Supporting Mental Model Building

The concept of mental models was one that resonated with me early on in the Learning Engineering program. Learning requires making connections between newly-encountered knowledge or skills, and what you already know. In order to foster strong learning, we as designers have to keep this idea in mind. An essential piece of the design process is learning about the prior knowledge and experiences of our learners. This information is vital to be able to support learners as they expand and refine their mental models.

My project with HMH was (at its core) about supporting mental model building in social studies education. Designing for social studies education requires addressing complex concepts that integrate content knowledge with disciplinary practices. Through this experience, I learned that building mental models isn't always about adding new elements, but rather enriching existing models by introducing greater detail and complexity. The taxonomy I worked to develop supported users to consider social studies in a different way, by highlighting the connections between the social studies theme, content, and skills.