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 condensed Summary you will quickly understand the main ideas and overall structure;    { an option:  You can go there now. }

     • a Basic Overview provides explanations that are more thorough (yet still fairly brief)* plus many “added value” ideas, and 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 my use of highlighting (with bold-italics-underlines, plus colors) that directs attention to the most important ideas, helping 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.

watch it happen:  To see how the links work, do 8 Experiments by clicking 4 Links and then 4 Back-Buttons.  —  First...  1) open only this page and then   2) make a “split screen” and   3) open this paragraph on the left side and   4) put it on right side.   Then use the browser's Back-Arrow (⬅) 4 times, and you'll observe that it really does "work as it should" to un-do the previous four changes.

* 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 the HomePage has a dark-blue border, but in this Mini-Page the border is bright blue.

 put on Right Side of Split Screen 

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 diagrams to represent – in logically organized ways – 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, we can 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 a few more ideas (maybe above & certainly below) during October 27-31.

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) to develop-and-use metacognitive Thinking Strategies.

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 and in this Mini-Page,

     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.

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

Above & below is some of Part 2 (with yellow background),

and below you will see most of Part 1 (with white background).

     And to describe two kinds of educational benefits, there is another splitting:

Part 2A (about metacognitive Thinking Strategies) is integrated with Part 1, and
Part 2B examines the educational utility allowed by the model's two wide scopes.

learning by you:  Below in Part 1, you can learn from Your Discoveries and My Explanations.  Because each way to learn offers different advantages, I encourage using both so you can get the benefits of both.  You also can do Recognition Learning when you see familiar Actions and recognize that Design Process is Your Process, is the process you have been using – naturally and intuitively, in everyday life – to Solve Problems.

learning by students:  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.

 put on Right Side of Split Screen 

understand Design Process by

learning from Your Discoveries

How?  You can discover many features of problem-solving Design Process by studying this Overview Diagram(the link puts it on left side) and the Core-Actions Diagram below.     { or also use My Explanations }

Explore each of the two diagrams for awhile, by studying its words & colors and spatial relationships, and thinking about the Actions.  Then continue your...

Discovery Learning

Here are some reminders of what you probably have discovered in the Overview Diagram:  In its Top Text (Learn, Define & Define) an Essential Action — that is very important because of how it's used in the Core-Actions Diagram — is to Define your Goal-Criteria (aka GOALS in my model) for the Desired Characteristics of a Problem-Solution.  Below this, after "Define" you try to "Solve [the Problem]" by using "Cycles of Design" when you "Generate Options [for a Solution]" and "Evaluate Options".*  This combination of Actions — when you Generate-and-Evaluate (to form a Cycle of Design) — is called Essential Action-Sequence #1  in Design Process;  usually you iteratively repeat these Design Cycles (of Generate-and-Evaluate) because you are trying to continually improve your Solution-Options.   The Bottom Text describes how you "continue to Evaluate Options" until you finally "Choose an Option to be your Problem-Solution" and "Actualize This Option with Actions."

* a strategy:   [ iou – This *-paragraph will be summarized here, along with a link to "the rest of the story" in a section about the educational benefits of using Design Process where it will illustrate a strategy of teaching in ways that appeal to intuitive ways-of-thinking by students. ]

a question:  What part of the Core-Actions Diagram (below) is inside the Overview-Diagram's “gray rectangle” ?

To thoroughly study this Core-Actions 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, two for General Design & one for Science-Design) in the Bottom Part ;  and solve a Mystery — “Why does the Cycle have a right-side arrow, pointing from Evaluate to Generate?” — to actively construct your understanding of how this “Why...” is a third kind of Essential Action-Sequence.    { * e.g. notice the logic-and-art 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). } 

functions of the two diagrams:  This Core-Actions Diagram shows the central Actions (to Generate & Evaluate) that people do in the “central core” of our Process.  Its Top Part is also in the Overview Diagram that gives a “big-picture overview” by showing (in its Top Text and Bottom Text) the other Actions we do, before-during-after we are Generating & Evaluating in the Core-Actions;  and its Bottom Part shows HOW we Evaluate Options (by doing one of “the 3 Comparisons” that are used in “the 3 kinds of Checks”) instead of just summarizing these Essential Action-Sequences with a gray rectangle.

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 don't 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.    { more – the valuable skill of Designing Experiments logically – so they are a useful “fair test” – in Everyday Life and also during Design Projects (e.g. for Engineering) and in Research Science }

learning the model will be easier than you expect:  Why?  Because...

