Abstract
How much help helps in discovery learning? This question is one instance of the assistance dilemma, an important issue in the learning sciences and educational technology research. To explore this question, we conducted a study involving 87 college students solving problems in a virtual chemistry laboratory (VLab), testing three points along an assistance continuum: (1) a minimal assistance, inquiry-learning approach, in which students used the VLab with no hints and minimal feedback; (2) a mid-level assistance, tutored approach, in which students received intelligent tutoring hints and feedback while using the VLab (i.e., help given on request and feedback on incorrect steps); and (3) a high assistance, direct-instruction approach, in which students were coaxed to follow a specific set of steps in the VLab. Although there was no difference in learning results between conditions on near transfer posttest questions, students in the tutored condition did significantly better on conceptual posttest questions than students in the other two conditions. Furthermore, the more advanced students in the tutored condition, those who performed better on a pretest, did significantly better on the conceptual posttest than their counterparts in the other two conditions. Thus, it appears that students in the tutored condition had just the right amount of assistance, and that the better students in that condition used their superior metacognitive skills and/or motivation to decide when to use the available assistance to their best advantage.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Koedinger, K.R., Aleven, V.: Exploring the Assistance Dilemma in Experiments with Cognitive Tutors. Educational Psychology Review 19, 239–264 (2007)
Klahr, D., Nigam, M.: The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction - Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning. Psychological Science, 661–667 (2004)
Mayer, R.E.: Should There Be a Three-Strikes Rule Against Pure Discovery Learning? - The Case for Guided Methods of Instruction. American Psychologist, 14–19 (2004)
Kirschner, P.A., Sweller, J., Clark, R.E.: Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching. Educational Psychologist, 75–86 (2006)
Bruner, J.S.: The Art of Discovery. Harvard Educational Review (31), 21–32 (1961)
Barrows, H.S., Tamblyn, R.M.: Problem-based Learning: An Approach to Medical Education. Springer, New York (1980)
Jonassen, D.: Objectivism vs. Constructivism. Educational Technology Research and Development 39(3), 5–14 (1991)
Steffe, L., Gale, J.: Constructivism in Education. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Hillsdale (1995)
Renkl, A., Atkinson, R.K., Große, C.S.: How Fading Worked Solution Steps Works - A Cognitive Load Perspective. Instructional Science 32, 59–82 (2004)
Cronbach, L., Snow, R.: Aptitudes and Instructional Methods: A Handbook for Research on Interactions. Irvington Publishers, New York (1977)
Koedinger, K.R., Pavlik Jr., P.I., McLaren, B.M., Aleven, V.: Is it Better to Give than to Receive? The Assistance Dilemma as a Fundamental Unsolved Problem in the Cognitive Science of Learning and Instruction. In: Love, B.C., McRae, K., Sloutsky, V.M. (eds.) Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Austin, TX, pp. 2155–2160. Cognitive Science Society (2008)
McLaren, B.M., Lim, S., Koedinger, K.R.: When and How Often Should Worked Examples be Given to Students? New Results and a Summary of the Current State of Research. In: Love, B.C., McRae, K., Sloutsky, V.M. (eds.) Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Austin, TX, pp. 2176–2181. Cognitive Science Society (2008)
Yaron, D., Evans, K., Karabinos, M.: Scenes and Labs Supporting Online Chemistry. Paper presented at the 83rd Annual AERA National Conference (2003)
Aleven, V., McLaren, B.M., Sewall, J., Koedinger, K.R.: Example-Tracing Tutors: A New Paradigm for Intelligent Tutoring Systems. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education (IJAIED), Special Issue on Authoring Systems for Intelligent Tutoring Systems (2009)
Yaron, D., Freeland, R., Lange, D., Milton, J.: Using Simulations to Transform the Nature of Chemistry Homework. In: CONFCHEM (CONFerences on CHEMistry): On-Line Teaching Methods. Online-Conference: American Chemical Society (2000), http://www.ched-ccce.org/confchem/
Lieberman, H. (ed.): Your Wish is My Command: Programming by Example. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco (2001)
VanLehn, K.: The Behavior of Tutoring Systems. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education (IJAIED) 16, 227–265 (2006)
Koedinger, K.R., Anderson, J.R., Hadley, W.H., Mark, M.A.: Intelligent tutoring goes to school in the big city. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education (IJAIED) 8, 30–43 (1997)
Sweller, J., Van Merriënboer, J.J.G., Paas, F.G.W.C.: Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design. Educational Psychology Review 10, 251–296 (1998)
Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., Cocking, R.R. (eds.): How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. National Academy Press, Washington (2000)
Schmidt, R.A., Bjork, R.A.: New Conceptualizations of Practice: Common Principles in Three Paradigms Suggest New Concepts for Training. Psychological Science 3(4), 207–217 (1992)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Borek, A., McLaren, B.M., Karabinos, M., Yaron, D. (2009). How Much Assistance Is Helpful to Students in Discovery Learning?. In: Cress, U., Dimitrova, V., Specht, M. (eds) Learning in the Synergy of Multiple Disciplines. EC-TEL 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5794. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04636-0_38
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04636-0_38
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-04635-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-04636-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)