Learning from direct instruction: Best prepared by several self-regulated or guided invention activities?

Learning from direct instruction can be enhanced by preparatory invention tasks: students invent an index that allows to differentiate a set of cases regarding important aspects (self-regulated). However, contradictory results have been found. As self-regulated activities often need practice, we tested whether the contradictory findings persist when students can practice inventing. We randomly assigned 99 eighth-grade students to two conditions...