     • you {and students} can use learn from Discoveries and from Explanations;   • the complex Full Diagram is built from simpler parts, so your learning can happen in steps by first understanding the simpler Overview Diagram and Core-Actions Diagram, and then adding to it .

     • with Recognition Learning you will realize that Design Process feels comfortable-and-familiar because it's Your Process, and that   • your intuitive Problem-Solving Actions combine to form the logically organized Problem-Solving Process you see in the model for Design Process.  These two factors (• •) are mutually supportive, so familiarity plus logical organization will help make the model-understanding and model-using feel more naturally intuitive for you, and then (with your help) for your students.

 put section on Right Side

understand Design Process by

learning from My Explanations

It can be fun-and-effective to learn from Your Discoveries and My Explanations.  After you have done some Discovery Learning — and probably 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 your 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 kind 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 }

7 Essential Action-Sequences

These naturally occur during three Essential Action-Sequences, • and • • • and • • • .

     •  timings for Cycles of Design:  With two common timings, you can simply alternate the Actions in Action Sequence #1, so you 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.

     • •  with 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?” (and Quality is 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.    { two terms:  In diagrams, Goal Criteria & GOALS are synonyms. }     /    You also can do the 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, ...

     •  with 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.

three Multi-Step Action Sequences that use

three kinds of Essential Action-Sequence #2

Why?  These longer Action Sequences are used because they are useful.  The three Essential Action-Sequences ( #1 2 3 ) 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 Multi-Step Sequences "tend to occur naturally" so you don't need to “learn” them;  instead you can just recognize the longer Action 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 a Multi-Step Action Sequence that uses one kind of Essential Action-Sequence #2.     { * This Action-Sequence is most common in both subconscious processing and conscious thinking. }

What happens next ?  After this 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 motivating-and-guiding your Generation of a better New Option.

Each kind of Essential Action-Sequence #2 — used for a Quality Check, Quality Check, or Reality Check — can be the central Action in one of the three main Multi-Step Action Sequences.

{ the three Essential Action-Sequences }

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.

using old-and-new

Both sources can give you many kinds of valuable Information, including...

     Observations:  When you have awareness of your Experiences (of what you see or hear, or observe in other ways) you make Observations now in the present {these are New Observations};  or {for Old Observations} you can remember Observations you made in the past.  And you can find Observations that were made by others in the past – that are Old (already existing) – if these Observations are recorded in print (in books, web-pages, posts,...) or with audio and/or video, or are remembered by individual persons.   /   In these ways your Total Observations — in your first-hand Observations (made by you) and second-hand Observations (made by others, but known by you) — include Observations that are Old (that you remember in your internal personal memory, or you find in our “culturally remembered” external collective memory, or you learn directly from another person) and are New (are being experienced now in your sensory perceptions & your thinking-and-feeling, in the subconscious and conscious parts of your whole-brain system that combines subconscious processing with conscious cognition).

     and Predictions:  In similar ways, you also can make New Predictions ("by imagining in a Mental Experiment") or remember your Old Predictions, or find second-hand Predictions made by other people.

     plus other kinds of Information:  More generally, you can get many kinds of useful Information — including Experiments (Mental & Physical) and associated Predictions & Observations, plus Options (for a Problem-Solution in General Design, or a Theory in Science-Design) — that are Old (i.e. it already exists) or are New, that come from yourself (first-hand) or from others (second-hand).

effectively using Old-and-New:  iou – I will write this during October 27-31.

Predictions and Observations

how we make Predictions:  When people Predict, we use inductive logic and deductive logic.

inductive reasoning:  The most common way to predict is with logical experience-based induction by assuming that “what happened before (in similar situations) will happen again.”  Asking “what is similar (in previous Situations & the current Situation) and what is different?” will help you do better Predicting, and have a level of confidence that is more appropriate.

deductive reasoning:  But sometimes, in some Situations, you use logical theory-based deduction with if-then logic by thinking “if My Theory (about how the world works, and what will happen) accurately corresponds to reality so what I expect to occur does occur, then       will happen” and you fill the blank with your Prediction.    {more about deductions}

inductive-plus-deductive:  People usually combine these two kinds of logic (inductive & deductive) when we make Predictions, with the balance differing from one Prediction-Situation to another.  This combination also is used in computer simulations — in predictive forecasts for weather or climate;  and for sports (in predictions about game-outcomes, or a coaching staff's pre-game analysis of videos & data,...);  with GPS (in suggestions for routes, predictions of ETA's);  and in other simulations — that use a combination of induction-and-deduction, with varying amounts of each.

