognition (generally) and (specifically) to be fascinated with the logic-and-art in my model for problem solving (for "making things better") that's an extension of my PhD work about Scientific Methods;
why researchers have concluded that metacognition is extremely useful for improving learning-and-performing.
During the explaining and after it, we'll discuss two POV-Questions: Do you think students will be excited-and-fascinated? How do you think teachers will respond to the educational possibilities? Is it possible that students will be more "motivated for metacognition" than teachers?
The talk is described more fully in an "OAGC Page" at (EducationForProblemSolving.net/oagc [it's this page]) that will help you pre-understand ideas and pre-think questions. It links to a bio-page about "my life on a road less traveled" that explains how my responses to hearing "we historians" {no but...} and thinking "we educators" { Yes! } helped me become an enthusiastic educator.
and an “actual bio” written for my seminar (in 2022) with OSU Engineering Education:
I'm an enthusiastic educator who enjoys discussing ideas with other educators, who wants to find co-enthusiasts. 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!
I've continued studying education after earning a PhD in C&I from U of Wisconsin, following degrees in Chemistry (BS, MS) and History of Science (MA) from U of CA-Irvine, U of WA, and U of WI. My PhD project was developing a model for Scientific Method and using it to analyze science instruction for Opportunities to Learn; later it was generalized into a process-model for Problem Solving (for Science-Design plus General Design that includes Engineering) and I've developed a comprehensive website – about Education for Problem Solving – to explore ways of using my model (and other models) to help students improve their problem-solving abilities in all areas of life.
One motivation for moving from Madison to Columbus, in May 2022, was my goal of networking with other educators and doing cooperative collaborations to improve our education, so I'm hoping to working with other educators to co-create better education.