Subject: 12/10/04 WSJ Article on How Schoolchildren Learn

Posted by Gallaher Ed on 12/16/2004
In Reply To:12/10/04 WSJ Article on How Schoolchildren Learn Posted by Andy Smith on 12/16/2004

Message:

Agreed.

And, of course, teachers need adequate SD skills themselves to facilitate good work among their students.

Teachers might participate at various levels:

GENERIC SKILLS; APPRECIATING THE ART
- Evaluate and select -quality- SD materials to be used as classroom examples.

- I paraphrase a comment from Barry Richmond: "The best models are not those that include ALL the elements that might (?) be required, but rather those that have been pared down to include ONLY those elements required to address the problem.

LEARNING VIA DIAGRAMS AND SYSTEM THINKING
- Facilitated, interactive development of stock-and-flow diagrams can lead to deeper understanding of dynamic processes (e.g. middle-school (or cabinet
level?) discussions of salmon restoration).
- Diagrams may never mature to the level of computer simulation; HOWEVER, group leaders must be skilled enough to avoid creating blackboard structures that are blatantly incorrect.
- Moderators' skills are acquired via thoughtful -hands-on experience- with illustrative computer simulations. i.e., sit down and push the 'run' button.
(see next two items).

LEARNING VIA SIMULATION
- How do parameter values, by themselves, and in combination, influence the dynamic behavior of the system?
- Encourage the development of 'good questions', thus increasing the probability of meaningful (rather than random) sensitivity analyses.
- Which comes first? Does sensitivity analysis help us make this distinction? Or should we first ask the 'right' questions in order to undertake meaningful sensitivity analysis?

MODEL BUILDING
- If new models are being developed, encourage the -careful- introduction, and thorough testing, of new structure. (There's much more to it than this, of course!)

Follow Ups:

12/10/04 WSJ Article on How Schoolchildren Learn - Ursula Frischknecht-Tobler 12/17/2004 
12/10/04 WSJ Article on How Schoolchildren Learn - Linda Booth Sweeney 12/17/2004
12/10/04 WSJ Article on How Schoolchildren Learn - Ursula Frischknecht-Tobler 12/18/2004
12/10/04 WSJ Article on How Schoolchildren Learn - Jason Foster 1/16/2004
12/10/04 WSJ Article on How Schoolchildren Learn - Lees Stuntz 1/17/2005