Transcript Introducing Desirable Difficulties for Educational

Introducing Desirable
Difficulties for Educational
Applications in Science
www.psych.ucla.edu/iddeas
Robert A. Bjork, Lindsey Richland, Matt Hays, and Jason Finley
UCLA
Marcia C. Linn, Britte Cheng
UC Berkeley
Thanks to RAs: Dan Fink, Greg Cragg, Katy Cohanshohet, Asako Kumeya, Francis Yau,
Kitty Goss, Tabby Dadvand
Desirable Difficulties
• Design principles that have been found,
in laboratory research, to impair
performance during training but
enhance performance at a delay
IDDEAS
Introducing Desirable Difficulties for
Educational Applications in Science
• Broad Goals: extend laboratory research on learning
and memory to classroom environment, explore
interactions b/w DDs
• Narrower Goal: Implement desirable learning
difficulties in a web-based science module (WISE) for
8th graders, with aim of improving effectiveness of
such modules
Spacing Effect
Presentation Example
Schedule
Performance
during training
Performance
at a delay
Massed
A,A,A,A,A
better
worse
Spaced
A, A, A, A, A
worse
better
Interleaving Effect
Presentation Example
Order
Performance
during training
Performance
at a delay
Blocked
A,A,A,A,A,B,B,B,B,B better
worse
Interleaved
A,B,B,A,B,A,A,B,A,B worse
better
Theories Explaining
Interleaving
Contextual Interference (Battig, 1972, 1979)
• Reloading/ Reconstruction (e.g. Lee & Magill, 1983, 1985)
• Development of higher order framework/
Elaboration (Shea & Zimny, 1983, 1988)
• “It’s just the spacing effect”
Web-based Inquiry Science Environment
(WISE)
• A system/tool for scientific instruction
• Promotes knowledge integration,
collaborative learning, visible thinking
• Contains modules on a wide variety of
topics, with options to customize and to
create new modules
• Plus: a useful research tool!
IDDEAS WISE Exp 3
Motivations
• Extend laboratory studies on
interleaving to realistic educational
material
• Focus on contextual interference as
possible mechanism for interleaving
effect
Learning Materials
• 2 Sets of Learning Stimuli
– Planet Formation
– Star Formation
• Examples
– “Planets form in a disk of material around a star. This circumstellar
disk contains gases and tiny particles of metals; the total mass is
several thousand times that of the planets that emerge from it.”
– “Solar systems, and the stars at their centers, begin as giant
molecular clouds. These clouds are primarily made of hydrogen
gas, but can also contain water vapor, nitrous oxide, ethanol, and
molecules with carbon rings.”
2 Independent Variables
1. Presentation Order
–
–
Blocked (P,P,P,P,S,S,S,S)
Interleaved (P,S,S,P,S,P,P,S)
2. Competition due to Arrangement
–
–
Greater Competition (more similar slides
arranged together)
Less Competition (more similar slides arranged
apart)
Dependent Variable
• Performance on Post-Test (2-day delay)
– Multiple-choice Qs
– Fill-in-the-Blank Qs
– Sorting Task
Design Overview
• 2 sets of learning stimuli
• Planet Formation (P)
• Star Formation (S)
• Presentation
• Order: Blocked (P,P,P,P,S,S,S,S) vs. Interleaved
(P,S,S,P,S,P,P,S)
• Competition by Arrangement: Greater vs. Less
• Post-Test
• 48 hour delay
• Metacognition
– Questionnaire given after learning and after test
RESULTS!!!
Performance on Star/Planet Sorting Task
100
90
80
% Correct
70
60
greater competition
less competition
50
40
30
20
10
0
blocked
interleaved
Presentation Order
Metacognition
Future Directions?
• Different Material
• Interleaving w/ other Desirable
Difficulties?