Adapting Levels of Instructional Support to Optimize Learning Complex Cognitive Skills

2009 ◽  
pp. 246-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Slava Kalyuga
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Learning ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Instructional Methods ◽  
Relative Effectiveness ◽  
Instructional Support ◽  
Worked Examples ◽  
Reversal Effect ◽  
Instructional Guidance ◽  
Complex Cognitive Skills ◽  
Specific Expertise

This chapter describes some specific adaptive procedures for tailoring levels of instructional guidance to individual levels of learner task-specific expertise to optimize cognitive resources available to learning. Recent studies in expertise reversal effect that were reviewed in previous chapters indicate that instructional design principles that benefit low-knowledge users may disadvantage more experienced ones. This reversal in the relative effectiveness of different instructional methods is due to the increase in cognitive load that is required for integration of presented supporting information with learners’ available knowledge structures. The major implication of these findings for multimedia design is the need to tailor levels of instructional support to individual levels of learner task-specific expertise. The procedures for adapting levels of instructional guidance suggested in this chapter have been developed in conjunction with empirically established interactions between levels of learner expertise and optimal instructional techniques and procedures. The chapter starts with the description of the processes and approaches to learning complex cognitive skills. The appropriate design models for learning complex skills are reviewed and different ways of varying levels of learner control in such models are described. The relations between levels of learner task-specific expertise and optimal levels of instructional guidance are then discussed. Also, empirical studies of the expertise reversal for instructional guidance and sequencing of learning tasks are reviewed. The completion tasks and faded worked examples are specific instructional methods used in the described studies for managing levels of instructional guidance in adaptive learning environments. Real-time monitoring of levels of learner task-specific expertise using rapid cognitive diagnostic methods was used in some of these studies.

Adaptive Procedures for Efficient Learning

2009 ◽  
pp. 272-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Slava Kalyuga
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Instructional Methods ◽  
Diagnostic Approach ◽  
Expertise Reversal Effect ◽  
Reversal Effect ◽  
Adaptive Procedures ◽  
Instructional Guidance ◽  
Measures Of Performance ◽  
Specific Expertise

The rapid diagnostic approach to evaluating levels of learner task-specific expertise was introduced in Chapter IV and used in several studies that were subsequently described throughout this book. The rapid diagnostic techniques (first-step method and rapid verification technique) were instrumental in investigating some instances of the expertise reversal effect and in optimizing levels of cognitive load in faded worked example procedures (Section II and Chapter XI). This chapter describes some specific adaptive procedures based on rapid diagnostic methods for evaluating ongoing levels of learner task specific expertise. Two specific approaches to the design of adaptive instruction are considered, adaptive procedures based on rapid measures of performance and adaptive procedures based on combined measures of performance and cognitive load (efficiency measures). The expertise reversal effect established interactions between learner levels of task-specific expertise and effectiveness of different instructional methods. The major instructional implication of this effect is the need to tailor instructional methods and procedures to dynamically changing levels of learner expertise in a specific class of tasks within a domain. The rapid diagnostic approach was successfully used for real-time evaluation of levels of learner task-specific expertise in adaptive online tutorials in the domains of linear algebra equations (Kalyuga & Sweller, 2004; 2005) and vector addition motion problems in kinematics (Kalyuga, 2006) for high school students. Both first step diagnostic method and rapid verification technique were applied in adaptive procedures. According to the rapid assessment-based tailoring approach, these tutorials provided dynamic selection of levels of instructional guidance that were optimal for learners with different levels of expertise based on real-time online measures of these levels. The general designs of those studies were similar. In learner-adapted groups, at the beginning of training sessions, each student was provided with an appropriate level of instructional guidance according to the outcome of the initial rapid pretest. Then during the session, depending on the outcomes of the ongoing rapid tests, the student was allowed to proceed to the next learning stage or was required to repeat the same stage and then take the rapid test again. At each subsequent stage, a lower level of guidance was provided to learners (e.g., worked-out components of solution procedures were gradually omitted and progressively replaced with problem solving steps), and a higher level of the rapid diagnostic tasks was used at the end of the stage. In control non-adapted groups, learners either studied all tasks that were included in the corresponding stages of the training session of their yoked participants, or were required to study the whole set of tasks available in the tutorial.

