Tools: Participatory Design, Interviews, Diagrammatic Elicitation, Qualitative Interview Coding
Involvement: I worked with two other student researchers on this project for the course INFO 6240 Sensemaking
Below is the front matter of our final paper; full paper available on request.
Sensemaking in transition: Using participatory diagramming to elicit mental models of secondary transition
Camille Lee (CGL8), Christopher Mercincavage (CMM368), Alexis Vinzons (ATV26)
ABSTRACT
The successful transition of students with disabilities from secondary education to adult life is influenced by a complex network of laws, people, places, organizations and activities. An acute sensemaking problem exists in this domain whereby key stakeholders are not informed of evidence-based predictors of post-school success such as parental involvement and work-based learning. This study uses participatory diagramming to elicit network diagrams and timelines from parents, educators and domain experts. These diagrams are analyzed to visually understand participant mental models related to transition and work. Role, authority and conflict have emerged as three key themes from these mental models. In the future, we hope to further develop this methodology and the resulting mental models to inform the development of strategies and instructional assets to improve transition sensemaking.
KEYWORDS
Transition, participatory diagramming, diagrammatic elicitation, mental model, sensemaking