A Problem-Solving Approach
to Effective Curriculum Design
in "Thinking Skills" Education:

      Introduction
      This page builds on the foundation of An Introduction to Problem Solving which says:
      To improve our understanding and our teaching of thinking skills, I've developed models for the methods of thinking used in design and science.  These frameworks for improvisational thinking — Integrated Design Method (IDM) and Integrated Scientific Method (ISM) — are designed to achieve two main goals:  A) allow an accurate description of methods — of what designers (or scientists) do when they are solving problems — and  B) help students improve the quality of their own thinking by helping them master the methods of thinking used by designers and scientists.
      Can these goals be achieved?  A) Are there "methods" for design and science?  B) If methods exist, can they be taught?
      For both questions, I think the answer is YES.

      A. Do problem-solving methods exist?
      The first goal, accurate description, is discussed in a page that asks "Is there a method?" and explains that the methods used in design (and science) are analogous to the flexible "structured improvisation" of a hockey skater, not the rigid choreography of a figure skater.  It concludes that "In science and design, there are no universally used, rigidly predictable sequences.  But there are basic methods.  These methods can be summarized in models that help us understand the goal-directed actions of improvising problem solvers."

      B. Can "methods for problem solving" be taught?
      The second goal is effective education.  IDM and ISM can help students improve the quality of their own thinking by showing them how the mutually supportive skills of creative thinking and critical thinking (i.e., thinking that generates and evaluates ideas) are integrated in the problem-solving methods used by designers and scientists.  When used creatively, these models for thinking can help students master the methods of thinking used in design and science.

      This page explores creative ways to use IDM and ISM in education.  I hope you will find it interesting and useful.  In the conclusion, Optimistic Humility, I explain that "this page should be viewed as an outline of potential applications in the future, offered with confident optimism but appropriate humility."
 

This page contains seven sections, in the main body and appendix:
• Introduction (Do methods exist? Can methods be taught?) 
1. Coping with Complexity in Models of Design & Science 
2. Teaching Design in the Context of Experience (action and ideas) 
3. A Wide Spiral Curriculum (skillfully coordinating experiences) 
4. The Challenge of Educational Design (no, it isn't easy) 
5. Optimistic Humility (putting things in perspective) 

Conceptual Evaluation of Instruction (predictions about education)  
Analyzing the Structure of Instruction (for curriculum coordination) 

 
      1. Coping with Complexity in Models of Design & Science
      When a complex process (like design or science) is described in a model (like IDM or ISM) there is a tension between the conflicting criteria of simplicity and completeness.  When a model is more complete it allows a more accurate description, but the resulting complexity can make the model less useful for education if students feel overwhelmed and confused because too many concepts are presented too quickly.
      But this potential difficulty can be minimized — thus allowing a model to be used for teaching students of different ages and experience, abilities and interest — if the information content of the model is adjusted by simplification and enrichment.

This idea, about strategies for effective teaching, is examined in detail in a page about Coping with Complexity that ends with some thoughts about Essential Tension in Models,

      When we try to represent a complex process with a simple model, tensions are unavoidable.
      In the early days of developing ISM, when I showed people the ISM-diagram a common criticism was that "It's too complicated, and students will feel overwhelmed."  My response to this valid concern, which has influenced the subsequent development of ISM and then IDM, is based on three principles:
      First, the process of science is complex, so an accurate model of science must be complex.
      Second, a model is a simplified representation of reality, and each model contains many factors that can be adjusted in an attempt to achieve various goals, as explained in Describing Science using a Flexible Framework.
      Third, in order to achieve common educational goals we need effective teaching strategies for coping with complexity, as discussed above.  ...   { Below, Section 2 also contains excerpts from "Coping with Complexity." }
 

 
      2. Teaching Design in the Context of Experience
      One principle for effective teaching is to use IDM in the context of student actions and experience.  Instead of lecturing about "design method" as an abstract concept that students have little reason to care about, IDM should be an integral part of students' personal experience.  [Another page explains why student experience is a reason to teach design before science so both can be taught more effectively.]  After students have worked on a design project, a teacher can help them think about what they did, how well it worked and why, and how they can improve it in the future.  The ideas in IDM should be connected with what students recently have experienced, now are experiencing, or soon will experience.  When a designing activity is accompanied by a reflection activity that encourages introspective metacognition, the combination can be more effective than either the designing or the reflection by itself.  Ideally, intrinsically interesting design activities and reflection activities will be coordinated into a "wide spiral curriculum" that integrates design with science.
      Strategies for effective teaching — such as simplifying or enriching, building complexity in gradual steps, showing whole-part-whole relationships [these were discussed earlier in the "Coping..." page], and connecting action with reflection — are used daily by good teachers.  Effective instruction of any type requires wise "adjustment decisions" about selection and sequencing, with the goal of maintaining an appropriate pace (not too slow, not too fast) and level (not too easy, not too difficult) for the majority of students in a classroom.  The same sensitive awareness and improvising skill that allows effective teaching in other areas will also make it possible to teach effectively using IDM and ISM.
 

