This paper was presented at the 2013 ABSEL Conference in Oklahoma City, OK. It was awarded the best student paper award for the conference. Abstract: We extend the concept of insight learning from Hoover, Mitchell, and Wu (2012), a form of experiential education that utilizes a process of multi-dimensional whole person learning (Hoover, 2007). The insight learning process seeks to engage students more fully in the learning process with the goal of changing or elevating mental frames. We include a further illustration of insight learning in the form of a simulation exercise that can be utilized to introduce concepts of a particular mental model (Transaction Cognition Theory) to students; this model has been tied to improving performance in a firm. We also inform the whole person learning model and the insight learning model by considering the importance of the order of the insight learning process in helping students to achieve the goal of changing existing mental frames.

1. IMPLEMENTING MENTAL MODELS: EXTENDING
INSIGHT AND WHOLE PERSON LEARNING
Robert E. Robinson
Ronald K. Mitchell
J. Duane Hoover
ABSEL 2013

2. BACKGROUND
Hoover, Mitchell, and Wu (2012)
developed the concept of Insight
Learning, a type of whole person
learning (Hoover, 2007)

3. BACKGROUND
Insight learning involves a four step
process
1) The instructor and student must
agree upon the goal of changing
mental states
2) The instructor and student must
design the intended alternative
mental framework

4. BACKGROUND
Insight learning involves a four step
process
3) participation in a simulation or
experiential exercise
4) integrating the new/enhanced mental
frame into the student’s intellectual
and behavioral repertoire
This paper focuses on these final two
steps.

5. Do – Look – Learn
Instead of the more typical “learn-look-
do” approach, we suggest a “do-look-
learn” process.
The traditional approach involves
students learning the material first,
observing how it applies, and then
using the material in practice.

6. Do – Look – Learn
By placing the experience first, students
may be more open to learning
opportunities without the constraint of
prior teaching.
“Do-Look-Learn” can help students get
out of their own way by breaking down
barriers to learning created by
preconceived notions.

7. Example Theory – Transaction Cognitions
The specific exercise included as part
of step three in the insight learning
process can be utilized for several
learning concepts in a variety of
courses.
We chose to demonstrate the specific
example of transaction cognition theory
(Mitchell, 2001) in this paper.

8. Transaction Cognition Theory
For new value to be created, transactions must be brought into
existence (Mitchell, 2001)
Specifically,
“Transaction Cognition Theory proposes that the existence of each
element in the transaction is, in fact, the primary reason for the
introduction of one of the sources of variability in human economic
behavior.” – Mitchell, 2001, page 27

9. Transaction Cognition Theory
The transaction thus becomes the unit of analysis most basic to
understanding economic activity, and particularly the formation of
organizations.
A transaction requires three components:
1) an individual
2) A work
3) An “other”

10. Transaction Cognition Theory
Elements of a Transaction
Adapted from Mitchell, 2001
Individual
Other Work

11. Simulation Exercise
A cooperative game is utilized to help students consider elements of
teamwork - specifically trust, resource sharing, and goal
accomplishment
The game is intentionally unrelated to business to reduce the focus
on prior knowledge utilization and to increase the focus on
teamwork itself.

12. Simulation Exercise
The game used in this is called PANDEMIC.
It can be played by 2-4 people, but the exercise calls for students to
be broken into groups of four.
Instead of competing against each other, the joint goal of each
group is to cure four diseases that spread across a map of the world.

13. Simulation Exercise
The game is won by creating a cure for all four diseases before one
of the following happens:
1) The resource pile is depleted (all the cards have been drawn)
2) There are not enough cubes to place for any one color when the
result of an infection round calls for that color to be placed
3) Eight outbreaks occur

14. Simulation Exercise
The game is played at least twice, though a third time is optional
1) First time players are told to allow everyone to see their
resource cards and roles. This allows for all available
information to be freely shared between participants.
2) The second time students play, they must hold up their hands
and their special skills.
3) The third time would involve including individual (potentially
conflicting) goals. If times does not allow, this third round could
be assigned as a written assignment – a “what if” scenario to be
described by the student.

