Re-examining Mental Models

Blog 13 - Dr. Catlin Tucker's Blog

In this post, Dr. Tucker tackles the question of what will happen in education, post-pandemic. Her question stems from her own personal reflection on her previous "mental models", which are our deeply held, often unconscious beliefs about the way the world works. If we apply this to education, it suggests that we each have clear images, ideas, and structures in our minds about the way teaching and learning happen. These ideas, developed through our prior experiences, might cause us to form assumptions such as the following:

• The teacher holds all the knowledge and must deliver it to the students.
• Classes must follow a set schedule, and students should be grouped by age.
• Students in a class should complete the same assignments in order to learn.

Truly, if I examine some of my own assumptions about education, I find some of these same deep-seated beliefs. If we want to take what we have learned about blended learning and continue to improve teaching and learning in the future, we must not only examine our assumptions, but begin to build new mental models about what works in education and how to effectively help our students. Some questions Dr. Tucker recommends for reflection and discussion are:

• What does a productive classroom look and sound like?
• How can we put students at the center of learning?
• What changes should happen if we want to prioritize student agency?
• How can we "leverage technology strategically to transfer more control over the time, place, pace, and path of the learning experience to the students"? (Tucker, 2021)

Hopefully, schools, administrators, and faculty will be willing to spend time examining currently held mental models. We should determine what deep beliefs might hold us back from continuing to grow as a result of the changes that were initially forced upon us by the pandemic.