how we make Observations:  In some Experimental Situations we can make Observations directly with internal human senses (to see, hear, touch, taste, smell) and/or indirectly with external measuring-instruments (a ruler, weighing scale, watch, thermometer,...).  These two source-types let you get information that is qualitative or quantitative, that can be represented verbally (with words,...), visually (in photos or videos), mathematically (with numbers, equations,...) or with visual-math (in a graph, chart,...) or in other ways.

always (with a Mental Experiment) or sometimes (during a Physical Experiment):  In the Core-Actions Diagram, notice the verb-difference when you Do a Mental Experiment (and always "imagine [what will happen] to make a Prediction" or Use a Physical Experiment (that "lets you make Observations" and sometimes, but not always, you're aware so you take advantage of this opportunity and you do Observe).

more:  As described earlier, "most of Part 1" is above in this white-background box.  But there is one more set of sections — about using Design Process to teach Cycles of Self-Regulated Learning — that is interesting and educationally useful, is an effective metacognitive Thinking Strategy to help you learn more from your experiences.

a review of My Explanations:   [ iou – This section has gray text to show that it needs to be revised – so it will become a review – because originally it was written as a preview. ]    { I will write a new introduction to describe this Learning Strategy:  research shows that "active reviewing" is one of the most effective ways to learn-and-remember so you can use what you know about Design Process for teaching students and solving problems;  and you can use this review for active reviewing, and maybe for making flash-cards to be used by you and by students.}   [ here is the original preview:    Below, you also — in addition to learning from Your Discoveries and Your Recognitions — can learn from My Explanations for key features of Design Process.  Probably 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 (by using a Quality Check, in General Design) and The Science Question (by using a Reality Check, in Science-Design);   and why The Mystery Answer (about the right-side arrow) is “Guided Generation” when your critical Evaluation guides your creative 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 logically-connected series of Actions in the Action-Sequence that is used most often when we are Solving Problems;  and more. ]

color-coded backgrounds with white and yellow:  You can tell “where you are in the page” because its two parts have different colors.  Above (in the parts with white background) is Part 1 to help you understand my model for problem-solving Design Process.  Below you will see a variety of topics in the rest of Part 2 (with light-yellow background) to explain how this model can help us achieve worthy educational goals.

 put on Right Side of Split Screen 

Part 2 A  –  Metacognitive Strategies for Thinking

Students Learn More when they

Get More Experiences and they

Learn More from Experiences

by using Thinking Strategies.

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 – it's a verbal-and-visual model 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 – with Design Process and in other ways – these actions are highly effective for helping them improve their academic skills — their Learning and Performing in many areas, including 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).

improving the effectiveness of

Metacognitive Thinking Strategies

How?  The essential foundation of Metacognition is when you {or a student } 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, you can decide whether your Metacognitive Actions will be...

      0 )   none,

      1 )   observe,

     2a)   observe  +  ( think about ),

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

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

Why?  Making wise decisions is useful because a 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 only-1 or also 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 only observing (Level 1).     { 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. }

Whole-Person Education to optimize

Cognition / Metacognition & Empathy

iou – I will continue developing this interesting section during October 27-31.  Here is the current version of its introduction:

Metacognition:   Thinking is Cognition.  When a student observes their thinking — and maybe thinks about thinking, with cognition about cognition — this is MetaCognition.

Cognition-and-Metacognition:  We can help students develop Thinking Strategies for effectively combining Cognition-and-Metacognition (along with Subconscious Processing) in productive ways, to optimize the interactions between these closely-related aspects of thinking.

Metacognition and Empathy:  Analogous to the ways that self-aware Metacognition helps a student understand Themself, other-aware Empathy helps them understand Others.     [ iou – This paragraph will include a few other ideas.  And the section will continue with ideas — about metacognition & empathy, with orientations that are internal or external, for constructing useful understandings that are intrapersonal & interpersonal, that can help a student be confident (with a growth mindset) that they can improve their social skills and relationships — to possibly use for whole-person education.  But this section will remain fairly brief, by linking to sections (in other pages) with more details. ]

the importance of Empathy:  Most of our worthwhile problems (our opportunities to make things better) involve people, so trying to improve empathetic understanding – of what other people are thinking & feeling – is essential for understanding most problem-situations. .....

using Design Process to improve

Metacognitive Thinking Strategies

How?  Three ways – with each combining cognition & metacognition – are by Coordinating your Problem-Solving Process and, in two related Actions, with Self-Questioning and Self-Regulating (by using 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 help you achieve” (and thus “why you might want to use it”) and “when the Action can be useful.”

