Abstract Although Productive Failure has shown to be effective (Kapur, 2016; Loibl, Roll, & Rummel, 2017), it is not clear if failure in problem-solving is necessary. Initial work in a quasi-experimental setting suggests that explicitly designing for experiences of failure leads to better learning outcomes than designing for success. We build on this to report on a controlled experimental study where students are exposed to failure-driven, success-driven, or no explicit scaffolding in problem-solving prior to instruction. For assessments of non-isomorphic conceptual understanding, our results align with those from prior work. Despite the similarity in posttest scores, students exposed to failure-driven scaffolding demonstrate higher quality of constructive reasoning than those receiving success-driven scaffolding. Additionally, our study reveals learning benefits of failure-driven scaffolding (for both posttest scores and reasoning quality) on assessments of transfer. Several cognitive, affective and meta-cognitive mechanisms are investigated to explain robust learning benefits of failure-driven scaffolding in preparatory problem-solving.
When learning a new concept, should students engage in problem solving followed by instruction (PS-I) or instruction followed by problem solving (I-PS)? Noting that there is a passionate debate abo...
Abstract Uncertainty is a key variable in fostering curiosity, which, in turn, is associated with learning. Yet, research in educational contexts rarely takes uncertainty into account, and rarely explores uncertainty and curiosity in the context of complex instructional activities. One concern with uncertainty is that it can provoke negative affect. Providing learners with expectations of future uncertainty may attenuate their feelings of negative affect. In a study with 138 middle school studen...
Abstract Exploring a new concept before instruction can benefit conceptual understanding, but is demanding. The current experiments examined whether providing guidance during exploration improves learning. Undergraduate students explored the procedures and concept of statistical variance prior to direct instruction. In Experiment 1 (N = 123), exploring using worked examples (full guidance) led to higher posttest scores than exploring using an invention activity (no guidance) or completion proble...
AbstractBackground: The use of virtual patients (VPs), due to their high complexity and/or inappropriate sequencing with other instructional methods, might cause a high cognitive load, which hampers learning.Aim: To investigate the efficiency of instructional methods that involved three different applications of VPs combined with lectures.Method: From two consecutive batches, 171 out of 183 students have participated in lecture and VPs sessions. One group received a lecture session followed by a...
Last. Xin Gu(ECNU: East China Normal University)H-Index: 7
view all 4 authors...
Learning about hypothesis evaluation using the Bayes factor could enhance psychological research. In contrast to null-hypothesis significance testing it renders the evidence in favor of each of the hypotheses under consideration (it can be used to quantify support for the null-hypothesis) instead of a dichotomous reject/do-not-reject decision; it can straightforwardly be used for the evaluation of multiple hypotheses without having to bother about the proper manner to account for multiple testin...
#1Katharina Loibl(UEW: University of Education, Winneba)H-Index: 8
#2Ido Roll(UBC: University of British Columbia)H-Index: 26
Last. Nikol Rummel(RUB: Ruhr University Bochum)H-Index: 29
view all 3 authors...
Recently, there has been a growing interest in learning approaches that combine two phases: an initial problem-solving phase followed by an instruction phase (PS-I). Two often cited examples of instructional approaches following the PS-I scheme include Productive Failure and Invention. Despite the growing interest in PS-I approaches, to the best of our knowledge, there has not yet been a comprehensive attempt to summarize the features that define PS-I and to explain the patterns of results. Ther...
Abstract 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 (independent variable): they either invent...
Executive function and metacognition are higher-order cognitive processes that undergo steady improvements throughout childhood. They are highly relevant to daily functioning in various domains, including academic achievement. Both concepts have been intensively researched, but surprisingly little literature has sought to connect them theoretically and empirically. In the present review, I elaborate on the similarities between these concepts from a developmental perspective, including the defini...
Meta-Reasoning refers to the processes that monitor the progress of our reasoning and problem-solving activities and regulate the time and effort devoted to them. Monitoring processes are usually experienced as feelings of certainty or uncertainty about how well a process has, or will, unfold. These feelings are based on heuristic cues, which are not necessarily reliable. Nevertheless, we rely on these feelings of (un)certainty to regulate our mental effort. Most metacognitive research has focus...