 
      3. A Wide Spiral Curriculum
      Although IDM and ISM are methods for design and science — for describing what designers and scientists do — their main function is to help students learn design and science.  When creatively combined, these coherently integrated methods could be useful in a wide spiral curriculum designed to teach thinking skills.  This approach to education would have a wide scope due to a coordination of learning over a wide range of subject areas, including all science and many non-science areas.  It would be a "spiral" due to the distribution of learning over time.
      Learning occurs in a short-term narrow spiral when activities with similar educational functions are repeated and coordinated (with respect to different types of experience, levels of sophistication, and contexts) in one course.*  If the learning experiences in this course are coordinated with those in other courses a student is currently taking, and if this wide approach continues for a long time, the result will be a long-term wide spiral.  A well designed spiral curriculum has a carefully planned sequencing and coordinating of activities within each course and between courses, in science and in other areas, to form a synergistic system (with mutual support between different aspects of instruction) for helping students learn higher-level thinking skills.  {* a useful tool for analyzing the "activities and experience" structure of instruction, within a course or between courses, is outlined in the appendix }
      IDM is an integrated system that shows how different aspects of thinking are related and how they can be effectively coordinated.  When IDM (or ISM) is used in a particular area of the curriculum, it provides a coherent structure for integrating the skills being learned in this area.  By practicing and reviewing the principles of design (and science), you can promote the mastery of creative, logical, disciplined thinking in design and science.
      IDM can also help curriculum designers recognize the similar skills that are used in a wide range of areas.  And teachers can use "transitive logic" to help students recognize the similarities in thinking between different areas:  If thinking in science, engineering, humanities, and arts are all related to IDM, then science, engineering, humanities, and arts are related to each other, and thinking skills can "transfer" from one area to another.  The transitive nature of IDM — which can be used in many areas of life, thus connecting these areas with each other — provides a "common context" for instruction in different areas, making it easier to develop a coordinated goal-oriented strategy for a teaching of thinking skills across the curriculum.
      An important principle — that we can use reflection activities (such as IDM) to help students recognize "what can be learned" from an experience, to help them learn more from their experience — is the main theme of Aesop's Activities: A Goal-Directed Approach to Education.  Reflection activities, which can be implicit or explicit, can occur before or during an activity (thus directing attention to certain aspects of the experience) or after the activity (in a reflective review), to help students learn more from their experience.
      In a creatively coordinated wide-spiral curriculum, the explicit use of IDM in different areas will help students understand the similarities between these areas.  In addition to improving the quality of learning in each area, the awareness that is stimulated by IDM can also promote a transfer of thinking skills from one area to another.

      Eclectic Diversity, Central Location, and Stimulating Discussion
      The eclectic nature of ISM and IDM-ISM could help these models play a useful role in a collaborative effort among scholars.  Because ISM is a synthesis of ideas from many fields, it is centrally located at the intersection of many disciplines and the diverse perspectives they encompass.  When IDM is included, the diversity is even greater.  The centrality of ISM (and IDM-ISM) could facilitate a cooperative sharing of ideas among scholars involved in science, the study of science, and science education.  ISM can easily connect with the large amount of thinking that has been done about the methods of science and their application to education.  The widespread familiarity of "scientific method" as a concept (and of design activity as an experience) will make it easier to use ISM (and IDM) for communicating ideas.  Of course, familiarity can also lead to disagreements about foundational assumptions (and subsequent conclusions), but once these are in plain view they can become the focus for stimulating discussions among scholars and for exciting activities in a classroom.

      Two useful tools for instructional design (Conceptual Evaluation of Instruction and Analyzing the Structure of Instruction) are outlined in the appendix.
 

 
      4. The Challenge of Educational Design
      Previous discussions (in this page and elsewhere) have described IDM's connections with students' past experience and future plans (in Design and Science), and how IDM-and-ISM could serve as a bridge from design to science (also in Design and Science) and could be used in a wide spiral curriculum (above).  I have tried to show how IDM-ISM can be used in education, either directly (during instruction) or indirectly (while planning instruction).  This section discusses a few more possibilities.

