Short Overview
We can help students learn more from
their experiences with Problem Solving,
and build motivational Transfer Bridges.
How can we help students learn more from their experiences, and be more motivated to learn? You already know many ways, and hopefully this Mini-Page will show you a way that is "new" (it's innovative) but will feel familiar (because you already know the essentials), by combining your own methods with my model for Design Process, i.e. for the Design-Thinking Process that is Problem-Solving Process.
Making progress in achieving both educational goals – more learning and more motivation – is made easier (and more effective) because my model has two Wide Scopes, for what students do (in their Activities) and how they do it (with their Process).
We have logical reasons to conclude that my model for Problem-Solving Process has two Wide Scopes – for Activities and for Process – because...
• we can choose to use an educationally-beneficial broad definition of problem — it's any opportunity to make something better, in any area of life — so Problem-Solving Activities include most things people do in life; you are problem solving (verb) whenever you are trying to make something better, and you are a problem solver (noun) whenever you do make something better.
• most people use a similar (but not identical) General Process of Problem Solving (PS) for most of our PS-Activities that include most things we do.
• this General PS-Process is described by Design Process in ways that are accurate and are educationally beneficial.
Before we examine the educational benefits of my model for Design Process (for Problem-Solving Process), it will be useful to understand the model. You will “learn by discovering” when you study this Actions-Diagram thoroughly by observing (and thinking about ) its words & colors and spatial relationships, noticing the Actions and finding the logical structures in two kinds of Essential Action-Sequences; and by solving a Mystery — “Why does the Cycle have a right-side arrow, pointing from Evaluate to Generate?” — and how this “why” produces a third kind of Essential Action-Sequence.
iou – This afternoon (June 15) I will write a paragraph to describe another option if you want to learn more quickly by replacing some of Your Discovery Learning with My Explanations, in a HomePage-section where my goal is to briefly-and-clearly explain the main features of Design Process.
your options: You can continue exploring Design Process, or move onward to Part 2.
If you want to continue exploring, first scroll down to "more of the model" for descriptions of the Actions we do before & after we use the Essential Action-Sequences, and while we're using them. Then click the link for "more clues" even if they aren't needed because you already have solved the mystery, because (beyond just providing clues) it links to "learning from Your Discoveries and My Explanations" with Part 1 in the HomePage.
Or you may want to move onward.
In the HomePage, Part 1 helps you understand my model for problem-solving Design 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 your “so what ?” with some “what's & why's & how's” of educational benefits.
The purpose of Part 1 is to help you understand my model by learning from Your Discoveries and My Explanations. Then to show 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 & Process) { A }
➞ Transfers of Learning (Across Areas, Through Time) { in B }
➞ Transfer Bridges to Motivate for Personal Education { in C }.
Section A
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 (in C) be more motivated.
Part 2 will begin with "helping students learn more" because — even though it's in SubSection A3 (not A1) of the HomePage — this is one of the two main benefits of using Design Process, so I want to emphasize it. Logically, there are...
two ways to learn more: Students can learn more from their Problem-Solving Experiences in two related ways, when they GET MORE PS-Experiences, and they LEARN MORE from these PS-Experiences. How? Students can LEARN MORE (from their PS-Experiences) by using my model for Design Process — i.e. for Problem-Solving Process — plus other models (from d.school of Stanford,...) to promote metacognitive Thinking Strategies. / educational Abundant research shows that skillful using of metacognition is highly effective for helping students improve their academic skills (in many ways, including scores on standardized exams) and social-emotional skills.
differences in the two ways: My model can directly help students LEARN MORE from Experiences, by promoting metacognition. But its value is indirect for helping them GET MORE Experiences, because they will recognize* that more of their School-Experiences (and NonSchool-Experiences) are PS-Experiences so they will be metacognively aware more often, and this frequent metacognition will help them LEARN MORE from their Experiences. { * A teacher can help them recognize this by saying the Wide Scope of Design Process includes "most things people do" —
[ iou – I might blend some of these ways-to-explain into the section above: 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 (in school & in everyday life) 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.
your options: You can read whatever looks interesting. You may want to just read things in order. Or you can click a link – to open a section (that you can put on right side) – for Section A with SubSections A1 (Wide Scope for Process) or A2 (Wide Scope for Activities) or A3 (Educational Benefits) or Section B (Wide Scope " Transfers of Learning) or Section C (Wide Scopes " motivational Transfer-Bridges) or General Principles for Education (Growth Mindset, Learning and/or Performing, Metacognitive Thinking Strategies).
