Running head: WHY MINIMALLY GUIDED INSTRUCTION DOES NOT WORK Why Minimal Guidance during Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching

Evidence for the superiority of guided instruction is explained in the context of our knowledge of human cognitive architecture, expert–novice differences, and cognitive load. Although unguided or minimally guided instructional approaches are very popular and intuitively appealing, the point is made that these approaches ignore both the structures that constitute human cognitive architecture and evidence from empirical studies over the past half-century that consistently indicate that minimally guided instruction is less effective and less efficient than instructional approaches that place a strong emphasis on guidance of the student learning process. The advantage of guidance begins to recede only when learners have sufficiently high prior knowledge to provide "internal" guidance. Recent developments in instructional research and instructional design models that support guidance during instruction are briefly described.

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Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching

Emotion and Adaptation

A wide variety of media can be used in learning, including distance learning, such as print, lectures, conference sections, tutors, pictures, video, sound, and computers. Any one instance of distance learning will make choices among these media, perhaps using several.

Multimedia in Learning

This article reviews the corpus of research on feedback, with a focus on formative feedback—defined as information communicated to the learner that is intended to modify his or her thinking or behavior to improve learning According to researchers, formative feedback should be nonevaluative, supportive, timely, and specific Formative feedback is usually presented as information to a learner in response to some action on the learner’s part It comes in a variety of types (eg, verification of response accuracy, explanation of the correct answer, hints, worked examples) and can be administered at various times during the learning process (eg, immediately following an answer, after some time has elapsed) Finally, several variables have been shown to interact with formative feedback’s success at promoting learning (eg, individual characteristics of the learner and aspects of the task) All of these issues are discussed This review concludes with guidelines for generating formative feedback

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Focus on Formative Feedback

Instructional strategies for using video in teacher education

Enhancing self-regulated learning by writing learning protocols

Although explanations are a common means of instruction, research shows that they often do not contribute to learning. To unravel the factors giving rise to the ineffectiveness of instructional explanations, we propose a framework that brings together empirical work on instructional explanations from a variety of research fields, including classroom instruction, tutoring, cooperative learning, cognitive skill acquisition, learning from texts, computer-supported learning, and multimedia learning. In our framework, we identify the distinctive characteristics of instructional explanations, present general guidelines for designing instructional explanations, and describe factors influencing both the generation and use of instructional explanations. It is argued that future research should uncover in more detail the interrelations between the different aspects of providing and using instructional explanations and their specific effects on learning.

Why Instructional Explanations Often Do Not Work: A Framework for Understanding the Effectiveness of Instructional Explanations

Learning with self-explaining examples is an effective method in well-structured domains. The authors analyzed this method in teaching the complex skill of argumentation, experimentally comparing 4 conditions (N = 71 student teachers) that differed with respect to whether and how the processing of the examples was supported by self-explanation prompts. They found that examples of argumentation could be successfully used to teach declarative knowledge about argumentation. However, when the skill of argumentation is to be fostered, prompts that direct the learners' attention to the principles of argumentation should be used. The authors demonstrate that learning with self-explaining examples is also a promising method of enhancing skills in ill-structured domains such as argumentation.

Learning argumentation skills through the use of prompts for self-explaining examples.

Learning with multiple representations is usually employed in order to foster understanding. However, it also imposes high demands on the learners and often does not lead to the expected results, especially because the learners do not integrate the different representations. Thus, it is necessary to support the learners’ self-explanation activity, which concerns the integration and understanding of multiple representations. In the present experiment, we employed multi-representational worked-out examples and tested the effects of two types of self-explanation prompts as help procedures for integrating and understanding multiple representations. The participants (N = 62) learned about probability theory under three conditions: (a) open self-explanation prompts, (b) self-explanation prompts in an assistance-giving-assistance-withholding procedure (assisting self-explanation prompts), or (c) no prompts (control group). Both types of self-explanation prompts fostered procedural knowledge. This effect was mediated by self-explanations directed to domain principles. Conceptual knowledge was particularly fostered by assisting self-explanation prompts which was mediated by self-explanations on the rationale of a principle. Thus, for enhancing high-quality self-explanations and both procedural knowledge and conceptual understanding, we conclude that assisting self-explanation prompts should be provided. We call this the assisting self-explanation prompt effect which refers to the elicitation of high-quality self-explanations and the acquisition of deep understanding.

Alexander Renkl

Papers

Instructional strategies for using video in teacher education

Enhancing self-regulated learning by writing learning protocols

Why Instructional Explanations Often Do Not Work: A Framework for Understanding the Effectiveness of Instructional Explanations

Learning argumentation skills through the use of prompts for self-explaining examples.

Assisting Self-Explanation Prompts Are More Effective than Open Prompts when Learning with Multiple Representations