Exploring the assistance dilemma: Comparing instructional support in examples and problems

Bruce M. McLaren; Tamara Van Gog; Craig Ganoe; David Yaron; Michael Karabinos

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-07221-0-44

Exploring the assistance dilemma: Comparing instructional support in examples and problems

Bruce M. McLaren, Tamara Van Gog, Craig Ganoe, David Yaron, Michael Karabinos

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

An important question for teachers and developers of instructional software is how much guidance or assistance should be provided to help students learn. This question has been framed within the field of educational technology as the 'assistance dilemma' and has been the subject of a variety of studies. In the study reported in this paper, we explore the learning benefits of four types of computer-based instructional materials, which span from highly assistive (worked examples) to no assistance (conventional problems to solve), with support levels in between these two extremes (tutored problems to solve, erroneous examples). In this never-before conducted comparison of the four instructional materials, we found that worked examples are the most efficient instructional material in terms of time and mental effort spent on the intervention problems, but we did not find that the materials differentially benefitted learners of high and low prior knowledge levels. We conjecture why this somewhat surprising result was found and propose a follow-up study to investigate this issue.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Publisher	Springer
Pages	354-361
Number of pages	8
Volume	8474 LNCS
ISBN (Print)	9783319072203
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07221-0-44
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2014
Externally published	Yes
Event	12th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, ITS 2014 - Honolulu, HI, United Kingdom Duration: 5 Jun 2014 → 9 Jun 2014

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume	8474 LNCS
ISSN (Print)	03029743
ISSN (Electronic)	16113349

Conference

Conference	12th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, ITS 2014
Country/Territory	United Kingdom
City	Honolulu, HI
Period	5/06/14 → 9/06/14

Keywords

assistance dilemma
classroom studies
empirical studies worked examples
erroneous examples
problem solving
tutored problems to solve

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-319-07221-0-44

Cite this

McLaren, B. M., Van Gog, T., Ganoe, C., Yaron, D., & Karabinos, M. (2014). Exploring the assistance dilemma: Comparing instructional support in examples and problems. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) (Vol. 8474 LNCS, pp. 354-361). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 8474 LNCS). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07221-0-44

McLaren, Bruce M. ; Van Gog, Tamara ; Ganoe, Craig et al. / Exploring the assistance dilemma : Comparing instructional support in examples and problems. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics). Vol. 8474 LNCS Springer, 2014. pp. 354-361 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)).

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abstract = "An important question for teachers and developers of instructional software is how much guidance or assistance should be provided to help students learn. This question has been framed within the field of educational technology as the 'assistance dilemma' and has been the subject of a variety of studies. In the study reported in this paper, we explore the learning benefits of four types of computer-based instructional materials, which span from highly assistive (worked examples) to no assistance (conventional problems to solve), with support levels in between these two extremes (tutored problems to solve, erroneous examples). In this never-before conducted comparison of the four instructional materials, we found that worked examples are the most efficient instructional material in terms of time and mental effort spent on the intervention problems, but we did not find that the materials differentially benefitted learners of high and low prior knowledge levels. We conjecture why this somewhat surprising result was found and propose a follow-up study to investigate this issue.",

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McLaren, BM, Van Gog, T, Ganoe, C, Yaron, D & Karabinos, M 2014, Exploring the assistance dilemma: Comparing instructional support in examples and problems. in Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics). vol. 8474 LNCS, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 8474 LNCS, Springer, pp. 354-361, 12th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, ITS 2014, Honolulu, HI, United Kingdom, 5/06/14. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07221-0-44

Exploring the assistance dilemma: Comparing instructional support in examples and problems. / McLaren, Bruce M.; Van Gog, Tamara; Ganoe, Craig et al.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics). Vol. 8474 LNCS Springer, 2014. p. 354-361 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 8474 LNCS).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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McLaren BM, Van Gog T, Ganoe C, Yaron D, Karabinos M. Exploring the assistance dilemma: Comparing instructional support in examples and problems. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics). Vol. 8474 LNCS. Springer. 2014. p. 354-361. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)). doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-07221-0-44

Exploring the assistance dilemma: Comparing instructional support in examples and problems

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Keywords

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Cite this