SubSection A1 — a Wide Scope for Process
Diagram 1 –––– my model for Design Process (for the Design-Thinking Process that is Problem-Solving Process). 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 Short Overview }
why Design Process can accurately describe our General Process: People use a similar General Process of Problem Solving (PS) for most things we do. Design Process has a modular structure — because its diagrams use simple action-verbs (Generate, Choose, Evaluate, DO, imagine to make, compare,...) to describe the PS-Actions commonly used by people when we are Solving Problems (during our Problem-Solving Activities) — and this modular structure gives the model a modular flexibility that lets it be used to accurately describe the General Process. How? Analogous to the way modular flexibility lets you combine simple Lego Bricks to form many kinds of Lego Structures, the modular flexibility of Design Process lets you combine simple Problem-Solving Actions (Thinking Actions) to construct many variations of a Problem-Solving Process. Every day you do a Personal PS-Process many times, and each PS-Process is similar —
of the General Process, and each Personal PS-Process is similar (but is not identical), is customized by a Specific Person to solve a Specific Problem.
every day a Person does a Personal PS-Process many times, and each PS-Process is similar (but is not identical), is customized by a Specific Person to solve a Specific Problem.
This modular flexibility also encourages flexible improvising of Actions during ----
[ iou – late tonight (June 12) i'll supplement this paragraph by adding these ideas -- similar but not identical: For most of our PS-Activities, Design Process accurately describes a PS-Process that is similar, but is not identical because during our PS-Process we have Options-for-Actions so we make choices, and our PS-Actions (that together form the PS-Process) can be combined in MANY different ways when the Actions are done by different people to solve different Problems. ] [ also, add conscious and/or subconscious to this part of Extended Overview ]
similar but not identical: I think "most people use a similar (but not identical) General Process of Problem Solving for... most things we do." This is
General PS-Process is described by Design Process
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] {each "=" is an iou for things I want to add and/or revise}
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 = }
more of the model : Here in Diagram 1 you see what people do before, during, and after the first Essential Action Sequence (and the second & third) because you first {before the earlier Actions-Diagram} Learn and Define & Define, then {during it} you "continue to Evaluate Options" until you finally "Choose an Option" and {after it} you "Actualize This Option with Actions." This puts Essential Action Sequences into a larger context that also includes other essential Problem-Solving Actions.
SubSection A2 — a Wide Scope for Activities
My model for problem-solving Design Process uses verbal-and-visual representations to show the creative-and-critical Thinking Actions that people use for Solving Problems, and to logically organize these Problem-Solving Actions into the Problem-Solving Process that we use for most things we do in life, that we use (in Design-Thinking Process) to Design Solutions that Solve Problems by Making Things Better. { In this website I use approximate synonyms, as with Design Process ≈ Design-Thinking Process ≈ Problem-Solving Process, and Designing Solutions ≈ Solving Problems ≈ Making Things Better, and others. }
SubSection A3 — some Educational Benefits
[ @ reminder about "most important benefit" for learning more by get more + learn more from ]
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 should be combined with other models-for-process (why?) and it has a structure (a modular flexibility) that lets it be 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.
[ use this in A3? refer to it in others? / appropriate humility: humility is deserved for all models, including mine, due to intrinsic limitation of all models / The modular flexibility of Design Process also 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 can make the combination of models better than any single model by itself, due to synergistically supportive interactions. ]
two timings for discovery learning: You can use discovery learning to understand the model, by studying this Actions-Diagram and seeing how our Process-Actions interact, how they combine to form our overall Process. You can do this now, but for students it's better to delay discovery learning until after you provide opportunities for Problem-Solving Experiences and promote Metacognitive Reflections that help them learn more from their Experiences, and you guide their active construction of Principles for Design-Thinking Process, with Experiences + Reflections ➞ Principles; later they will Recognize these Principles (that they already have learned) when they study the diagrams for Design Process. And you can help them Recognize that they have used (and are using) these Principles – the Problem-Solving Actions and Problem-Solving Process – in a wide variety of PS-Activities their everyday lives. [= use shorter PS- ?]
iou – [ there will be more later. currently A3-in-HomePage is a mess; it needs further developing, and so does this Overview-SubSection. ]
Section B — Two Wide Scopes ➞ Two Transfers of Learning
Section C — some Educational Benefits
[ Design Process can be beneficial – it's just "can be" because benefits aren't automatic or always ]
How? We can help a student imagine “Transfer Bridges” between School and Life — 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 — so they will be motivated to invest time-and-effort in their own Personal Education. [ iou – I'll finish this paragraph before noon today, June 12. ]
[ bridges + metaphors + adventures ]