Some teaching methods include activities that prepare students before direct teaching. It is believed that during these preparation activities students should tap into what they already know to get ready for the lessons that follow. In this study, researchers explored Productive Failure (where learners struggle as they attempt to generate solutions to problems before, rather than after, direct instruction) and Vicarious Failure (where learners analyze and reflect on incorrect solutions or mistakes of others rather than direct instruction or their own attempts).
The researchers manipulated secondary school students' relevant prior knowledge by varying how much they learned about important parts of a concept during preparation: Students received solution attempts with either a high or a low coverage of conceptual components. The researchers believed that students who activated more relevant prior knowledge about a concept would learn better after instruction.
Limits of prior knowledge
They found that most students effectively tapped into their existing knowledge and were ready to learn. However, contrary to their hypothesis, students who used varying amounts of related prior knowledge did not show any differences in their understanding after the lesson. This supports earlier studies on Productive Failure designs that showed trying to solve problems by addressing more parts of a concept did not improve learning.
Role of feedback
Additionally, feedback played an important role: activating irrelevant prior knowledge only hurt performance without it. Feedback can help students tackle challenges caused by unrelated distractions directing them in their problem-solving efforts. In both designs, feedback acted as a delayed teaching tool that helped individuals learn from their mistakes.
The researchers concluded that getting students to think about what they already know helps them get ready for new lessons. However, how well they learn also relies on the kind of feedback they receive, emphasizing the importance of both preparation and instruction.
StepUp Note
Feedback is an essential part of learning. We need feedback to know what we’re doing right and wrong, and how we can do it better. At the same time, we know that negative feedback can reduce how much we learn and remember. In StepUp to Learn, we emphasize the value of self-evaluation. Children learn to “watch and learn, then think and do,” in ways that help them become independent learners. Teachers learn strategies for “noticing” when children are accurately matching the movement and talking. And they learn strategies for “modeling” when an exercise is challenging. Children who look for feedback in the learning process are learning how to become independent learners!
Note by Nancy W. Rowe, MS, CCC/A