Uncovering the problem-solving process to design effective worked examples.

Van Gog, T. (2006). Uncovering the problem-solving process to design effective worked examples. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Open University of the Netherlands, The Netherlands

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A test of the testing effect: Acquiring problem-solving skills from worked examples.

Van Gog, T., & Kester, L. (2012). A test of the testing effect: Acquiring problem-solving skills from worked examples. Cognitive Science, 36, 1532-1541. doi:10.1111/cogs.12002The „testing effect‟ refers to the finding that after an initial study opportunity, testing is more effective for long-term retention than restudying. The testing effect seems robust and is a finding from the field of cognitive science that has important implications for education. However, it is unclear whether this effect also applies to the acquisition of problem-solving skills, which is important to establish given the key role problem solving plays in for instance math and science education. Worked examples are an effective and efficient way of acquiring problem-solving skills. Forty students either only studied worked examples (SSSS) or engaged in testing after studying an example by solving an isomorphic problem (STST). Surprisingly, results showed equal performance in both conditions on an immediate retention test after five minutes, but the SSSS condition outperformed the STST condition on a delayed retention test after one week. These findings suggest the testing effect might not apply to acquiring problem-solving skills from worked examples.This research was funded by a Veni Grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) awarded to Tamara van Gog (# 451-08-003). During the realization of this work, Liesbeth Kester was also supported by a Veni grant from NWO (# 451-07-007)

Editorial: State of the art research into Cognitive Load Theory

Ayres, P., & Van Gog, T. (2009). Editorial: State of the art research into Cognitive Load Theory. Computers in Human Behavior, 25, 253-257

Instructional efficiency: Revisiting the original construct in educational research.

Van Gog, T., & Paas, F. (2008). Instructional efficiency: Revisiting the original construct in educational research. Educational Psychologist, 43, 16-26.This article revisits Paas and Van Merriënboer’s (1993) measure of instructional efficiency, which can be applied by educational researchers to compare the effects of different instructional conditions on learning. This measure relied on performance and mental effort on the test, and as such gave an indication of the quality of learning outcomes. The acquisition of more (less) efficient cognitive schemata is indicated by combinations of high (low) performance and low (high) mental effort. This instructional efficiency measure has become widely adopted, but in an adapted form that incorporates mental effort invested in the learning phase instead of the test phase. This article demonstrates that the adaptation has important consequences for the construct of instructional efficiency, and for the type of conclusions that can be drawn. Examples are given to illustrate the various implications of different combinations of mental effort and performance measures in the light of more contemporary developments in educational research

Optimising worked example instruction: Different ways to increase germane cognitive load.

Paas, F., & Van Gog, T. (2006). Optimising worked example instruction: Different ways to increase germane cognitive load. Learning and Instruction, 16, 87-91.Worked examples are an effective instructional means to teach complex problem solving skills. It has been argued that worked examples decrease extraneous load, enabling more Working Memory (WM) resources to be directed to activities that facilitate learning and transfer performance. Hence, cognitive load research has started to shift its focus towards finding instructional techniques that impose a germane cognitive load by stimulating the allocation of WM resources to such activities. This special issue provides an overview of recent experimental research on ways to further optimise the design and delivery of worked examples in order to foster learning and transfer

Critical thinking instruction and contextual interference to increase cognitive flexibility in complex judgment

Helsdingen, A. S., Van Gog, T., & Van Merriënboer, J. J. G. (2009). Critical thinking instruction and contextual interference to increase cognitive flexibility in complex judgment. Paper presented at the Joint meeting of the Scientific Network on "Developing critical and flexible thinking" and the European Network on Epistemological beliefs. June, 3-5, 2009, Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium.Learning predictive relationships between cues and outcomes is a central aspect of many cognitive tasks. Studies on judgment and decision making have provided knowledge of how experienced decision makers approach complex decision problems. It seems to involve at least two types of skill: (1) recognition skills based on subject matter expertise (i.e., acquired cognitive schemas), that is, knowledge of relevant cues, their mutual interrelationships and the relationships with the criterion value that needs to be predicted, and (2) higher order critical thinking skills that serve to increase understanding by means of generalization and abstraction. Targeting training at these skills may improve cognitive flexibility through elaboration of the content (e.g., by generalisation, discrimination, or abstracting away from it). We established that instructional methods for implementing critical thinking and contextual interference, separately and in combination, can increase transfer of judgment skills to new tasks and contexts

