Viewed as an activity, conceptual modeling involves an intricate array of cognitive processes and performed actions including: abstracting, conceptualizing, associating, contextualizing, interpreting & sense-making, judging & evaluating, drawing & visualizing; and, in group settings: communicating, discussing and agreeing.
Learning conceptual modeling is, hence, a complex and challenging task for learners: It requires rigorous analytical skills, mastering theoretical foundations & modeling languages and experience in applying them to practical problems, resulting in high-quality representations – conceptual models.
Teaching conceptual modeling is a likewise challenging task faced by didactic and practical challenges as it requires the use of theories and methods of teaching that build upon fundamental assumptions about learning and the learning process (often discussed in reference to the broad classification of behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism).
The 2nd Workshop on Teaching and Learning Conceptual Modeling at the PoEM Working Conference series provides a forum to exchange experiences on using and applying theories of teaching and learning when teaching conceptual modelling as well as novel ideas for teaching and learning conceptual modeling based on those theories, and to discuss research on teaching and learning conceptual modeling. Following the success of the 1st workshop in Vienna in 2018, we again plan it as a full day workshop with a highly interactive atmosphere, we seek to initiate constructive discussions and to foster in-workshop and post-workshop collaboration among participants. The workshop entails invited talks / keynote presentations and is open for participation and contributed short talks, e.g., on teaching innovations, teaching experiences, and teaching tool presentations.
If you are interested in contributing a short talk to this workshop, please contact us at kristina.rosenthal@fernuni-hagen.de and estefania.serralasensio@kuleuven.be before October 25th.
You may present existing work that you would like to draw attention to, or prospective work you seek feedback on. There are no proceedings, so presentations to TLCM can be used for further publication. Slides or papers will be published on the website if copyrights allow to do so.
Please note that contributing to the workshop implies registering for PoEM 2019.
Session TLCM 1 (11:00-12:30):
* 11:00 — Workshop Opening
* 11:15 — Keynote by Ulrich Frank: Teaching the Art and Science of Conceptual Modelling: Objectives, Obstacles and Didactic Patterns
Lunch (12:30-14:00)
Session TLCM 2 (14:00-15:30)
* 14:00-14:20 — Short talk 1: Towards key principles for teaching enterprise modelling, Erik Proper
* 14:20-14:40 — Short talk 2: Learning and teaching conceptual modeling in the light of learning paradigms, Kristina Rosenthal
* 14:40-15:00 — Short talk 3: Student’s Cognitive Style and Business Process Model Understanding – Implications for Teaching, Irene Vanderfeesten
* 15:00-15:20 — Short talk 4: Exploring persistent errors in novice modelers, Daria Bogdanova
* 15:20 — Burning questions
Coffee Break (15:30-16:00)
Session TLCM 3 (16:00-17:30):
* 16:00-16:20 Short talk 5: Multi-modal data collection using a modeling tool & observatory, Stefan Strecker
* 16:20 — Creating a TLCM Network/Exploring Research Collaborations
* 17:30 — Closing
Kristina Rosenthal, University of Hagen, Germany
Estefania Serral, KU Leuven, campus Brussels
Monique Snoeck, KU Leuven, campus Leuven
Stefan Strecker, University of Hagen, Germany
Teaching the Art and Science of Conceptual Modelling: Objectives, Obstacles and Didactic Patterns
Ulrich Frank
Conceptual modelling is at the core of business informatics. Therefore, it is of utmost relevance for every student to understand the essential role of language and concepts for realizing systems that fit their purpose. To that end, students also need to develop the competence that is required for the professional design and evaluation of conceptual models. From a teaching perspective that suggests to supplement an academic perspective on the subject with exercises that are suited to guide students with developing a critical distance to apparently obvious solutions and with acquiring useful design patterns. Based on a short reflection of objectives to be accounted for with the design of a university course on conceptual modelling, this talk will present a few lessons learnt during a period of almost 30 years of teaching conceptual modelling - as well as remaining obstacles and challenges.
Towards key principles for teaching enterprise modelling
Erik Proper
The aim of this presentation, or rather discussion, is to explore some possible principles that should guide us in teaching enterprise modelling. The first aim is to identify the need to have such principles, that should help us prioritise and focus the key things that learners would need to acquire when learning enterprise modelling. Based on the assumption that we would indeed benefit from having such principles, we will then explore some candidate principles. Examples will include / touch upon the need to be aware of: (1) at least some of the philosophical foundations of what a model is, and what happens when we engage in modelling (2) the purpose of enterprise models (in specific situations) and its RoME (Return on Modelling Effort) in particular, (3) the role of normative frames (and e.g. ontological commitments) we have when modelling, and (4) the fact that learning to make the right (purpose specific) abstractions is more important than to know all symbols of some modelling language.
Learning and teaching conceptual modeling in the light of learning paradigms
Kristina Rosenthal
Conceptual modeling is an essential activity during information systems development and, accordingly, a learning task faced by students of Business Informatics and related fields such as Information System and Software Engineering. Research on learning and, correspondingly, teaching conceptual modeling forms a diverse body of knowledge involving foci on various learning theories and learning approaches, learning outcomes and learning barriers. Based on reviewing prior work, this talk will present prevalent and emerging research themes in the field and discuss the present state of research on learning and teaching conceptual modeling in the light of learning paradigms.
Student’s Cognitive Style and Business Process Model Understanding – Implications for Teaching
Irene Vanderfeesten
Recently, many researchers studied how modelers make business process models (also known as “the process of process modeling”) and how readers understand business process models. In this line of research, we conducted a series of experiments to test our hypotheses on the link between a student’s personal characteristics (such as cognitive style) and the task efficiency and task effectiveness of their process model understanding. We found out that there are interesting differences between students, that also may (or may not?) have implications for teaching business process models and business process modelling. This talk is an extended discussion of the paper: Turetken, O., Vanderfeesten, I., & Claes, J. (2017). Cognitive style and business process model understanding. In Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (Vol. 286, pp. 72–84). Springer Verlag
Exploring persistent errors in novice modelers
Daria Bogdanova
Appropriate and timely feedback on student errors is considered to be one of the key factors determining the effectiveness of learning, particularly in case of complex learning. However, the influence of feedback on the achievement of particular learning outcomes and addressing specific student errors, especially in the context of a conceptual modelling course, remains scarcely explored.
This paper continues the series of works on detecting and addressing errors made by novice modelers in a conceptual data modelling course: persistent student errors are identified, and the role of feedback in error correction is explored.
Multi-modal data collection using a modeling tool & observatory
Stefan Strecker
Viewed as a learning task, conceptual modeling involves an intricate array of cognitive processes and performed actions including abstracting, conceptualizing, associating & contextualizing, interpreting & sense-making, drawing & visualizing, judging & evaluating, thinking ahead & anticipating & envisioning, and, in group settings, communicating, discussing and agreeing. In this talk, I discuss the need for a multi-modal observation approach to study the learning of conceptual modeling and present such an approach based on a browser-based modeling tool & observatory developed in my group over the past six years.