How novices formulate models. Part II: a quantitative description of behaviour

Since the creation and use of operations research (OR) models is no longer the province of experts, attention must be given to educating novice modellers so that they can be more effective practitioners. This paper provides a quantitative description of the behaviour of novice modellers working ill-structured problems of the type they are likely to face in their careers. Our results suggest that when compared to experts, novices focus attention on different modelling topics, switch attention among topics differently, and concentrate on different concepts. The paper also reports an experimental assessment of the impact of a course designed to improve novices' ability to make and use models. The experiment produced indications that the course helped novices act more like experts.