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

use metacognitive Self-Questioning

What?  We become educated when we learn from experience.  When I make a mistake, I want to learn more from the experience (to improve the self-education) so I can “do it better” the next time.  Therefore I ask myself “why?” and often the answer is that “my process wasn't effective.”  Therefore I've found it beneficial to develop-and-use a Metacognitive Checklist for Problem-Solving Process.

How?  It's easy to make a basic checklist by using the basic Design Cycle (to Generate-and-Evaluate) to ask two basic self-questions, “am I effectively Generating Options?” and “am I effectively Evaluating Options?”

Why?  These questions and others – perhaps guided by a metacognitive checklist – help me (or you, or a student) perform a better Process and design a better Solution.

When?  When a student uses Self-Regulated Learning – with Cycles of Plan, Do-and-Monitor, Reflect – they can do self-questioning before a Problem-Solving Experience (when they Plan for what they will Do) or during their Do (with metacognitive Monitoring) and also after it with Reflections that help them learn more from this PS-Experience and grow so they will “do it better” in their next PS-Experience.  In this way, their Self-Regulation stimulates & supports their learning and growing.

use metacognitive Self-Regulation

iou – This paragraph will be revised during October 27-31.  Students can use metacognitive Self-Regulation to improve..... / useful activities include Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) to improve their Learning-and-Performing.  If a student expands the purpose of their Executive Functions beyond just their Thinking 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 goal of developing better “total skills” is realistic, because research shows that using SRL can help students improve their academic skills and also their social-emotional skills.  (with Self-Regulated Learning): 

 put section on Right Side

How?  Students can improve their Self-Regulation by using Cycles of Self-Regulated Learning, and...

Design Process can help

students understand-and-use

Cycles of Self-Regulated Learning:

Why?  This is educationally beneficial because...  [ iou – during October 27-31, here I will describe how my two models (for Design Process and SRL) are closely related, and how this is useful for education, and why this is a second part of Part 1. ]

Cycles of SRL  (Part 1)

A Basic Diagram-for-SRL shows three major phases of action – PLAN, DO, REFLECT – that often are used to teach SRL.*  We'll look at four parts of this diagram:  its top box and upper cycle, plus a lower cycle (with SRL Cycle plus Mini-Cycles).     { * my model-for-SRL is a “mainstream version of SRL” that is commonly proposed in cognitive science and used in education."}

top box – Learn & Define:  The text describes how you {and students} begin a Cycle of SRL:  you Define the Task that you will DO;  and you Learn more about this Task and possible Strategies to DO the Task ,  and you learn about Yourself so you can use Knowledge-of-Self to personally customize your Strategy to DO the Task that is the outcome when you PLAN.   You also imagine the desired Results that you want when you DO the Task,  i.e. you Define your Goal-Criteria for the Characteristics of Desired Results.

upper cycle – is Design Cycle:  When you PLAN a Strategy (i.e. you Design a Strategy) you "Generate-and-Evaluate Options for Task-Strategies" by mentally Generating Options for Strategies (for How to DO the Task) and mentally Evaluating Options-for-Strategies.  You continue to Generate-and-Evaluate, in multiple iterative Cycles of Design (this is Essential Action #1 in Design Process) until you CHOOSE the Strategy that is your Plan.   When you PLAN (verb) you Design a Plan (noun) that is a Strategy for Task-Actions to DO.     { notice the symbolic color-coding & capitalizing and verb-vs-noun:  when you PLAN, you Design a Plan }

lower cycle – is SRL Cycle:  In a three-phase Cycle of SRL, first you PLAN (in the upper Design Cycle of "Generate-and-Evaluate") to Design "your Strategy for Task-Actions (it's your Plan to DO the Task)" so you can you DO these Task-Actions;  then after you finish the Task, you REFLECT (you "Evaluate & maybe Adjust ") in a re-PLAN that uses the same process as in PLAN to complete a Cycle of SRL, and you can continue doing SRL Cycles with PLAN-DO-REFLECT-rePLAN-DO-REFLECT-rePLAN-........ .   During either MONITOR or REFLECT, you can "maybe Adjust" to change your Old Strategy-Plan into a New Strategy-Plan 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.     [ iou – This paragraph, plus those below (SRL Cycle and Mini-Cycles, two kinds of Goal-Criteria, a two-phase Cycle of SRL) will be revised during October 27-31. ]

