What mental models do you have about attending a college or university lecture? Are these mental models helpful? Could any of these mental models hold you back from achieving the full benefit of the lecture?

Students may raise a variety of issues based on their individual experiences and perceptions. Encourage students to focus on their mental images and their assumptions and expectations of what a class in progress looks like e.g. how people arrive, arrange themselves in the room, ask and answer questions, behavior of the instructor etc.

Our mental models help us make sense of our environment, however, they may prevent us from seeing opportunities. For example, if our mental model of a lecture is for students to passively observe and make notes only, then the opportunity to engage in discussion and more active forms of learning which could increase understanding and retention of the material may be lost.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“All decisions are ethical decisions.” Comment on this statement, particularly by referring to the concepts of moral intensity and moral sensitivity.

This sweeping statement is false. In other words, not all decisions are having equal right/wrong or good/bad dimensions. We are saying there is a threshold which defines ethical concern, and it is a function of moral intensity and moral sensitivity. For a decision to have an ethical dimension, i t has to have some moral intensity associated with it. Moral intensity is a characteristic of the situation. It refers to the degree to which an issue demands the application of ethical principles. “Who should be laid off?” would have high moral intensity. On the other hand, a decision to take an umbrella to work because it might rain has no moral intensity. This is because morally intense issues involve others in the society who may think the decision is good or evil, or the issue quickly affects people. Moral sensitivity refers to a characteristic of the decision maker, not the situation. Faced with the same issue, two decision makers may be more or less moral sensitive, depending on emp...
Read more

Is it possible to have a knowledge of what an organizational culture is before you become a part of the organization? How important is it for you to align yourself with your organizational culture?

Organizational culture is artifacts and shared values and assumptions. Artifacts may be observable before you become a part of the organization but the shared organizational values and assumptions are the intangibles and difficult to decipher before you become a part of it. It is important to align with the organizational culture because it represents the way things work in the organization. Organizational culture acts as the control system, the social glue and sense making. Any violation of what is shared by members of an organization is likely to create alienation for a new member.
Read more

The chief of police in a large city government describes the problem of getting his officers to do paperwork. The officers enjoy working with the public and apprehending criminals, not sitting at a desk. The paperwork is boring, but can make the difference in convictions. The Chief has no financial rewards (budget crunch) and promotions are determined by seniority, not the quality of paperwork. Officers were trained to perform street work, not fill out forms. Arrests, not paperwork, get noticed. Conviction success is due to too many factors to be a performance criterion. Use the MARS model of individual behavior and performance to diagnose the possible causes of the unacceptable behavior. Has the captain considered all possible solutions to the problems? If not, what else might he do?

Motivation . There are several facts that suggest that the poor paperwork is due to lack of motivation. First, officers come into this profession because they want to work with the public and catch criminals, not sit in an office filling out reports. Thus, the paperwork task does not fulfill their needs for personal growth. Second, social rewards (praise, recognition) result from the outside activities, not paperwork. Third, financial rewards do not encourage people to do paperwork. Promotions are based on seniority, so they motivate officers to stay with the force, not to complete paperwork. Competitions did not work, either. Ability . It isn’t certain that officers are able to complete the paperwork task well enough. They don’t seem to receive any training in this area. Role Perceptions . The captain seems to have emphasized the importance of paperwork to the officers, and they probably have learned that some cases have been lost due to poor reports. Thus, it is reasonable to con...
Read more