      For the design of education, challenges are posed by three practical constraints.  First, a curriculum and the accompanying instruction should be flexible so it can accommodate a wide range of learning styles and teaching styles.  Second, we should make it easy for teachers to teach well and to learn new methods quickly with a minimum of extra preparation time.  Third, if teachers feel obligated to cover a large amount of subject-area content, they may be reluctant to invest the classroom time required to teach thinking skills.  Many educators have been (and will be) struggling with ways to achieve satisfactory solutions for these problems and for other challenges.  I don't claim to have any easy answers, but the IDM-ISM system does have features indicating that it is worth exploring and developing.
      Developing a general curriculum in the culturally diverse, decentralized system of American education is especially important and difficult.  But the wide scope of design — it covers almost everything in life! — should help IDM connect with the experience of students (and teachers) from a wide range of sociocultural backgrounds.
      Due to the wide scope and familiarity of design, I think teachers will quickly feel comfortable with IDM.  It is fairly simple and intuitive, yet offers plenty of room for creative intellectual growth, so it should be appealing for teachers.  Even though IDM is new, it won't feel strange.  And it provides a bridge to scientific methods, making them seem more familiar and intuitive.  By helping teachers develop a more coherent understanding of design and science, the integrated structure of IDM-ISM could serve a valuable function, consistent with proposals (e.g., Matthews, 1994) that teacher education would be improved by a more effective use of insights from the history and philosophy of science.

      All educators agree that we should help students improve their conceptual understanding and methods of thinking.  These two types of knowledge are related, as in "theoretical thinking" that generates and evaluates concepts, and "application thinking" that requires an understanding of concepts.  But with limited time available, we cannot maximize both a mastery of concepts and a mastery of thinking, so we must aim for an optimal balance.  What is this balance and how can we achieve it?  For these important questions there is no consensus of agreement, but my own opinion is that currently the balance is shifted too far in favor of concepts over thinking, and we should recognize the importance of high-quality thinking and should decide it is worth an increased investment of time.  {note: Since I wrote this page, the increased emphasis on standardized testing seems to have decreased the likelihood of an increased emphasis on thinking skills, since these tests emphasize concept mastery more than thinking mastery. }
      In addition to special activities in which the focus is directly on thinking, teachers can make conventional activities more effective by using IDM as a tool to help students learn more from their experiences, thereby taking advantage of the many opportunities for learning that exist but are often missed.  Similarly, ISM can be used in science labs to help students be more aware of what they are doing and what they can learn.  And students' personal experience can be supplemented with stories, from history or current events, about scientists and designers.  Another option is to adopt an STS (Science, Technology, and Society) approach and to use ISM and IDM for analyzing the characteristics of science and technology, including their mutual interactions with each other and with society, as outlined in Design and Science.
 

 
      5. Optimistic Humility
      Putting Things in Perspective:  The ideas in this page are shared with optimistic humility.  I'm optimistic because there are reasons to expect that IDM-ISM will help students improve their thinking skills, thereby producing life-long benefits.  But so far, this potential has not been adequately developed or empirically tested for effectiveness.  Therefore, this page should be viewed as an outline of potential applications in the future, offered with confident optimism but appropriate humility.
      IDM and ISM are flexible frameworks that will be compatible with a wide variety of instructional methods and philosophies in a wide range of subject areas.  I think IDM-ISM could be useful in mainstream education or in special "thinking skills" programs.  In either context, integrating IDM-ISM into instruction would require a cooperative effort with other educators, especially those who, compared with myself, have more experience and expertise with the principles, details, and practicalities of curriculum development.  I hope this will occur, and I would welcome the opportunity to work as part of a collaborative team.

      Here is a brief history of ISM and IDM:
      The process of development was very different for the two models.  I constructed ISM first, by synthesizing lots of ideas — mainly from scientists and philosophers, but also from historians, sociologists, psychologists, and myself — into a coherent system for use in education.  By contrast, for IDM (which was developed later) there has been very little use of external sources.  Mainly I've just thought about the process of design, in isolation from what others have done.
      Recently, however, I've been looking at the work of others in design education, and IDM seems to be consistent with their ideas.  One of my goals for the future is to learn more about what other educators are doing in developing models for design and using these models in education.  I'm beginning to look into the work of others, in engineering education and also in papers and books for general education, including Design as a Catalyst for Thinking.
      But even though it was independently developed, IDM seems to be compatible with the work of other educators, as described below.