The Effects of Practice Schedule and Critical Thinking Prompts on Learning and Transfer of a Complex Judgment Task

Helsdingen, A. S., Van Gog, T., & Van Merriënboer, J. J. G. (2011). The effects of practice schedule and critical thinking prompts on learning and transfer of complex judgment task. Journal of Educational Psychology, 103(2), 383-398. doi:10.1037/a0022370Many instructional strategies that appear to improve learners’ performance during training, may not realize adequate post test performance or transfer to a job. And the converse has been found true as well: instructional strategies that appear to slow the learner’s progress during training often lead to better post-training or transfer performance. For example, many studies have shown beneficial effects of random over blocked practice on transfer of learning, even though blocked practice often leads to better performance during the training session. In a 2 x 3 factorial experiment (N = 120) with the factors practice schedule (random, blocked) and critical thinking prompts (before task, after task, none), this study investigates whether this also applies to complex judgement tasks, and whether critical thinking prompts can enhance the effectiveness of particular practice schedules. It is hypothesized that prompts provided after task execution yield best transfer in a random practice schedule, whereas prompts provided before task execution yield best transfer in a blocked schedule. In line with our hypothesis, a blocked schedule led to better performance than random practice during training, but not on the transfer test, where a random schedule was beneficial. The hypothesized interaction effect was also found: critical thinking prompts after task execution significantly benefit transfer performance of participants following a random schedule, and transfer performance following a blocked schedule can be a little enhanced through providing critical thinking prompts before task execution. These results warrant instruction in critical thinking processes to teach complex judgment tasks, using random practice schedules combined with critical thinking prompts provided after task execution

Uncovering Expertise-Related Differences in Troubleshooting Performance: Combining Eye Movement and Concurrent Verbal Protocol Data

This study explored the value of eye movement data for uncovering relatively small expertise-related differences in electrical circuit-troubleshooting performance, and describes that value in relation to concurrent verbal protocols. Results show that in the ‘problem orientation’ phase, higher expertise participants spent relatively more time, had a shorter mean fixation duration, and fixated more on a major fault-related component than lower expertise participants. In the ‘problem formulation’ part of the ‘problem formulation and action decision’ phase, the mean fixation duration of the higher expertise participants was longer. In the ‘action evaluation and next action decision’ phase, higher expertise participants spent relatively more time than the lower expertise participants. Over the different phases, only the mean fixation duration of the higher expertise participants differed significantly. The relation between the eye movement and concurrent verbal protocol data is qualitatively described. The results are discussed in perspective of the combined value of eye tracking and concurrent reports for expertise research and instructional design

Example-based learning: Integrating cognitive and social-cognitive research perspectives

Example-based learning has been studied from different perspectives. Cognitive research has mainly focused on worked examples, which typically provide students with a written worked-out didactical solution to a problem to study. Social-cognitive research has mostly focused on modeling examples, which provide students the opportunity to observe an adult or a peer model performing the task. The model can behave didactically or naturally, and the observation can take place face to face, on video, as a screen recording of the model's computer screen, or as an animation. This article reviews the contributions of the research on both types of example-based learning on questions such as why example-based learning is effective, for what kinds of tasks and learners it is effective, and how examples should be designed and delivered to students to optimize learning. This will show both the commonalities and the differences in research on example-based learning conducted from both perspectives and might inspire the identification of new research questions