Mental Models: An Interdisciplinary Theory in Teaching and Learning

Mind models are individualized internal images of external reality used by individuals to communicate with their environment. They are built by people on the basis of their unique experiences and views of the world. Mental models are utilized to reason and to decide and may form the foundation of any behavior. They offer the mechanism for filtering and storing new information. A major element of successful natural resource management practice (NRM) is now regarded to recognize and deal with the diversity of views, beliefs and objectives of stakeholders. Therefore, we will create methods to improve the efficient management and use of natural resources, obtaining a deeper knowledge of how intellectual models reflect complicated dynamic systems internally and how these representations evolve over time. However, the realization of this promise requires the development and testing of sufficient tools and methods to successfully generate these internal representations of the environment. The article presents an interdisciplinary literature synthesis which contributes to the theoretical and practical development of the construction of a mental model. It examines the usefulness and application of the structure in the context of the NRM and includes a discussion of methods employed in the area of elicitation. In relying on the building to give a cognitive component to NRM, significant theoretical and practical difficulties are also addressed.