Purdue Model

Stage I

In Stage I, learners participate in short-term creative and critical thinking activities that provide a motivating introduction to the unit topic. They also begin mastering content through experiences like reading, watching movies, taking field trips, and interviewing experts. In Stage I, most activities are teacher directed and relatively short term (5–30 minutes in length). Brainstorming ideas on some aspects of the unit topic represents a typical Stage I creative thinking activity. Another typical critical thinking activity might involve comparing two short, historical documents written from opposing points of view.

Stage II

Stage II focuses on complex problem solving; students are presented with challenging problems in the discipline(s) of study, which they solve using techniques similar to those used by professionals in those disciplines. Instructional content in Stage II is typically quite advanced—usually 2–3 years beyond the age of the students. Learners work in small groups on difficult problems that have been created by the instructor to develop specific understandings and skills. The teacher's role becomes more like a coach than a lecturer or director. The teacher encourages active thinking by asking probing questions and encouraging students to come up with new strategies and perspectives. Stage II activities take longer than Stage I activities to complete (1–5 hours). The types of problems utilized in this stage vary by discipline. In a mathematical problem-solving unit, students might be working on Model Eliciting Activities—problems where students are given data sets and must come up with a model that fits the data and solves a problem for a simulated client. In a creative writing unit, students might write specific types of poetry, such as haiku and sonnets.

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