EXPRESSING THE STUDENTS CONCEPTS VERSUS EXPLORING THE TEACHERS - ISSUES IN THE DESIGN OF MICROWORLDS FOR TEACHING

This article discusses the concept of a microworld and the role it mig ht play in education. Three questions are asked of previous descriptio ns of microworlds: what does the microworld look and feel like, what a re its design features, and what sort of learning happens? It is argue d that most microworld designers begin from a desire to teach particul ar ideas, and design for an ''exploratory'' mode of learning in which the student explores the microworld to find hidden nuggets of knowledg e. An alternative design strategy is described in an account of a micr oworld intended to help improve understanding of proportion. The desig n of this microworld, which arose from a commitment to helping with a specific learning difficulty, was based on research about the nature o f that learning difficulty, and was designed for an ''expressive'' mod e of learning in which the student is provided with tools to express h is/her own ideas.