Modeling and Design

A teacher draws a diagram of how the lessons in a unit connect. The diagram is not a plan; it is a representation of what they think the unit is doing. Looking at the diagram, the teacher notices that one lesson is disconnected from the rest. The diagram has shown the teacher something they could not have seen by looking at the lesson plans themselves.

This is what modeling does. It makes thinking visible in a form that can be examined.

Two main uses of modeling

Modeling can be used for two main purposes.

Theory validation

The first use is testing whether a theory holds in practice. Validation here is built on an empathetic attitude and a holistic view of individuals.

Validation is a practical way of working that helps reduce stress, enhance dignity, and increase happiness. When one can step into the shoes of another human being and see through their eyes, one can step into their world and understand the meaning of behaviour that otherwise looks strange.

In teaching, this means: the teacher’s theory about why a student is behaving a certain way is validated by trying to see the situation from the student’s side. If the theory holds up to that empathic check, it is more likely to be useful. If it collapses, the teacher’s theory was probably about the teacher, not about the student.

Forecasting

The second use is forecasting: making predictions about the future based on past and present data and analysis of trends.

A common example is estimating some variable of interest at a future date. Prediction is a similar but more general term. Both can refer to formal statistical methods using time-series, cross-sectional, or longitudinal data, or to less formal judgemental methods.

Usage differs across fields. In hydrology, “forecast” is sometimes reserved for estimates at specific future times, while “prediction” is used for more general estimates such as how often floods will occur over a long period.

For a teacher, forecasting looks like: “Given the rate at which my Class 9 students are learning fractions, where will they be by the end of the term?” The forecast is a model that can be tested. The teacher who runs forecasts and checks them learns about both the students and their own forecasting accuracy.

Concept maps

Concept maps are a graphic representation of knowledge. Creating a concept map can give insight into how to organise and represent what you know.

A concept map includes concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes, and the relationships between concepts shown by connecting lines. Words on the lines specify the kind of relationship between the concepts.

For a teacher, concept maps are useful in three ways.

1. Showing the structure of a topic to students. A map of how the parts of a unit connect is more useful than a list.
2. Surfacing the teacher’s own thinking. Drawing a map forces the teacher to commit to a structure they can examine.
3. Comparing thinking with a colleague. Two teachers drawing maps of the same topic often produce different structures, and the difference is the start of useful conversation.

A practical habit: when a teacher prepares a unit, drawing a concept map for it is twenty minutes that pays back many times over.

Design as a method of inquiry

Designs are artefacts that contain large amounts of knowledge embedded in them. A lesson plan is a design. A unit plan is a design. A school’s curriculum is a design. A teacher’s classroom layout is a design. Each one carries knowledge that the designer accumulated.

Five facts about designs.

Designs are generated in dialogue

The design process is not a solo act. It is an interaction between an idea (with values inside it), the characteristics of the situation, and the expectations of stakeholders. A lesson plan that ignores any of these three usually fails.

For a teacher, this means a useful lesson plan is built in conversation with the situation (what the class is like, what the syllabus is, what the time allows) and with the stakeholders (students, colleagues, parents, principal). A plan made in isolation often misses something visible to one of the other voices.

Designs carry knowledge that is most visible to experts

The knowledge contained in designs is most visible to experts in the same discipline. A teacher looking at another teacher’s lesson plan can read the experience embedded in it. A non-teacher looking at the same plan may miss most of what is there.

This is why mentor relationships work as well as they do. The mentor can read the mentee’s designs and see what the mentee cannot yet see.

The capacity for reframing is decisive

A teacher who cannot reframe is stuck with the same kind of design. A teacher who can reframe can produce designs the original frame would never have produced. Reframing capacity, covered in earlier chapters, is the engine of new design.

Modeling will become more important in education

In Stephen Wolfram’s books on a new kind of science and on mathematics, modeling is presented as central to exploring nature. The same case applies to education. Future teachers will increasingly build theories of practice whose foundations are in the theories of teaching and learning, articulated through models.

This is a forecast about the field. It says that teachers who can model will have a tool that teachers without it will not.

Designs let theory and practice meet

A design is the place where theory becomes practice. A theory of group work, written in an article, becomes real when a teacher designs a group-work lesson plan for a particular class on a particular day. The design is the bridge.

A worked example

A teacher wants to redesign a unit on the water cycle for Class 6. They use modeling and design as their method.

Concept map. The teacher draws a concept map of the topic. Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection, plus the main associated phenomena like rain, rivers, and groundwater. The map shows that the original unit treats each part as a separate lesson, missing the cycle that holds them together.

Forecasting. The teacher predicts that students who are taught the cycle as a connected whole will perform better on a transfer task (explaining flooding) than those taught the parts in sequence.

Design. The teacher redesigns the unit. The first lesson now introduces the cycle as a whole. The next four lessons each focus on one part while constantly returning to the cycle. The final lesson is a transfer task on flooding.

Validation. The teacher tries to see the unit from the student’s point of view. Would a student who has been told water “evaporates” understand it without seeing the connection to clouds and rain? The validation suggests adding a hands-on activity early in the unit to make evaporation visible.

The teacher’s design now contains the knowledge from the concept map, the prediction from the forecast, and the empathic check of validation. It is a much stronger design than the original.

Flashcard

What is the role of reframing in design?

Tap to reveal

Answer

The capacity for reframing is decisive in producing new designs

A teacher who cannot reframe will keep producing the same kind of design, even when the situation calls for something different. A teacher who can reframe can step out of one frame, see the situation differently, and design something the original frame could not have produced. Reframing is the engine.

Putting the methods together

The five methods covered in this chapter (experimentation, nurturing relationships, the scientific method, the SECI cycle, and modeling and design) are not exclusive. A reflective teacher uses several at once.

A teacher running an experiment is also working a relationship with their students, applying the discipline of the scientific method, contributing to the SECI cycle by externalising what they learn, and producing designs that carry knowledge into future work.

The methods describe different aspects of the same underlying activity: a teacher trying to understand and improve their practice with discipline. No single method is enough alone. Together, they form a real toolkit.