Mental Models: Knowledge in the Head and Knowledge in the World.

Abstract

Better understanding learners' mental models will help us to assess advanced knowledge and problem solving skills acquired while interacting with constructivist learning environments. Mental models are the internal, conceptual and operational representations that humans develop while interacting with complex systems. In this paper, we argue that they are also embedded in the activities engaged in by a community of practice, the social relations among members of that community, the discourse used by that community to negotiate meaning, and in the artifacts that are used and produced by the community during their activity. This paper describes two studies: one aimed at eliciting mental models in the heads of novice refrigeration technicians and the other an ethnographic study eliciting knowledge and models in the community of experienced refrigeration technicians.

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