Abstracts - Earli

K 831 August 2007 08:30 - 10:30Room: 7.14SymposiumFading instructional support with learners’ growing competenceChair: Alexander Renkl, University of Freiburg, GermanyOrganiser: Alexander Renkl, University of Freiburg, GermanyOrganiser: Frank Fischer, University of Munich, GermanyDiscussant: John Sweller, University of New South Wales, AustraliaA rather well-established research finding is that learners with poor learning prerequisites (e.g.,low prior knowledge) benefit from instructional arrangements that provide substantial supportwhereas learners with favourable prerequisites (e.g., high prior knowledge) are better off withlower degrees of support. This research finding has been widely acknowledged for many years.However, not until a few years ago, approaches have been developed that can guide the design oflearning environments according to this research finding: In the beginning of the learning process,that is, when prior knowledge is low, much instructional support is provided; with growingcompetence, this support is faded out. In this symposium we will present and discuss recentempirical work related to instructional approaches that are based on a fading rationale. Thereby,two main goals will be pursued: First, we want to show that fading instructional support is ageneral instructional design principle that applies to such different learning methods as examplebasedlearning (van Gog et al.), inquiry learning (Krajcik & McNeill), collaborative learning(Wecker & Fischer), and tutorial learning (Renkl et al). Second, as researchers from different"camps" are brought together, there is an opportunity to accumulate scientific knowledge on howto effectively implement the fading principle in different contexts and types of learningenvironments.Sequencing process-oriented and product-oriented worked examplesTamara van Gog, Open University of The Netherlands, NetherlandsFred Paas, Open University of The Netherlands, NetherlandsJeroen van Merriënboer, Open University of The Netherlands, NetherlandsResearch has shown that for novice learners, studying worked examples is more effective in termsof learning and transfer performance than conventional problem solving. Recently, it was proposedthat the effectiveness of worked examples could be increased by not only showing the solutionsteps as in traditional worked examples (i.e., product-oriented), but also explaining the rationalebehind those steps (i.e., process-oriented). This hypothesis was recently investigated in the domainof computer-simulated electrical circuits troubleshooting. The results showed that studyingprocess-oriented worked examples required more investment of mental effort during the trainingand the transfer test, but did not result in better transfer performance than studying productorientedworked examples. The combination of equal performance with more investment of effortto attain that performance, suggests lower efficiency, that is, lower quality of learning. Hence, thepresent study investigated whether this might be due to a ‘redundancy effect’: the added processinformation might become redundant and start to hamper learning when training progresses. Thiswas indeed found to be the case. Process-oriented worked examples resulted in higher efficiencyafter a first short training. When the second short training consisted also of process-orientedworked examples, efficiency dropped radically, whereas when it consisted of product-oriented– 599 –