SRL Cycle and Mini-Cycles:  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 do the same Actions (of "Evaluate & maybe Adjust") but there are differences in timing.  With MONITOR you "Observe your Actions & the Results" that now are happening (during your DO);  then later (after you DO) with REFLECT you "Remember your Actions & the Results" that already happened (earlier during your DO.    /    one or none/many:  If you are doing this Task more than once,...   • There always is one SRL Cycle because “ by definition” – in the mainstream three-phase versions of SRL – the REFLECT-Phase happens after the DO-Phase, to begin a new Cycle of SRL with a re-PLAN that could lead to the same Old Strategy (if you don't Adjust) or (if you do Adjust) a different New Strategy.  The text in "Evaluate (& maybe Adjust) in SRL Cycle to re-PLAN" shows (with black-bold text) the necessary-Actions that will occur, and (in gray-unbold text) the optional-Actions that might occur.  are in black-bold text, but the "maybe Adjust" is gray-unbold to show that it's optional. 

But many Mini-Cycles can occur during the DO, with many opportunities to re-PLAN.    /    Why does the Cycle of SRL have two colors?  Its left side is green-with-blue to represent the combination of DO-with-MONITOR or DO-then-REFLECT.  The right side is purple because each combination produces a PLAN.    /    When you MONITOR or REFLECT, you have...

two kinds of Goal-Criteria:  Early in PLAN you define Goal-Criteria for the Desired Characteristics of Results when you DO the Task.  Later, in the conclusion of PLAN you "CHOOSE a Strategy for Task-Actions" and your Strategy includes Goal-Criteria for the Desired Characteristics of Your Actions when you are DOing the Task.   [ iou – This will be continued with a little more information about the two things to MONITOR, to Observe-and-Evaluate.  And when you MONITOR,.....* ]

a two-phase Cycle of SRL:  If you do this Task more than once, the SRL Cycle of PLAN-DO-REFLECT (with three phases) can be conceptually simplified PLAN-DO (with two phases).  Why?  If you have three Task-DO's your SRL Cycles will be "PLAN-DO-REFLECT-rePLAN-DO-REFLECT-rePLAN-DO" but the Strategy-Designing in "REFLECT-rePLAN" is basically the same as a Strategy-Designing "rePLAN" that differs from "PLAN" in only one way;  now with PLAN you have more information to considerbecause after this DO, during REFLECT you remember Your Actions and The Results.  In this way, your SRL Cycles are basically equivalent to "PLAN-DO-rePLAN-DO-rePLAN-DO" {and this is "PLAN-DO-PLAN-DO-PLAN-DO"} so your SRL Cycle is PLAN-DO with two phases.

* Your MONITOR-Actions require some mental attention & activity, and this can interfere with your DO-Actions — because the interactions between your MONITOR and DO can make your DO either more effective or less effective — so it's useful to...

regulate your metacognition:  iou – I will write this paragraph soon (October 27-31) based on ideas from the earlier main section about regulating metacognition.     [ Here are some reminders-for-myself about ideas to revise & use:   you can do "Monitor" as often as you want, many times -- maybe view each mc-Observation as an opportunity to say "my Strategy-for-DO [in your Actions + the Results] is working well, it's ok as-is so just continue" or to adjust either Actions or Strategy in other ways. ]    [ for either Monitor or Reflect, you can define Goal Criteria (in Top Box) for Your Actions {and The Results}, then adjust either of these Actions {or The Results}, in response to Observations made during DO (i.e. Monitor) or after DO (for Reflect). ]   [ when you REFLECT there is no concern about regulating the interactions, so you can focus on your Metacognitive REFLECTING. ]

understanding SRL Cycles  (Part 2)

This section will help you develop a deeper understand of relationships between SRL and Design Process.  It uses a Supplemented Diagram-for-SRL, and builds on two foundations:  the basic descriptions of SRL (using the Basic Diagram-for-SRL) plus Principles of Design Process that are summarized in My Explanations.  We'll begin with...

your Discovery Learning:  Study the side-by-side diagrams (Basic & Supplemented) to discover their similarities and differences.  When you do this, you will find...

many similarities and some differences:  The Basic Diagram and Supplemented Diagram are identical except for adding some extra principles – "Learn... Remember... Imagine... compare...to guide" – about How to PLAN.  Except for these additions, the two diagrams have an...

     identical Top Box, and

     identical upper cycle (of Generate-and-Evaluate) followed by the same outcome-of-PLAN when you "CHOOSE your Strategy..." for "the next phase of PLAN-DO-REFLECT" that occurs in the...

     almost-identical Bottom Part – with a Cycle of SRL, and Mini-Cycles to Monitor – that differs by the addition of one phrase, "in a New Physical Experience".