15. Simulation Exercise
In keeping with the do-look-learn process, the series of play should
be completed before students are told the goal of the learning
exercise.
After each round, students should turn in a written description of
their experience of the exercise, which should include their thoughts
regarding what they saw as the intended learning objectives. This
feedback links back to the insight learning process.

16. Simulation Exercise
After the instructor has reviewed the students’ written reports, a
debrief of the intended learning processes should follow. Including
specific examples where students identified elements related to the
intended concepts can help students feel more included in the
learning.
After the debrief, students should develop a model depicting how
this new learning will be incorporated into their own thinking. This
new mental frame completes the fourth step of the insight learning
process.

17. Implications for Whole Person Learning
Hoover (2007) defines experiential learning from a whole person
perspective:
Experiential learning exists when a personally responsible
participant (s) spiritually, cognitively, emotionally, and
behaviorally processes knowledge, skills and/or attitudes in a
learning situation characterized by a high level of active
involvement.

18. Implications for Whole Person Learning
This exercise keys on all the elements of this definition:
1) Spiritual: By including the student in the decision to change,
they are more connected to the whole learning
process. They also get a feeling of being part of
something as they work toward a common goal.
2) Cognitive: The particular element of cognitions being taught,
along with the individual development of mental
models specific to the student keys the cognitive
element

19. Implications for Whole Person Learning
This exercise keys on all the elements of this definition:
3) Emotional: The immersive nature of the simulation tends to
engage the participant’s affect
4) Behavioral: Experiential exercises by their nature involve
connecting behavior to learning through action

20. Implications for Whole Person Learning
This exercise has served as only one example of insight learning,
and the Do-Look-Learn approach.
This approach can help bring back the experiential approach to
teaching in a variety of courses, and at all levels of education.
For example, our co-author Dr. Mitchell utilizes this method in his
cross-listed entrepreneurship courses as well as his doctoral
seminars on management theory.

21. Thank you for your attention.
Questions?

22. Appendix for Transaction Cognition Theory

23. Transaction Cognition Theory
Transaction Cognition Theory suggests that each element of a
transaction contributes to the nature of transacting, because
transaction cognitions about the individual, the work, and other
persons are impacted (respectively) by bounded rationality,
opportunism, and the more general notion of “work”-specificity.

24. Transaction Cognition Theory
Transaction Cognition Theory suggests that
1) the cognitions of an individual, about the work and others, are
shaped primarily by bounded rationality.
2) the cognitions about other persons, in relationship to the
individual and the work, are shaped primarily by opportunism
3) and that cognitions about the work, in relationship to the
individual and others, are shaped primarily by work-specificity
These three cognitions are called planning, promise, and
competition, respectively, when they are positively related to the
reduction of transaction costs

25. Appendix for Simulation Exercise

26. Simulation Exercise
Each student begins with two cards (resources which have cities of
a certain color or special actions) and a special skill that allows that
person to perform certain actions more easily than others.
The resource cards must be used to create a cure by getting five of
one color to one person, who must turn them in at a specific place
on the board, called a research station.

27. Simulation Exercise
Each person can use four actions per turn to 1) move, 2) treat
disease, 3) give cards, 4) turn in a cure, or 5) create a research
station.
Cards can only be given to others who are in the same city, and only
the card of that city may be given.
At the end of each turn, two new resources are drawn, and new
cubes are placed according to the infection rate.

28. Simulation Exercise
If one of the cards drawn is an Epidemic, a new city is drawn from
the bottom of the infection pile, three cubes are placed there, and all
of the previously infected cities (including the newest one) are
shuffled and placed back on top of the infection pile.
If any city has more than three cubes of a particular color when it is
drawn, an outbreak occurs. A cube of that color is placed in all
cities that are connected to that city by a line on the board.