Should there be a three-strikes rule against pure discovery learning? The case for guided methods of instruction.

By Richard E. Mayer. American Psychologist, 2004

2,639 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Education, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/54247c7d0d5d1a466c2313077a95c2cb3c8a86ac

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Education

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Cognitive Strategies Instruction: From Basic Research to Classroom Instruction (2009, neutral): “Of course, this finding is in synchrony with a generally poor record for discovery learning (Mayer, 2004).”
Designing Effective Reflection: What Matters to Service-Learning?. (2004, background): “This is consistent with constructivist learning theory that contends that behavioral activity promotes meaningful learning, but “instead of behavioral activity per se, the kind of activity that really promotes meaningful learning is cognitive activity” (Mayer, 2004, p. 17).”
Effects of biology teachers’ professional knowledge and cognitive activation on students’ achievement (2016, background): “Mayer (2004) already formulated a critique of being only behaviourally active and demanded higher modes.”
The Emergence of Scientific Reasoning (2012, background): “What there appears to be little evidence for is “pure discovery learning” in which students are given little or no guidance and expected to discover rules of problem solving or other skills on their own (Alfieri et al., 2011; Mayer, 2004).”
Practice Enables Successful Learning Under Minimal Guidance (2009, methodology): “…guided instruction continues to have its advocates (e.g., Fuson et al., 1997; Hiebert et al., 1996; Kamii & Dominick, 1998; von Glasersfeld, 1995), evidence and argument have been accumulating against it (e.g., Kirschner et al., 2006; Klahr & Nigam, 2004; Mayer, 2004; Rittle-Johnson, 2006).”
Immersive virtual reality increases liking but not learning with a science simulation and generative learning strategies promote learning in immersive virtual reality. (2020, background): “Specifically, novice students who are given too much freedom have been found to have difficulty in selecting, organizing and integrating relevant information in discovery learning settings (Mayer, 2004; Kirchner at al., 2006).”
Drawing pictures during learning from scientific text: testing the generative drawing effect and the prognostic drawing effect (2014, background): “…that students engage in generative learning processes during reading, such as organizing material into coherent mental representations, and integrating the representations with each other and with relevant knowledge activated from long-term memory (de Jong, 2005; Mayer, 2004, 2009; Wittrock, 1990).”
Is Direct Instruction an Answer to the Right Question? (2007, background): “Rather, my objective is to make explicit the implications of these claims with respect to a position like the one that has been advanced by Kirschner et al. and a number of others (Klahr & Nigam, 2004; Mayer, 2004).”
Active learning: effects of core training design elements on self-regulatory processes, learning, and adaptability. (2008, positive): “For example, if learners are given too much freedom they may fail to come into contact with the to-be-learned material (Mayer, 2004).”
A META-ANALYTIC EXAMINATION OF THE INSTRUCTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS OF COMPUTER-BASED SIMULATION GAMES (2011, background): “Simulation games tend to utilize discovery learning environments (Munro, 2008), and both Mayer (2004) and Sweller (1999, 2004) have acknowledged that discovery learning imposes a heavy cognitive load on trainees.”
The meaning of meaningful learning in mathematics in upper-primary education (2020, background): “The assumption that learning that takes place in meaningful learning environments leads to deeper levels of understanding and is motivating for students is shared by different theories of teaching and learning (Loyens and Gijbels 2008; Mayer 2004; Wardekker et al.”
Cognitive Load Theory and the Role of Learner Experience: An Abbreviated Review for Educational Practitioners (2008, background): “However, when considered from a CLT perspective, all of these approaches suffer from at least one significant flaw; specifically, that the working memory resources of learners, particularly novices, can quickly become overwhelmed by task complexity and, as a result, learning will suffer (for a more ”
Promoting Skills for Innovation in Higher Education: A Literature Review on the Effectiveness of Problem-based Learning and of Teaching Behaviours (2014, background): “2 For example, Mayer (2004) reviewed studies conducted from 1950 to the late 1980s including research on discovery of problem-solving rules, research on discovery of conservation strategies, and research on discovery of computer programming concepts.”