      An optimism about the educational utility of IDM-ISM is supported by my analysis of four models for thinking skills and methods, including IDM, that are described and compared in An Overview of Thinking Skills, which examines individual thinking actions and how these are combined into thinking methods, and concludes that:
      There is a close connection between the thinking skills and methods in IDM and in Dimensions of Thinking: A Framework for Curriculum and Instruction.  Thus, it seems likely that IDM could be smoothly integrated with the type of "education in thinking" recommended by the authors of Dimensions and by other educators. ...
      All three frameworks [Dimensions and two others] are compatible with IDM (and ISM) and with each other.  These mutually supportive approaches (and others) could be creatively blended to form a powerful cooperative team, operating synergistically to improve education both before and during instruction, in curriculum development and in the classroom.
 

APPENDIX

      Conceptual Evaluation of Instruction
      The purpose of instructional evaluation is to estimate the extent to which a particular program of instruction achieves an educational objective, such as helping students improve their thinking skills.  Evaluation provides essential input for developing new approaches to instruction, and for making policy decisions about instruction.
      Of course, instructional development and policy decisions should be based on reliable knowledge, including data about instructional activities (what students are asked to do), student actions (what students actually do), and learning outcomes (what students learn).  Based on this data, an evaluation of instructional effectiveness can be mainly empirical or conceptual.
      An empirical evaluation occurs by gathering and interpreting outcome-data in an effort to determine the effectiveness of a program.  Empirical evaluation can be very useful, but doing it well is usually difficult and time consuming.
      A conceptual evaluation is based on data about either activities or activities-and-actions, about what students do during instruction.  By knowing what students do, we can predict what they are likely to learn.
      Basically, described in terms of IDM-ISM, these are two types of quality-checks: empirical evaluation uses physical experiments that produce observations, while conceptual evaluation uses mental experiments that produce theory-based predictions.  And both can be used during curriculum design, to achieve goals of effective education.

      As an example of conceptual evaluation, consider an extreme case where the dual objectives of instruction are to help students learn about the nature of science and improve their thinking skills, yet the activities-data shows that there is no discussion of either science or thinking, and students have no opportunities to solve problems.  Even with no outcome-data it is easy to predict that this program, due to the mismatch between objectives and activities, will not achieve its objectives.
      But real-life situations are more complex, so a conceptual evaluation is more difficult, its meaning is open to a wider range of interpretations, and its conclusions are justifiably viewed with caution.  And a conclusion may be indefinite.  For example, a conclusion of "beneficial but not sufficient" occurs when we claim to know that a particular condition will help achieve a better match between objectives and activities, so it will probably help contribute to success, but we also think it is not sufficient because even if this condition is present there is no guarantee of success because other conditions that also influence the outcome are needed for effective instruction.

      During educational design, conceptual evaluation should be based on a deep, accurate understanding of instruction, and this essential knowledge base can be improved by using a coherent analytical framework, such as an activity-and-experience table (explained below) that includes IDM and/or ISM.  If IDM is useful for describing the integrated structure of design methods, it should also be useful for describing the integrated structure of "thinking skills" instruction in which students learn and use design methods.  Similarly, ISM can be useful for understanding the structure of instruction about scientific thinking.  In fact, in the second half of my PhD dissertation I used ISM as the analytical framework for studying the structure of instruction in a creative science classroom.  { The first half of it was developing and describing ISM. }

      Analyzing the Structure of Instruction
      When students do activities, they gain experience.  Opportunities for educational experience — for experience that is educationally functional, that is useful for achieving educational goals — can be analyzed using an activity-and-experience table, as shown below, with student ACTIVITIES in the top row and educationally functional EXPERIENCES in the left column.
      This table clearly shows multi-experience activities (scanning vertically down the second column, we see that Activity #2 provides Experiences B and C) and repeated experiences (scanning the C-row horizontally, we see that experience with B occurs in Activities 1, 2 and 5).  A table may reveal gaps that will guide the designing of new activities.  For example, an earlier version of this table might have motivated a teacher, who noticed that after Activities 1-3 the students have no experience doing A, to add Activities 4 and 5.

      Of course, a "yes" does not tell the whole story.  A table with larger cells could show more details, such as the differences between a student's experience with "C" in Activities 2, 3 and 5.

      ... [snip: in the "Aesop's Activities" page the original section also covers "How long is an activity?", activities 6-9, an exam, and a confession] ...

      a summary of benefits:  In a table, the visual organization of information can improve our understanding of the educationally functional relationships between activities, between experiences, and between activities and experiences.  This knowledge about the structure of instruction can help us creatively coordinate — with respect to types of experience, levels of sophistication, and contexts — the activities that promote experiences.  The goal of a carefully planned selection and sequencing of activities is to develop a mutually supportive synergism between the activities, to build a coherent system for teaching each type of thinking skill, to produce a more effective environment for learning.

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