But there are useful extra ideas in the Middle Part, to describe — using concepts & Actions from Design Process ( DP) — many useful principles for How to PLAN when you Design a Strategy-Plan to DO the Task.     [ iou – October 27-31, I will revise the Supplemented Diagram so it includes Quality Checks, because these are one of the three Essential Action-Sequences that are featured in the Core-Actions Diagram for Design Process;  therefore they should be features in my Supplemented Diagram-for.SRL. ]

The main principle is the fact that during our problem-solving Design Process we can (and do, and should) use Information that is Old & New, First-Hand & Second-Hand.  To make their PLAN more effective, students can...

     Generate Options-for-Strategies when they "Learn (from experts, peers,...) about Strategies to DO the Task" so they are using the Second-Hand Experiences of others.  They can do web-searches (maybe using AI) to Learn the “study-skill strategies” that researchers have found to be most effective, based on their Observations of people who were having Physical Experiences during their research studies (that are Physical Experiments).  A convenient-and-useful expert is their teacher, who can help them Learn by facilitating their discoveries, and providing suggestions & explanations, and encouraging them to talk with their peers.

    "Remember Strategies-and-Results of Old Physical Experiments" to use their own First-Hand Physical Experiences when they did similar Tasks in the past ,  either in the recent past (with "Observe Your Actions and The Results" during MONITOR-while-DO in a Cycle of SRL) or in their more-distant past.   /   the meanings of colors:  As in Design Process, the backgrounds of yellow and green symbolize Experiences (occurring in Experiments or with Actions) that are Mental and Physical.   [ iou – I will describe how this is a way to use your own past experience "in similar situations" to help you predict what probably will happen if you again do this Strategy-Option.]

    "Imagine Strategies-and-Results in New Mental Experiments" when they make Predictions by inductively assuming “what happened before will happen again” (probably) or (less likely) by using deductive if-then logic based on their theories.

    "compare these Actual Results [remembered or imagined] with Desired Results [defined in Goal-Criteria] to do critical Evaluating [with Quality Checks] to guide your creative Option-Generating" – using the Core-Actions of Design Process – "so [as in the Basic Diagram-for-SRL] in iterative creative-and-critical Cycles of Design you Generate-and-Evaluate Strategies" as shown in the upper cycle of both Diagrams-for-SRL.

iou – This "Part 2" will continue with a few comments about the benefits of using Design Process to teach SRL, including a side-by-side comparison ----- This section began by saying that "we can... use Information that is Old & New, First-Hand & Second-Hand" and when that section is written (by assembling & editing previous versions that I already have written) it may affect what is included in this section, and how I write it here.

your 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 

This is an Overview of A-B-C in Part 2.

In the HomePage and in this Mini-Page,

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 (below) 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 B  –  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 – during October 27-31, 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.

     I will briefly summarize a section about teaching Design Process with a sequence of Experiences + Reflections ➞ Principles — and it will link to other sections (in this Basic Overview & the current HomePage & the original Long HomePage) with other important ideas about Educational Benefits of this Teaching Strategy..

     We can use a Teaching Strategy of appealing to intuitive ways-of-thinking by students, illustrated by this example:  It will be easier for you {and your students} to deeply understand Design Cycles – and intuitively use Design Process – if you think about “Generating Options” and “Generating Ideas-for-Options” as synonyms, so {when you're teaching} you can also describe the Design Cycle as “Generating Ideas and Evaluating Ideas” that is useful for understanding Design Cycles (with Ideas-for-Options) and also for understanding how we Generate-and-Evaluate other Ideas.

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 [to be continued]

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 – during October 27-31, I will 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 improve your brain's Performance (analogous to 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 this Basic 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 November, 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 will continue developing these sections during early November. ]

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...

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 early November, 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 early November, 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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