Phd in the Spotlight: Jochem Liem
Jochem Liem (b. 1981) will be awarded his doctorate degree at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) on 19 December. As part of his doctorate research at the Informatics Institute, he developed a new software program for secondary school pupils that allows them to learn by building and simulating models.
What did you do?
'I expanded on previous research into the comprehensibility of dynamic systems. Dynamic systems include things like the atmosphere or a population of animals. One finding to come out of that research was that it's difficult even for people with academic training to come to grips with dynamic systems.
I think that an understanding of conceptual models can help to gain a better grasp of dynamic systems. These models represent things not as numbers but as concepts. For example, in a conceptual model of a factory you'll see the word "emissions" instead of a number. Beyond that, the factor driving the change as well as how it passes through the system should be represented in the form of causal relationships. That way, you get a conceptual view of how the system behaves. I developed a type of interactive software for secondary school pupils which they can use to build and simulate conceptual models.
Didn't such software exist already?
'It did, but it was pretty complex, whereas my software simplifies model-based learning. I also developed a method than can accurately represent pupils' performance in numeric form, and in that sense closely reflects teachers' intuition. So if this method gives a pupil a 6, for example, that usually matches the teacher's estimate. Finally, I developed the software so it could work in conjunction with other technologies like virtual characters. It's been shown that it's less stressful for kids if a virtual hamster is made to answer questions than if they have to answer themselves. So if they make an error, they feel sorry for the hamster and make an effort to improve its performance.'
Are these models already being used in the Netherlands?
'They are, but mainly in higher education. At secondary schools it's still in the experimental phase. That's due partly to national legislation – if you want to change something in education, there are procedures you have to follow. The same applies to other countries where our software is being used such as Brazil, Israel, Great Britain and Bulgaria. Incidentally, this is not to say that conceptual models will be making their numeric counterparts obsolete. Conceptual models may be closer to how people think, but it's really best to use them side by side.'
What are your plans for the future?
'I'm considering starting a company together with my supervisor, Bert Bredeweg. The software I developed is suitable for computers, but secondary education is working increasingly with tablets. So we're looking at the possibilities for making software for that. But I might also stay in research. In that case, I'd have to rack up some years in a research group abroad as that's pretty much a requisite these days. I'm not quite sure yet how that would go. At the moment I'm living in Bulgaria for a while, where I met my wife. We just recently got married. She's involved in the same research project and will be obtaining her doctorate immediately after me. The most likely scenario is that if one of us gets offered a good job, the other will follow.'
Author: Carin Röst