Effects of Feedback on Learning Strategies in Learning Journals

2012 ◽  
pp. 710-725
Author(s):  
Julian Roelle ◽  
Kirsten Berthold ◽  
Stefan Fries
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Instructional Support ◽  
Effective Learning ◽  
Reversal Effect ◽  
Support Measure ◽  
Learning Journals ◽  
Instructional Guidance ◽  
Effects Of Feedback ◽  
Quality Learning ◽  
Journal Entries

Feedback on learning strategies is a promising instructional support measure. However, research on the expertise reversal effect suggests that if instructional support measures are provided to expert learners, these learners would have to integrate and cross-reference redundant instructional guidance with available knowledge structures, resulting in less available resources for effective learning processes. Thus, feedback might be detrimental for learners who possess high-quality learning strategies. Against this background, the authors used an online learning management system to employ a feedback procedure that included highly elaborated feedback on learning strategies in a learning journal. The effects of this feedback procedure were tested in a field study using a within-subject design with the factor feedback (no vs. yes). Participants were 246 university students who wrote journal entries over an entire term. The results show that providing feedback to low expertise learners is effective, whereas the effectiveness of feedback is reversed regarding high expertise learners.

Effects of Feedback on Learning Strategies in Learning Journals

2013 ◽  
pp. 116-131
Author(s):  
Julian Roelle ◽  
Kirsten Berthold ◽  
Stefan Fries
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Instructional Support ◽  
Effective Learning ◽  
Reversal Effect ◽  
Support Measure ◽  
Learning Journals ◽  
Instructional Guidance ◽  
Effects Of Feedback ◽  
Quality Learning ◽  
Journal Entries

Feedback on learning strategies is a promising instructional support measure. However, research on the expertise reversal effect suggests that if instructional support measures are provided to expert learners, these learners would have to integrate and cross-reference redundant instructional guidance with available knowledge structures, resulting in less available resources for effective learning processes. Thus, feedback might be detrimental for learners who possess high-quality learning strategies. Against this background, the authors used an online learning management system to employ a feedback procedure that included highly elaborated feedback on learning strategies in a learning journal. The effects of this feedback procedure were tested in a field study using a within-subject design with the factor feedback (no vs. yes). Participants were 246 university students who wrote journal entries over an entire term. The results show that providing feedback to low expertise learners is effective, whereas the effectiveness of feedback is reversed regarding high expertise learners.

Assessment of Task-Specific Expertise

2009 ◽  
pp. 81-100
Author(s):  
Slava Kalyuga
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Adaptive Learning ◽  
Diagnostic Approach ◽  
Problem Solution ◽  
Problem Situation ◽  
Learning Session ◽  
Online Application ◽  
Aptitude Tests ◽  
Reversal Effect ◽  
Specific Expertise

Main implication of the expertise reversal effect is the need to tailor instructional techniques and procedures to changing levels of learner expertise in a specific task domain. In order to design adaptive procedures capable of tailoring instruction in real-time, it is necessary to have online measures of learner expertise. Such measures should be rapid enough to be used in real time. At the same time, they need to have sufficient diagnostic power to detect different levels of task-specific expertise. One of the previously mentioned reasons for low practical applicability of the results of studies in Aptitude-Treatment Interactions were inadequate aptitude measures. Most of the assessment methods used in those studies were psychometric instruments designed for selection purposes (e.g., large batteries of aptitude tests based on artificially simplified tasks administered mostly in laboratory conditions). Another suggested reason was unsuitability of those methods for dynamic, real-time applications while learners proceeded through a single learning session. This chapter describes a rapid diagnostic approach to the assessment of learner task-specific expertise that has been intentionally designed for rapid online application in adaptive learning environments. The method was developed using an analogy to experimental procedures applied in classical studies of chess expertise mentioned in Chapter I. In those studies, realistic board configurations were briefly presented for subsequent replications. With the described diagnostic approach, learners are briefly presented with a problem situation and required to indicate their first solution step in this problem situation or to rapidly verify suggested steps at various stages of a problem solution procedure.

