Harlow Response

This semester, we have learned a more conceptual and logical working definition of modeling and its incorporation into the classroom. From reading such papers as Collins and Fergueson (Espistemological Games) to Lesh's approach to modeling, we have several sources that can tie us back into this weeks reading. Harlow's paper gives a sort of dos and donts to model application in the classroom. One idea the paper speaks of that stood out to me was the concept of modeling application being a problem for beginning teachers because "....it requires them to understand students' ideas in order to organize instruction." This statement is extremely true because, as we have previously discussed, it's important to meet students where they are and know the limitations they have when engaging in modeling. Children do not learn or think the same, so as an instructor, it's important to first know your students, their ideas in terms of the material, then create a cohesive blueprint of instruction in order to make sure all the students can fully learn from and engage in modeling. The paper speaks on "Knowledge in Pieces" which was a learning concept of diSessa (next week's reading). I found this concept of a student utilizing their environment to learn fascinating because modeling can create those environments in order for a student to make the parallels from computational (or whatever form used) to the real world. This is extremely important in modeling and science education. Also, it is good for an instructor to identify the small pieces that are necessary to bring together in order to create the big picture that they need for the student to see. I think the authors took a great approach using undergraduate physics instruction as the area for the research. I personally struggled with this class and so did of my peers because our instruction was so linear. The idea of getting feedback from the students and keeping teach of their progress in terms of learning modeling and the material is important because as an instructor, one should always be aware of where the students are to ensure no one is left behind in the instruction. Overall, this paper does a great job tying the previous concepts learned into one cohesive work.