Imagining Instructions: Mental Practice in Highly Cognitive Domains

2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Ginns
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Worked Examples ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Mental Practice ◽  
Computer Applications ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Domain Interactions ◽  
Research In Education ◽  
Complex Cognitive Skills

This article reviews recent empirical investigations of imagination or mental practice in highly cognitive, realistic educational domains such as mathematics or learning computer applications. While mental practice has been a standard tool in training schedules devised by sports psychologists for several decades, with its efficacy studied experimentally in a multitude of sports, there has been little corresponding research in the education or training research literature. Recent research has demonstrated that mental practice can be incorporated effectively when learning non-motor, complex cognitive skills. Experimental studies are reviewed showing ‘imagining’ worked examples, paired with practice questions, enhances learning for more experienced learners, but study activities are more appropriate for students less experienced in a given domain. Interactions of the imagination effect with cognitive load effects are also discussed. Possible directions for mental practice research in education are proposed.

Effects of Feedback on Learning Strategies in Learning Journals

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 16-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Roelle ◽  
Kirsten Berthold ◽  
Stefan Fries
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Instructional Support ◽  
Effective Learning ◽  
Reversal Effect ◽  
Support Measure ◽  
Learning Journals ◽  
Instructional Guidance ◽  
Effects Of Feedback ◽  
Quality Learning ◽  
Journal Entries

Feedback on learning strategies is a promising instructional support measure. However, research on the expertise reversal effect suggests that if instructional support measures are provided to expert learners, these learners would have to integrate and cross-reference redundant instructional guidance with available knowledge structures, resulting in less available resources for effective learning processes. Thus, feedback might be detrimental for learners who possess high-quality learning strategies. Against this background, the authors used an online learning management system to employ a feedback procedure that included highly elaborated feedback on learning strategies in a learning journal. The effects of this feedback procedure were tested in a field study using a within-subject design with the factor feedback (no vs. yes). Participants were 246 university students who wrote journal entries over an entire term. The results show that providing feedback to low expertise learners is effective, whereas the effectiveness of feedback is reversed regarding high expertise learners.

Training Development for Complex Cognitive Tasks

1987 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 1261-1265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan M. Ryder ◽  
Richard E. Redding ◽  
Peter F. Beckschi
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Task Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Cognitive Task Analysis ◽  
Instructional Systems ◽  
Training Development ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Training Methodologies ◽  
Complex Cognitive Skills

This study evaluated current training methodologies, particularly Instructional Systems Development (ISD), and recent developments in cognitive science to determine how training procedures should be modified to support training for tasks which require complex cognitive skills. We contend that ISD is still viable if procedures are developed for the training of cognitive skills. An important component of ISD which needs to be modified to support training of cognitive skills is the task analysis. We discuss the need for integrating efficient and cost-effective cognitive task analysis methodologies with traditional analysis methods.

scholarly journals Case Studies in Game-Based Complex Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Josh Aaron Miller ◽  
Seth Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Game Design ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Game Based Learning ◽  
Complex Learning ◽  
Critical Success ◽  
Teaching Routine ◽  
Complex Cognitive Skills

Despite the prevalence of game-based learning (GBL), most applications of GBL focus on teaching routine skills that are easily teachable, drill-able, and testable. Much less work has examined complex cognitive skills such as computational thinking, and even fewer are projects that have demonstrated commercial or critical success with complex learning in game contexts. Yet, recent successes in the games industry have provided examples of success in game-based complex learning. This article represents a series of case studies on those successes. We interviewed game designers Zach Gage and Jack Schlesinger, creators of Good Sudoku, and Zach Barth, creator of Zachtronics games, using reflexive thematic analysis to thematize findings. We additionally conducted a close play of Duolingo following Bizzocchi and Tanenbaum’s adaptation of close reading. Several insights result from these case studies, including the practice of game design as instructional design, the use of constructionist environments, the tensions between formal education and informal learning, and the importance of entrepreneurialism. Specific recommendations for GBL designers are provided.

Working Memory in the Acquisition of Complex Cognitive Skills

1988 ◽  
pp. 361-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Logie ◽  
Alan Baddeley ◽  
Amir Mane ◽  
Emanuel Donchin ◽  
Russell Sheptak
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Complex Cognitive Skills
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